We made it to Antarctica! After over 3 weeks of quarantine, we've finally arrived in McMurdo Base, the first stop in Antarctica on our way to our final field destinations. We were treated with very fair weather this week, and our flight wasn’t delayed at all, which is unusual for most Antarctic flights.
Excellent weather in McMurdo means temperatures in the single digits Fahrenheit with mostly calm winds. It is not unusual for temperatures to be 0F in McMurdo, and wind chill far below 0F. Our final destinations are much farther inland, and we’re expecting temperatures to constantly be below 0F, possibly getting as low -40F. To survive, and hopefully enjoy, our time at our field camps we have been issued a number of Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) items like jackets, gloves and boots, and cold weather camping gear like warm sleeping bags and expedition tents.
We received and tried on all our personal ECW clothing in Christchurch before our flight to McMurdo. We are required to wear our ECW clothing on the flight in case there is poor weather upon landing or any other issue or emergency along the way. There is no warm airport terminal to receive us in McMurdo as we land directly on the sea ice! I felt a little like the Michelin Man trying on our extra warm Baffin Boots and the iconic “Big Red” down parka, but after finding our proper sizes we all are much better prepared for whatever weather Antarctica has in store for us.
To prepare for our field camp, we have to gather our camping equipment in McMurdo. Much like our clothing, we checked everything, including sleeping bags, for fit (this was my favorite part). We then assembled everything we need for a safe night out in Antarctic conditions including sleeping bags, sleeping pads, a tent and put it all into a very large duffle bag. For all our following flights as we move towards our field sites, we will have this bag (called a “sleep kit”) with us to ensure that we are always prepared to comfortably spend the night where ever we end up. Though hopefully we’ll always be pitching our tent where we planned, and under good weather conditions, it never hurts to be prepared for other circumstances!
To this point, today we had our first day of Antarctic Field Safety training where we got to learn, hands-on, how to set up our tents, start the emergency stoves, and learn more about the extreme weather we may face in the field. We also got to see and practice with the contents of the emergency survival bags, which are very similar to our sleep kits, but smaller and geared more towards survival than comfort, though the emergency kits do still include a full roll of toilet paper. When we are on day trips away from our tents at our field site, we will always have one of these survival kits with us. Hopefully we won’t have to use them, but again it is always better to be ready for anything in Antarctica!
All in all, we’re all making good progress on building our survival skills for the coming field season, and we’re now finalizing the details for our first taste of true Antarctic Camping. In just a few days will go on an overnight trip, just our small team of 6 (4 scientists and 2 mountaineers), a short drive away from the warmth of McMurdo and put our new skills to the test!
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