Survival Gear
Yesterday, I shared a lot of the important information from our field safety training with Jen Erxleben. There were so many cool things to share that I thought today I'd show you some of the survival gear that we were trained to use.
Survival Bag
A survival bag is required for anyone going out on the sea ice. It weighs about 70 lbs and is sort of a pain to have to lug around everywhere. In our class, we had twenty workers and scientists. All together, we had 166 seasons worth of Antarctic experience. That's a lot. Jen then asked if anyone, in all that experience, had ever had to use a survival bag. Guess how many? One.
So why bring it? Your survival bag has enough gear and supplies for two people to stay out on the ice in a bad situation for three days. You only go into a survival bag when you REALLY need it. Consider it your emergency pack. Let's take a closer look:
Jen shows us the insides of a survival bag.
These were some of our classmates, who are workers here at McMurdo Station. Altogether, we had 166 seasons of Antarctic experience.
A typical survival bag includes:
- One tent
- Tent stakes/anchors
- Small tool set (hammer)
- Two 3/4 length sleeping mats
- Two sleeping bags
- A shovel
- A knife-saw
- Dry Food
- A camping stove
- Fuel and matches
- A book to read/pass the time
We will carry three survival bags for our team. Each bag weighs about 70 lbs.
Our team is issued all of our field gear from the Berg Field Center, BFC for short. If you like the outdoors, the BFC is a really cool place. They have everything from rope to tents to ice axes to sledges. It's amazing. Here's a little bit of what it looks like on the inside.
These are Scott tents, a very tall, tepee-style tent. They are shaped like a pyramid when set up, but fold up to these tall bags.
This funny sign was hanging in the BFC. I had to laugh. Do you get it?
Our survival gear is all loaded and ready to go.
This is our field gear, all ready for deployment to the sea ice. We will carry all of this, every time we go out.
We are all about safety!
Using the Survival Bag
A survival bag does very little for you if you don't know how to use the equipment inside. So, the second part of our training involved the practical use of the tent, stove, and other equipment. We began with the tents.
Tents
There are several different styles of tents used in Antarctica, but in the survival bags, there are really only two. We practiced setting up these tents, remembering factors like the wind. During our training, you couldn't lay things on the ground, just like you can't outside. They would be blown away.
We learned how to put up our tents and secure them in strong winds.
We also practiced anchoring our tents. In the extreme winds of Antarctica, you need strong anchors. If you were camping on solid ground, you would drive a tent anchor like a nail into the ground. In Antarctica, we are usually trying to set up tents on ice or snow. Here we bury anchors in the snow horizontally, and tie our tents to them. On the ice, we drill a V-shaped notch and run ropes through those.
Stoves
After we had mastered tent setup, it was on to the camp stove. Having a stove and knowing how to use it are two different things. We setup our stove and lit it. In the field, this will be an essential skill to cook food and to melt snow for water.
Note the incredible focus of our team in lighting the camp stove. (Photo courtesy of Adam Marsh)
Okay, maybe not incredible focus. The thing on Mike's head is a windshield. It's supposed to go around the stove. (Photo courtesy of Adam Marsh)
Success! We can cook! Where's the food? (Photo courtesy of Adam Marsh)
Radio
We also practiced our radio skills using handheld radios and large field camp radios. I learned some valuable tips for talking on the radios. Every time we go out onto the sea ice, we must check out with the firehouse and check back in. We do this using radios. There are some important words you need to know when using the radio. Here's some important radio lingo:
- Over - "I am done talking and am waiting for your response.
- Out - "I am turning off my radio."
- Clear - "We are done with our conversation, but our radios are staying on."
- Break - "I am interrupting your conversation because I have an emergency. Please stop your conversation."
If you look at this, you'll realize that TV shows and movies have it wrong. "Over and out." makes no sense. It would mean, "I am done talking and am waiting for your response AND I am turning my radio off." That would be silly!
Sea Ice
Finally, we talked a little about sea ice. I've mentioned sea ice before. Sea ice is actually frozen ocean water. That's right, McMurdo Station is surrounded by frozen ocean.
The red box is Ross Island, where McMurdo Station is located.
McMurdo Station is located on Ross Island. All of the blue you see surrounding McMurdo is currently frozen.
When I say that we are working out on the sea ice, I mean we are working on top of a frozen ocean. So, the whole ocean isn't frozen, just the top of it. So what do you think we have to be careful of? If you said "cracks" or "falling through the ice", you're right!
We'll talk more about sea ice and cracks in a future journal post. I am actually going to take a whole class on sea ice. For now, let's say that McMurdo Station is working hard to find us some safe paths out on the sea ice, so we can find some Antarctic worms!
Mike
"Over and Out."
Wait. That's not right...