Antarctic Cartoons

Enjoy these cartoons. This gives you a little taste of the humor down here!


Thanksgiving Dinner - Notice the Bunny Boots!

Happy Camper Pictures

I wanted to give you an idea about what we did at Happy Camper. I didn't take too many photos because, well, I was cold and so was my camera battery! Here's some photos from one of the instructors and another guy in our group.

Me Carrying Ice Blocks

Our Happy Camper Group

Our Camp - My Tent is the Big Yellow One up Front

Me ^ With
My Glasses Iced Up

Skuas

Here is an e-mail from my boss about the arrival of the Skuas:

We’ve had our first official skua sighting for the season.  Skua? What’s that you say? They are a very large scavenger bird similar to large brown sea gull. They are big (up to a four foot wing span) and have a large, sharp, hooked beak (“All the better to eat you with my dear”) and strong sharp claws on their feet.  They hide on buildings and pounce down on unsuspecting people (ESPECIALLY those carrying food that is visible to them – blue trays and bowls/plates of food are their prime hunting ground) or circle over head and swoop down from behind you before flipping around your shoulder to confront you face-to-face. Sometimes they have bonked you on the back of the head and then swoop quickly around to the front and snatch something away all before you ever knew it was coming.

Be aware they are here. Watch the skies for them if you’re carrying something. Let someone in front of you know if you see one coming in for a grab.

We laugh, and if you aren’t their intended victim, it can be quite the site to see. However, all joking aside – these are large, strong, aggressive birds. It’s not uncommon for at least one or two people to end up in Medical with stitches to their head, face or hands. 

It is against the Antarctic Treaty to defend yourself/harm these birds. Instead, try to avoid the problem to begin with!

Please be cautious and avoid making yourself an easy target!

Also, watch your step – as the snow starts to melt and we transition into “Mud Season” skuas can often been sitting on the ground in direct line of foot traffic. They are fairly well camouflaged and generally do not move out of your way.

Finally, they also next in the rocks near Roll Cage Mary and the Hut Point Ridge Loop Trail. Watch your step and use caution – if they have eggs or chicks they can be even more aggressive.

Skua!!

There was nothing "Happy" About Happy Camper

Seriously. Nothing. After being up all night at work and having every stitch of ECW gear on it was still quite cold. After having instruction in Hypothermia and frostbite (what happens, what it looks like, getting scared that I was going to somehow lose a limb out there) we headed out to the ice in our Delta. There were 16 of us. Once we got to our site we were issued sleeping bags, 2 mats and a sleeping bag liner. We then went to our camping site and began to work. We had to cut out blocks of snow to build a wall to protect out tents from the wind. Not just any wall...a 50 foot long was that was 5 feet high. We then had to put up tents. We had 2 Scott tents (they are bigger, stronger and  WARMER) and then 6 regular 2 man tents. We had to dig holes to secure the lines of all the tents and for the Scott tents we had to shovel snow all along the bottom of them so it wouldn't catch any wind. 5 hours later we were just about done with that. About 6 PM total physical and mental exhaustion was setting in with me. The instructors saw that and took me aside and told me that I was a trooper but I needed to go to bed. So I went to bed before the kitchen was dug out. I immediately fell asleep. After a couple of hours one of the guys brought me some hot water bottles so I could stick them in the sleeping bag with me. Good thing cuz after a while it got COLD. Really COLD. Imagine laying on the ice...-2 degrees WITHOUT the wind chill. I think I slept about 5 hours. The next morning I had to put my boots back on. Imagine super cold boots. It was terrible! I fueled up on hot chocolate and peed...in the out house (thank goodness!) and got to work with the rest of my group tearing down camp. All of us were cold and tired. We were out on the ice until 1400 learning how to set up and use a HF radio (like the radios the military used in WWII and Viet Nam) and we called the South Pole. We also had to set up a survival bag...yep another tent! We were all done! All of us just wanted to go home, shower and sleep! NOPE! Had to finish all this stuff and got back to town at 1600! Trust me, I am happy I did it but I WILL NEVER DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT EVERY AGAIN!! Oh and no frostbite but my toes and fingers were extremely cold!!

Scott Tents

Setting Up Camp

Setting Up the Kitchen

Me Right Before I Climbed into Bed After Getting Home

Snow Craft Training I or Happy Camper School

I was notified when I got to work tonight that I have to go to Snow Craft I training tomorrow morning at 0815 - yes , right after work. What is Snow Craft I training? They call it Happy Camper School down here. See this article:

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/10/28/rediscovering-ross-island-getting-ready-with-survival-training/ 

I have been threatened with this course since I've gotten here by one of the LT's. I guess it is no longer a threat. I'm going....tomorrow...and I have to camp outside...in the cold and the snow and the wind. And I have to pee in a bottle.

They said I have to bring ALL my ECW (Extreme Cold Weather) gear and water bottles. The first paragraph of my letter says, "You are scheduled to attend our basic overnight course: Snow Craft I. First of all, this should be an enjoyable and educational educational experience, not a cause for anxiety. Many people often find it to be one of the high points of their season." It BETTER be "enjoyable and educational"! So I get to go out on the ice...work outside...camp outside...pee outside and hopefully stay warm enough...all on NO sleep!

If I click my heals 3 times and say, "There's no place like home" will I magically be back in Arizona where it is warm, there's a bed AND a bathroom?

Stuff

Happy Halloween! I saw only one person in costume today. It was someone in a scary jester's outfit. He had no face and it scared me! Halloween was already celebrated her on 10/27. They had a big party at the "Big" gym where everyone dressed up (some dressed down), had a costume contest, then the dancing and the drinking. I was working tho my boss got coverage for me so I could go down there and see what it was all about. That was nice of her but I didn't go. It was a good thing too, because one of the firemen dressed as a Sumo (he's kind of a large man). He wore a sheet tied up like the sumo's tie it, like in a diaper and shaved most of his head except for a small tuft of hair. I saw pictures and THAT was bad enough! I guess the party goers were calling him "Fat Bastard" from Austin Powers! EEWWWWW!!

I got off work Monday morning 10/29 and was just about asleep when my phone rang. Now mind you, my phone NEVER rings! I stumbled over to it and it was one of the LT's on the line. He said he had an opening for Sea Ice Training and wanted to know if I wanted to go. I'm sure I sounded like a complete moron. He explained it again to me and said I had to be at Byrd Field center in a half hour with all my gear on. So that's what I did. What is Sea Ice Training? It involved 2 hours of classroom learning about the different types of ice (who knew?) and then we went out on the ice. Here is the description of the course:

The Sea Ice course is a one-day eight-hour course stressing safe sea ice travel and how to manage sea ice survival situations. Every new USAP participant working on or traveling over the sea ice, regardless of prior knowledge or experience, must take this course.
The course covers sea ice dynamics, hazard recognition and evaluation, local geography, weather patterns and weather conditions, and cold weather injuries. The course also covers VHF radios, and setting up and anchoring survival bag tents.

After the classroom, the 9 of us loaded into the Hagglund and drove out 1 1/2 hours out onto the Sea Ice in search of cracks, seals and penguins. We saw 2 of the 3 (no penguins). It was so much fun!! Here are some pictures from my day on the ice!

Digging Down to the Sea Ice

Readying the Drill

Drilling a Hole in the Sea Ice to See How Deep It Is

What a Crack Looks Like

I went with a bunch of Beekers. In fact, here is blog from one of them I was with (Dan):  http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/10/28/rediscovering-ross-island-getting-ready-with-survival-training/ 
I was with the other 2 people in that article as well Paul and Erin.

So I was up for 26 hours on Monday. I pretty much slept all night til the next morning! On Tuesday evening I went to Helicopter Training. It was with the firemen and it was familiarization on the operations of the helos that fly here. In case one crashes we were shown how to turn it off, where to put out a fire in the engine and how to cut people out of it. All I know is that it was cold out there!



In Front of a Huey



I had a good couple of days off! Went back to work tonight and actually got 2 whole calls!! We had a medical call and then a call for one of the butt cans smoking outside one of the smoking huts! WooHoo! It only took me 30 days to get my first call!! Thank goodness as I was getting really bored! Here's some pictures from out on the Sea Ice!

The Active Volcano, Mt. Erebus (You can see the smoke rising from the top of it!)

A Seal Hole We Found at a Crack in the Ice Note the Blood in the Upper Left Corner

The line in front is a crack. The larger white line in back is the Erebus Glacier - an actual moving glacier that comes off of Mt. Erebus on top of the sea ice.

Our Hagglund in front of Mt. Erebus

The Start of a New Week At the Bottom of the World

Good Morning! It is 0100 and it is light outside with light snow coming down. It is currently 6.8 degrees F; -14 C for all you Beeker Heads! "Beekers" is what everyone calls the researchers and scientists down here. They are live in certain dorms and the street where Crary Science Lab is located is called Beeker Street.

Over my weekend I went for a hike on the Ice Runway Road. They opened it up to recreation traffic so I took myself and my camera a short distance on the road. I also wanted to say that I walked on the Sea Ice! Close to shore there were these huge ice chunks. And I was able to watch a science crew cut a hole in the ice. I didn't get too far because it was cold (duh!) and I didn't want to slip and fall. That would be just my luck. I'd slip and fall and the fire crew would get a call (!) and have to rescue me! Heck, I slip and fall on perfectly good linoleum why would I tempt fate and walk any distance on ice? A woman has got to know her limitations and this woman DOES!

Sea Ice Runway Road



Ice Chunks




Drilling a Hole in the Ice - the Vehicle is Called a Piston Bully