Initial Impressions...
I've been here at McMurdo for a day now, and have been learning where everything is and how to do things. Everyone I meet is super helpful, friendly and very good at what they do. Outside its very cold and very, very bright! I think the temperature right now is -4°F. I haven't spent much time outside yet, though. That will come tomorrow when we do a training exercise for people going to field camps in the Dry Valleys.
A view of the helicopter site at McMurdo Station.
We've had all kinds of training today. We got an introduction/training to the Crary building, which is a huge building that houses all of the science labs. The tour was mostly about emergency procedures ("Avoid the radioactive isotopes area" and "Don't drink from the beakers").
Training in the Crary Lab.
We also attended a field safety training, where we reviewed differences between hypothermia (whole body cold) vs. frostbite (freezing fingers and toes), and what to do about it. We learned about the equipment in a survival kit, which has a tent, sleeping bags and a stove. We learned how to set up the tents and fire up the stove, which is the same one I have so that was all good!
Setting up tents at the field training.
Lastly, we accessed our "cage" which is this chain-linked-fence-garage area that has all of the camping gear that's been stashed for us so far. Its piled high with all manner of camping equipment including sleeping bags, chairs, garbage cans. Its hard to tell what all was buried in there because its such a gigantic heap. I can see we have some more schlepping in our future...
Gear storage for a field season.
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