While camping we ate backpacking food. These are basically dehydrated meals that you can buy at outdoors stores and they are ready to eat after adding boiling water. These are really easy to make and they are light weight. We didn't have any astronaut ice cream for dessert though.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Snow School
Within hours of getting off the plane I started snow school, which is a field survival course. Two mountaineers taught us the basics of how to camp and survive out on the ice, or anywhere where it is cold and snowy. I think we were on the Ross ice shelf, but we might have been on sea ice or the toe of a Glacier where it fell into the sea. Regardless, it was a white and cold and flat landscape surrounded by mountains. I think that is Mt. Erebus in the photo album.
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3 comments:
Wow! These pictures are amazing!
Love, Mom
Dear Eric,
We enjoyed looking at the pictures. Did you sleep inside the snow and are you going to sleep inside the snow all the time? Is a snow pad like a matress?
We are learning about Laura Ingalls Wilder's life and one time she lived inside the ground. It looks like you are living inside a snow mountain.
Was the big red bus on New Zealand or in Antarctica? How do you travel on the ice in Antarctica: do you fly, do you walk, do you go by bus?
How long was the flight finally from New Zealand to Antarctica? We are so glad you finally made it to Antarctica!
During the night I spent out on the ice for the survival course I slept in the snow trench. I won't have to do that again unless I'm in an emergency situation. We just did that in the class to practice how we would build a shelter if we were stuck out on the ice. At McMurdo there are buildings and dorms, so I have been sleeping in a bed in a nice warm room for the past 3 nights.
This morning I'm leaving for the Dry Valleys, and there I will probably be sleeping in a tent. Still much warmer than a snow trench.
The sleeping pad is a foam mat that you sleep on when you're camping. It is supposed to insulate you from the cold ground, but it doesn't work so well once it freezes through.
The big bus is at McMurdo. It gave us a ride from Williams Airfield to McMurdo once we got off the plane.
I will be taking a helicopter out to the Dry Valleys today, and then I will be on foot the rest of the time.
The flight from NZ to Antarctica was about 5 and a half hours. I'm glad I finally made it too.
Thanks for all the questions. Now that I'm going out to a field camp I probably won't be able to check in quite as frequently. I'll do my best though.
Take care everyone.
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