Getting seven team members and two robots out to the shear zone is no easy task and keeping us all comfortable requires a great deal of gear as well as prep work and training. All USAP participants are required to go through a number of different trainings to make sure that everyone is safe and aware of the regulations placed on them by the NSF and the Antarctic Treaty.
Cage 17
Every scientific endeavor that goes through McMurdo is supplied with gear via the Berg Field Center (BFC) and that gear is stored in specific cages around the center both for organization and security purposes. This is the third year (and final year) of the project that I'm working on and quite a bit of equipment is left after each season here in McMurdo in order to be used again – other teams do the same thing so keeping all that gear safe and secure is important to the researchers. The BFC contains everything that a team might need from cook stoves to food to tents to sleeping "kits" to sleds and all the random things people request – and the extremely capable people running the BFC make sure to get all those supplies ready to go as the teams arrive. As science cargo comes in off the Air Force flights from Christchurch, if the teams aren't on station yet, those materials are delivered to the BFC staging area or to long-term outdoor storage. But our material is already in Cage 17 ... but first we have to get trained.
You Name It, We Train For It ... Yes Even That
Since arriving in McMurdo I've been working my way through trainings that are designed to both let me (and others) get around McMurdo but also to survive in the Antarctic. We've done an "In-Brief" where the basics of the station were explained, where things were, how to get around, and where not to go (sometimes that's more important than where to go); Vehicle Training in which we learned all the ins and
MSR Whisperlite Stoves are included in all the emergency packs - practicing with them BEFORE an emergency is obviously important.
outs of the vans, trucks, and tracked vehicles (those require additional training), speed limits, caring for the vehicles, "chocking" the vehicle, and engine maintenance (although there is a full maintenance department for vehicles all users are expected to do daily maintenance and monitor vehicle conditions); nearly a full day of FST (Field Safety Training) where we went through the specifics of frostbite and hypothermia and how to avoid those (very important to say the least - you can google images ... yikes!), wind chill, evaluation of process
Also included withe emergency packs are Black Diamond single-walled tents with an internal pole system. Figuring out how to put them together proved to a bit of an origami puzzle but success was eventually had.
and mistakes, and emergency gear setup like tents and stoves including how to stake out the tent in the snow and make snow walls; Lab Orientation which allowed us to find our way around the Crary Science and Engineering Lab, locating all the miscellaneous supplies, the store rooms of materials to help our research, safety protocols (there are negative pressure rooms which suck air out in the event of fumes and a halon fire suppression system in the chemical storage rooms – that's another set of alarms since it removes oxygen and ... well ... then you can't breathe), loading docks, and more;
It seems as though pretty much every door in the Crary Science and Engineering Center is telling you to stay out and be forewarned.
The open science supply room at the Crary Science and Engineering Center is a one-stop-shop for all your basic lab research and experimental needs.
CORE Training covering fire, medical, and waste processing systems here at McMurdo (the station has the most advanced waste water treatment system on the continent as well as massive recycling efforts – everything is shipped off continent and back to California - EVERYTHING - more on all that in a later journal however); and then today was the Environmental Brief which covered spill reporting (even little bits) that come into contact with dirt, water, or basically anything not man-made (it all has to be collected, reported, and recorded and then submitted as part of our Treaty obligations), when out in the field we have to collect all waste and store it until returning to McMurdo (no peeing in the snow - it has to be collected in a specific urine-collection-bottle throughout the day and then returned to a larger collection device which is then eventually returned to McMurdo for processing), and how not to disturb the environment while doing our work.
It seems like a lot (and there is more to come with snowmobile and PistenBully training, crevasse rescue training, and an overnight camp shakedown practice) but it's all there to keep everyone safe. Even though there is a very capable hospital here at McMurdo, it's best if members of the community don't actually have to use it!
Meanwhile Back at Cage 17
There's a lot of gear involved in getting out to the shear zone, safely and comfortably doing our work, and then being transported back to McMurdo. The big thing that needed to be done today was the unpacking and setup of all the different tents that will be brought with us.
Arctic Oven Tents
We will be bringing with us two of the massive Arctic Oven (AO) tents - these look like something that the Brady Bunch would be taking with them on a camping trip to the Grand Canyon. But at 12x24 feet they give us 304 sq. feet of usable space inside each of the tents with more than enough room to stand up or (in the case of Lynn) practice some kung fu. One of which is the primary communal tent where we will be cooking and eating our meals and snacks, as well as relaxing as a group. The other tent is used for the computers and science equipment – basically our portable laboratory – these tents will have a heater and the cooking tends to warm up the cook tents.
The big Arctic Oven (AO) tents will be our primary gathering places while we are in the field – here the setup and tested AO takes up almost the entire central corridor of the Berg Filed Center.
Lynn showing off her kung fu skills (and the spaciousness in the process) in the Arctic Oven (AO) tent which we have two of and serve as the equipment and cooking areas while we are in the field.
Scott Tents
Scott tents are tents that are patterned after the ones designed and used by Captain Scott on his disastrous 1910-13 South Pole Expedition. The tents are basically a four-walled pyramid 9-feet tall with a base that is 8 feet square. Although they look to be very simple (certainly nothing like our complex personal North Face Mountain 25 tents), they have proven their durability having withstood 125mph winds in Antarctica - something that is extremely important for us since the winds racing down across the Ross Ice Shelf from the Trans-Antarctic Mountains are notoriously strong. The Scott Tents are also double walled which means that condensation will be reduced and that's important since these tents will serve as the robots' home-away-from-homes. Water vapor is allowed to pass through the inner wall of the tent and then it condenses on the outer wall of the tent. Another important feature is that these tents also have floors (separate from the tent) – keeping everything off the snow and ice.
We have a total of 3 Scott tents - a pyramid shaped tent with a hard floor. Here they are being wrapped and hauled for transport to the field.
Scott tents being setup by McMurdo personnel during a shakedown camp to make sure everything is operating properly. Credit: Ludovic Brucker
North Face Mountain 25 Tents
The North Face Mountain 25 tents are our personal tents where we will sleep and make ourselves comfortable for the 3 1/2 weeks that we are out in the field. Each of the tents is designed to sleep two comfortably but with all of our personal gear, each of us will be having our own 48 square feet to call our own.
Each of the North Face Expedition tents needed to be unpacked, setup and checked, and then repacked for the field.
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