Happy Camper

Reinhart has uploaded Happy Camper pictures to our picasa page and I’ll probably throw some snowy Denver photos in the Denver folder as well (link at right)

Today is Friday 11/14 for me, and we got our first snow in Denver; we should end up with about 2”. Today is Saturday 11/15 for Reinhart, and he is flying from McMurdo to the South Pole. They have a brand new state of the art elevated station and he will be doing some electronic hocus-pocus there until he flies back to McMurdo on December 1. This has nothing to do with the South Pole having the best Thanksgiving celebration in Antarctica. The Pole webcam is up and running now; if you are interested check out http://www.usap.gov/videoClipsAndMaps/spwebcam.cfm.

Anyone who has to do any off-station work while in Antarctica is required to take a survival course called Snow School (aka Happy Camper). Reinhart has that ultra-cool sounding helicopter reconnaissance mission to Black Island coming up in December, so he was one of the folks taking the training. They learned all about hypothermia and orienting themselves on the ice. The training team was also required to set up and spend the night in various structures they would either have with them in case of emergency or could make. They had regular 4-season tents, teepee-like Scott tents, quinsies, and snow trenches. Reinhart slept in a Scott tent which also served as the galley, and it sounds as if he was their cook (or water heater upper). A quinsy is something like a simple igloo; they all piled up their sleeping bags, packed snow on top, let it set, removed the bags through a small hole, and dug below to create a wind-free entrance for folks to climb in and sleep “comfortably”. The snow trench is just what it sounds like; they dig a narrow trench and widen it out a bit inside and cover it with a tarp. They simulated white out conditions by working with buckets on their head and they got buzzed by a low flying helicopter. All in all, it was a great experience.

The New Zealand Station, Scott Base, had their “American Night” on Friday when they actually invite McMurdo folks over for beer rather than hurling snowballs at them to keep them away. Wednesday afternoon, Reinhart and Laura stood in a long line to take a field trip out to the Ice Caves. They didn’t get to go on the trip this week, but he hopes to get a chance to see them in December. I don’t mind if he doesn’t make it because then he can wait until next year when I’m there as well…I’m keeping a positive attitude! My PQ process is almost complete, I just have one more appointment next week, and then I’ll just have to wait a few weeks for the (positive) results. I’ve got an interesting Polar symposium to attend Friday night at Denver’s Museum of Nature and Science and then there is one more arts & crafts fair I have to hit before coming back to NC. The next time I update the blog it should include some pictures of both The Pole and NC!