Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 01/02/2008 - 18:31
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Antarctic Weather Stations

Are those your feet sticking out of the quinzee?  Was there room to turn over, or did you have to sleep in that position all night?  You said that they was a group that was trained in Happy Camper School.  Are you all there with different organizations, or all some part of Polartrec?

I followed your instructions to the Minnesota teacher and have requested a login for my class, too.  I know that my girls will be full of questions when they come back to school next week.  I am printing off all of your journal entries and putting them in a binder for them so that they can 'catch up' with what all you've done while they were on vacation!

Karen 

 

 

Wed, 01/02/2008 - 21:31

Kirk Beckendorf

Hi Karen,Sorry, I thought I had told you about getting a login, but I guess I forgot.
The picture of one bunny boot inside the quinzee is my foot. The picture of twofeet sticking out of the qunizee is not me.
I am the ony PolarTREC person here, although another teacher will arrive in a few days on an icebreaker. She has been on the Oden for about 6 weeks you can read her ournals in the Oden Antarctic Expedition. She will only be here for a few days, I think. Jonas, a meterology student from UW-Madison was also at snow school. The rest of the Happy Campers ranged from some of the Raytheon employees here at McMurdo to some scientists who had recently arrived. Some of the Raytheon people work in the kitchen, recycling/garbage center, fire department, and the one store that is here.
That sounds like a cool idea for your students, I look forward to hearing from them.
Kirk 

Wed, 01/02/2008 - 21:58

Kirk Beckendorf

It was a fairly snug fit inside the quinzee for the three of us. The tough part was crawling through the tunnel and then changing out of wet clothes and boots into drier clothes, there was not really a place to put anything. Damp clothes you put into your sleeping bag or under your sleeping bag in the hopes that your body heat will dry it out before morning, or at least keep it from freezing. We were pretty much shoulder to shoulder. I could make about a quarter of a turn, from my back to my side. As long as I didn't actually roll sideways. 

Thu, 01/03/2008 - 05:14

Guest

I know that you told me when we were home for Thanksgiving that I could get one, but I never took the initiative to do it until now.  I already heard back and have one, but that is on my work email and haven't logged back in this morning to remember what it is!  I'll take a group shot of my girls next week and send it to him to add.  I think that will make them more a part of what you are doing.  I will also need to print off some of these "ask the team' pages to help my girls understand more of the Happy Camper School.   Are you actually able to sleep when you have wet clothes under you, on you, and are lying on snow getting cold and wet all over again?   Maybe you were never really warm and dry to begin with!  Oh my!
Karen

Thu, 01/03/2008 - 12:05

Kirk Beckendorf

As you noticed, Ronnie is great.I actually slept well and was never really cold. The only times I got cold was during the day when when we were working hard and getting sweaty and damp. Then when you slow down you start to get chilled especially if you are in the wind. So it is good to add and reduce clothing as needed.