EJ's Travels

Sandwiched between Christmas and New Year’s I managed to have five days off in a row due in part to two days spent at Happy Camper. Happy Camper is another name for Snow Survival School. Survival? It was the closest thing to a vacation I’ve had here yet.

School takes place out on the sea ice just a few miles from base. Twenty of us piled into haglunds and piston bullies arriving at Snow Mound City where our Field Safety Training Program instructors, Trevor and CeCe, spent the next 24 hours teaching us how to survive this harsh continent if we happen to find ourselves stranded outdoors with a multitude of shovels, saws, camp stoves, dehydrated food, radios and tents. Unlikely. The idea is that if we do get stranded we would of course have a survival bag with us that contains the necessary items to… survive. All of the tracked vehicles carry survival bags. However, none of our shuttle vehicles do. Nor do any of us carry one when we head out to recreate. Really this training applies more to the grantees that are headed out in the field, but for us town folks, it’s a treasured boondoggle.

We began by learning how to recognize and avoid hypothermia and frostbite. Unfortunately I am all too familiar with both. We practiced lighting camp stoves, cutting ice blocks to build snow walls, setting up scott tents as well as standard mountaineering tents, using high frequency (HF) & very high frequency (VHF) radios, and my favorite of all, building a quinzee. A quinzee is a snow shelter akin to an igloo. We constructed it by piling 10 of our survival bags on the ground and then shoveling snow a couple feet thick all around them and then waiting a few hours before digging an entrance into the shelter and a back door to excavate the bags. I would have never believed the snow would hold, but much to my surprise and delight, it did. I was one of four lucky individuals who spent the night inside the quinzee. It was honestly the best night of sleep I have had here yet.

It was more or less a car camping experience on the Antarctic sea ice. I’m not sure that I feel better prepared to survive a night out in the elements, but afterwards I felt better prepared to appreciate the beauty of this place and the unique opportunity I have to be here once again. With so little opportunity to actually leave base and explore Antarctica as all of us here dreamt of doing before arriving, it is easy to become a bit disenchanted with the whole experience. But as I sat alone atop a snow wall gazing out at the light changing across the Antarctic night sky, I was reminded how many folks would give just about anything to be here, including myself six months ago.

Me & Cindy en route to Snow Mound City

The beginning of the quinzee

Packing the snow of the quinzee

Johannes & Jeff cutting blocks of snow for the snow wall

Snow wall and Scott tent

Buckethead training… this was to simulate what it would be like in Condition 1 weather… we had to find a lost teammate

Talk around camp

Me & Cindy inside the quinzee

Jeff lighting the Menorah before bedtime

see more of my photos at: http://ej.smugmug.com

Of all the things I imagined myself doing during my stay in Antarctica, making my debut belly-dancing on stage was most certainly not one of them. But, alas, life on the ice is chalk full of surprises. Every year the women of McMurdo Station organize and are invited to participate in the women’s soiree, a variety show and fundraiser. A pre-event wine social started the evening at which time raffle tickets were sold for more than $1800 worth of donated goods. This year’s raffle raised $3200 for the Breast Cancer Support Services of Caterbury in New Zealand. Performances included three belly-dancing acts, tap-dancing, a bassoon solo, guitar playing and singing, storytelling, poetry and a documentary about ice fishing here in Antarctica. Although some of the old school townies avoid the soiree claiming it is a bit painful, a far greater number of both old and new community members squeeze into the galley (standing room only) to support their friends and colleagues. Those that do show are incredibly receptive and supportive. We were either stunning on stage or incredibly entertaining. As nervous as I was before going on, I have to admit it was great fun thanks to the amazing women I was dancing with and our adoring fans. Here we are in costume and a whole lot of make-up.

Me, Helena & Amanda before the show

Back row: Me, Melissa, Helena, Karen & Allison
Front row: Kat, Becky, Wendy, Sam, Deb & Tami

Closing shot!

see more of my photos at: http://ej.smugmug.com

Thanksgiving has already come and gone and Christmas is but a little over two weeks away. Time, as it is wont to do, is passing quickly. In fact, today marks the two month anniversary of my arrival here. ... [Continue reading this entry]

Thanksgiving was celebrated here on Saturday, November 26th. Almost the entire station had the day off and 3 dinners were served to accomodate the community. The kitchen crew cooked us up a feast. To feed the station population, the dining ... [Continue reading this entry]