On Nov. 5-6, our team experienced our Deep Field Shakedown and crevasse rescue trainings in mostly beautiful blue sky weather in the shadow of Mount Erebus volcano. Our mountaineers led the expedition and the trainings near the Instructor Hut ("I Hut"), which was about a 30 minute drive from McMurdo Station on a shuttle bus followed by snow mobiles. We packed all of our cold weather clothing to test various items and configurations of clothing while continuously outdoors in the elements. I (Marianne) especially wanted to test a few pairs of gloves for dexterity when tying knots or connecting cables. We brought our personal tents and sleep kits (including sleeping bag, pillow, sleeping pads, and a pee bottle), and we brought our group Arctic Oven cook tent that we will take to the field along with stoves to test and two HF radios to test. We brought bamboo poles and flags for guy lines to tie down the tents in case of wind. We use a lot of gear for setting up a seasonal camp in West Antarctica, and this overnight would be a shakedown of that gear. A few trips were required to stage all of the gear at the Instructor Hut and to get all of our team members out to the hut.
We started by staging all of our gear in a way that it would not get blown around, even if setting up camp took a few hours. We set up our group Arctic Oven tent, learning how to tie the guy lines and set up the tent efficiently even if there is wind. The long axis of the tent should be oriented in the dominant wind direction for the best protection and stability in high winds.
Next we set up a Scott tent, the most stable tent in Antarctic weather, which has been part of many extreme adventures in Antarctica. Then we set up three "mountain tents", North Face VE25 tents. While most of us were setting up the tents, Mike was sawing blocks of snow to create a snow trench with a protective ceiling to show us how to dig a proper snow trench in case of needing emergency shelter.
We systematically tested the HF Radios and the other gear we brought with us. We tested the stove for boiling water for dinner, and Danny tried his first dehydrated meal! He liked it! We all opted to bring dehydrated meals for dinner to make preparations and clean up easy. Dinner tastes extra delicious after a day of working outdoors in the cold.
On Saturday we debriefed on the night during breakfast, discussing whether anyone was too cold or too hot with their sleeping bag set up. We got fueled for the day with tea and coffee and oatmeal or other snacks from McMurdo. We packed up all of our gear and tents, and then we took the snowmobiles over to a training crevasse, dug by tractors for instructional purposes. Kirah and Mike taught us how to walk on a rope team in a crevassed area, how to set an anchor, how to haul someone out of a crevasse, and how to use prussiks to climb out of a crevasse. We had a lot of fun and learned a lot! We are grateful for our wonderful and patient field safety and mountaineering instructors! The wind picked up as we finished our class, and we were grateful for the chance to test our clothing and layers in a biting wind. We made it back to the galley in time for dinner, and dinner tasted extra delicious after our first field camping adventure!
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