Wow - this was by far the hardest thing I've ever done in my entire life! But it was AWESOME!
I returned just yesterday evening from my overnight Happy Camper training. Not sure if any of you checked the forecast at McMurdo for Friday night's weather but it was crazy! I'm a VERY tired camper.
I survived Happy Camper school thought it should have been called "real life extreme winter weather survival"! We had just about 3 hours of in-classroom lessons before heading out 5 miles off of base for in-field training and camping. We were shuttled out in this huge people-mover that carried all 19 of us to the field. When we got out to the camp field it was -50F windchill with some major gusty winds! We set up tents, built snow walls, snow trenches, set up a huge kitchen and ate a lot! We all had tons of clothes, I wore two silk or wool thermals, a fleece layer, then my "big red" ECW gear, plus neck warmers, hats, goggles, gloves, and of course "bunny boots". It was a lot of clothes! All in all it was probably an extra 10 lbs of layers that made doing even the simplest task a challenge. The wind picked up more and our record out there was -63F!!! No joke. It's cold enough that a full nalgene bottle will freeze solid if outside in a matter of an hour or so. We were so well dressed and had so much food and fluids.
Finally, the wind did die down for a while for us to enjoy our camping experience. After our initial outdoor training was over, the instructors left us to it to finish our camp set ups, make dinner, and get some rest on our own. I partnered up to make a huge snow cave sleep shelter, and that was fun but all that shoveling and digging was hard work. Sleeping on ice is far from comfortable and I spent most of the night trying to find a reasonably comfortable position and worrying about what time it was. The sun is up all the time, and only looks like dusk for a few hours only then back to full sun. This has really thrown me off in the middle of the night, I tend to think that I've overslept. But we did see an awesome pink sunset on Mt. Erebus before going to sleep at 11 out there!!!
When we got up in the morning the wind head picked up again. It did not make packing up fun at all. I hardly slept a wink and was sore form shoveling and my sleeping position, but still had to break down our camp, and return our gear to the shelter before our 8:30 pickup for more classroom time. We were all so happy to be back in the classroom! There were 19 of us in total, out of which there were only 4 females. We all worked well as a team and pitched in as much as possible. After more in-shelter school, we returned to McMurdo to go over helicopter safety and finally wrapped up our Snow School training. We left with only one injury - one of the guys did get second stage frostbite on one of his thumbs after his liner glove got wet while packing up. I felt so bad for him! His tissue should be OK, it'll just take a while to regain full sensation.
After Snow School was over, and after the most-deserved and enjoyed hot shower I've ever taken, and after a wonderful Italian galley meal, I met up with some new friends and went to the local bar (Gallagher's Pub) for some live music and dancing! It was so much fun to get "out on the town" and hang out after so much training. It also helped me get a good night of 12 hours of sleep! So well deserved!
Today, it's Sunday and I've just been catching up on some personal things, and will prep our photo gear and get ready for Sea Ice training tomorrow.
So cool Murphy! I wouldn't have been able to do it!!! I feel bad for the guy that got frostbite! Yikes!!!
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