Devon's chilly, but having a great time.

Devon's Antarctica Adventures
Journal Entry 3
Read Part 2 of Devon's Adventure
Read Part 1 of Devon's Adventure

By Devon, 19

The first week in McMurdo was complete information overload. Every day I had some sort of orientation or training. I was taught everything from waste management to driving. The most interesting two, though, were the sea ice and "Happy Camper" trainings.

Sea ice training is a day spent out on the sea ice (this is different from the glacial ice), learning to profile cracks and use the radios. To profile a crack you have to drill holes until you hit water. The point is to make sure that the crack is safe to crack; it will be so if the lowest point of the crack has at least 30 inches of ice before the water.

Profiling cracks could be a lot of fun if I weighed 50 lbs more. They say that if you have the technique down it's not a difficult task. It took me 30 minutes to drill one meter down, but I did indeed finish my hole. It's not supposed to take that long (the "technique" is to throw your body weight into the drill so that it pushes down into the ice), but I don't weigh enough. It was interesting and fun to learn about, though. We had a good day.

Survival of the Fittest

As it turns out all eight of us that took the Sea Ice training also were scheduled to take "Happy Camper" for the next two days. Happy camper is actually survival training. We are taken out to spend the night on the ice, as if we had to survive out there on our own. We were taught how to put up different tents and how to make different snow shelters; all were actually quite warm to sleep in. We were forced to eat dehydrated food though, which I didn't like so much—the consistency is a little strange.

The most interesting part of the training was the whiteout conditions. White buckets were put over our heads and we were told to find one of the instructors. To be honest my group didn't do that well; the first time we tried we didn't even find him. But the second time we used our brains and our resources a little better and found him in a considerably shorter amount of time. Eventually they let us return to the station for real food, a shower, and a real bed.

The rest of the week was dedicated to even more trainings, and preparing me for the field. The last Saturday before I left for my first camp, a big party was held with a 70's theme. It was hilarious. Everyone got all dressed up and really looked like they were from the 70's. We had a blast!

Monday morning, I got my last shower for two weeks and headed off for New Harbor, my first field camp. This is should be fun….