Turf in Antarctica?: Happy Camper

Hello all, as I write this post I am feeling much better than I did on Monday and am looking forward to this weekend to have some fun. This week has been slow with the holidays so not much to say. I did get to go to "Happy Camper" which is the outdoor survival training course you must take if you are going to any of the field camps for an overnight stay or just leaving McMurdo in general. This class teaches you how to survive in the Antarctic if you happen to get lost, crash or stuck in severe weather away from a larger camp. The class takes 2 days and encompasses both indoor and outdoor classes. Indoor we discussed the hazards of being trapt out in the weather such as hypothermia, frostbite and frost nip. What to do to prevent these from happening, what you can do if it happens. Helicopter safety and severe storm rescue simulation. Outdoors, we learned how to use the stoves we use here, set up both Scott tents and newer freestanding tents, dig a snow trench, build a snow wall and use a HF radio. On our day for class we got lucky and had great weather outside. Sunscreen was a must, even reapplying several times I got some sun on my face. The one downside to having a nice day was our Carhartt bibs got real wet, boots got soaked through, gloves soaking wet and lots or hard earned sweat. I decided to sleep in a snow trench instead of sleeping in a tent. One of my fellow classmates Nate and I began to dig a trench so that the 2 of use would be able to sleep in it. After about 3 hours of work we were satisfied with the result and finished it off. My fellow coworkers Dacre and Craig dug their own and had a far better and bigger one than ours but in the end we all were able to sleep comfortably and warmly in the night so looks didn't matter. We had to melt snow for water, cook our own dinner which was dehydrated food, set up our own camp, clean up and tear down our camp all on our own. Our instructor slept nearby in one of the classrooms that are at the "Happy Camper" site. We were left with a radio to use in case of emergency to contact him. In the end I think we all had a great time and learned a lot from the class. Most of the photos are from my coworker Dacre. His camera was far better suited to take photos in the bright sun and he got better ones while we all worked so I think it was a fair trade off. I hope you all enjoy them.

Tim