Happy Camper or Field Survival Training...which sounds positive?

 These next set of photos show most of what we did while camping out on the McMurdo Ice Shelf. We had classroom training in the morning half before being sent out into the field. Some lunch and about another hour of training at the nearby Instructional Hut (I-Hut) then it was about a 1/4 mile hike up the road to stake our claim to memories.  We set up the two Scott tents, which are pretty much what the early explorers used to stake there claim to fame. and regular mountain tents. We then had to build an ice wall to block any weather coming from the south, has most of the storm systems seem to approach the area from. We set up a small kitchen to boil hot water, as we had dehydrated food to sip and eat. and then well, I can go on and on about this. I can explain with the photos.

This vehicle is what took the 20 or so Happy Campers to there campsite. Everyone here refers to this transport as the Delta.

This is the group setting up one of the two Scott tents at the camp. Each tent can hold 3 or 4 souls comfortably.

This is the tent almost complete. You can see that it up and staked in, but it needs to be tied down into the ice.

This is the other Scott Tent being assembled.

The camp is starting to take shape toward the road...

...and toward the ice...

Right here, is the protective ice wall with the thought it would protect us from any furious winds that can come up at a moments notice.

 

This is someone digging there sleep trench. This is taught in case you get caught out and you do not have a survival kit and time is of the essence.

This is what a good trench should look like.

This is a view of the camp after everything was pretty much done. Some of the wall might have  still been in construction. IDK, I was just finishing up a potty break.

   

Our Kitchen. Again, you see us campers building a wall as the prevailing winds were coming fro m the direction of the guy in the green sweater vest.

Me in front of the Scott Tent I slept in.

       The temperatures that night fell to a toasty 3 degrees above 0 Fahrenheit. We had a nice blanket of fog roll in during the evening hours helping to stave off the radiational cooling that could have turned it into a cold night. Radiational Cooling is something that happens on a clear night as there are no clouds to stop the heat from the ground from rising into the night sky. Make no mistake it was cold. So cold in fact, my camera's battery froze. There were many good times and awesome trenches built that late afternoon and early evening. Well, I did not have a watch so I did not know what time it was. the sun sets later as the days press on into the Antarctic spring. I was told we gain as much as 22 minutes of daylight a day. Soon, there will be no night sky to appreciate. Anyway, this catches me up to the experiences I have photographed. 8/ I learned today, that I must keep the damn thing on my person at all times. You'll never know where you will be going or what you'll be doing next...until we are trained and then stand shift, then we know what we will be doing, LOL!