A week of training

My first week on the ice is drawing to a close and it's certainly been a whirlwind of a week! As anticipated, most of the week has been spent in training and preparing for the fieldwork. Our week began early Tuesday morning with a 7:30am start time with our Science In-Brief at the Chalet, where most of the department heads welcomed us and let us know if there were any changes to the schedule or updates to training formats. Then it was off to Antarctic Field Safety from 8am until noon. This training prepares you for what to do in the event you get caught out on the ice and need to use your survival bag because you can't get back to McMurdo (or elsewhere) as planned. The training included how to light the camping stove, how to set up the tent, risk assessment and mitigation (so you hopefully don't find yourself in that situation to begin with), recognizing cold weather injuries and how to treat them as well as avoid them, and general rules for helicopter operations (e.g. don't approach the helicopter carrying a 10-foot ladder vertically).

Geoff, one of the mountaineers (who also leads expeditions on Mt Everest), is showing us everything in our survival bag.

Mark fearlessly lighting the camping stove.

The stove is lit, now waiting for it to heat up before the burner starts burning efficiently.

Our stove has successfully been lit! The advantage to these stoves is that they can burn on almost any fuel including gasoline, diesel and kerosene.

Practicing how to setup the tents.

Getting the poles connected inside the tent. The nice thing about these tents is the poles go up inside the tent, instead of outside, so if you are caught in windy conditions, you can get in the tent and still put it together without having to go outside (and risk your tent blowing away in the process).

Tuesday afternoon was a half hour orientation to the Crary Lab (where our lab space is) that included locating all the emergency shower and eye wash stations and other useful information to be aware of in Crary. At 7:00pm, we attended the Outdoor Safety Training that covered the trail system around McMurdo, including ones you could go solo on and ones that require at least two people.

A close-up view of the McMurdo area. The green lines are some of the longer hikes that can be taken around the area. The purple lines are the snow roads to and from the airfields. Pink lines are temporary roads that are used until the sea ice thaws each summer.

Wednesday morning was another busy day of training. We had our Light Vehicle Training at 8am, where we learned how to drive the trucks around the McMurdo area. Mostly this was a refresher from last year and included reminders to chalk the wheels anytime the vehicle was parked, always drive with your lights on, don't forget to set the mako brake and DON'T SPEED (top speeds anywhere should never exceed 25 mph). The mako brake (as I'm sure you are wondering) is a special type of brake that involves turning a knob in the truck to set it. Emergency brakes are not used down here because the temperatures are cold enough that they will freeze to the rotors if they are used. The mako brake is actually a special check-value that keeps the brake fluid from returning back through the line once pressure is taken off of the brake pedal. It essentially uses the vehicles regular brakes as the emergency brake when the vehicle is parked.

After the Light Vehicle Training was the Waste/Fire/Medical briefing at 8:30am. Waste is taken quite seriously down here and EVERYTHING must be sorted correctly (and I do mean everything). Roughly 65% of all waste generated down here is recycled and everything goes through a vigorous series of checks to make sure it has been sorted correctly. We were all reminded of what we needed to do to ensure things are sorted correctly and that the skua bins/hut were not for easily disposing of junk you don't want. (The skua hut is where people can go to get re-usable items such as clothing, electronics, boots, etc. that others have left they either didn't want, or couldn't pack, for the trip back north).

A not-so-good photo showing some of the bins that can be found all around base for dealing with waste. These ones included cardboard, metal, sanitary waste, recycling, clothing, food waste, and landfill. 

 

The fire briefing explained what to do in case of a fire, where to muster, etc. and offered an additional fire extinguisher training. The medical briefing simply reminded us to stay healthy, drink lots and check in at the clinic if we weren't feeling well. At 10:30am was our Environmental Field Briefing/Training and went over the rules of what to do in the event of a spill, how to clean it up, and who to notify. They also covered what areas were off limits (because of biological, ecological, historical or scientific significance) and how to help keep Antarctica pristine. At 2:30pm was our briefing with the fixed-wing (Twin Otter aircraft group) and our plans and needs for this field season. We found out that none of the LC-130 aircraft were here yet and that three of them were still in Christchurch for maintenance. The fourth one was preparing to fly down on Monday (when we did), except a wind storm the day before had sent a loose baggage cart rolling across the tarmac and into the side of the aircraft, putting a dent in it. This explained why there are nearly 850 people in McMurdo and almost no one has been making it back and forth between here and the Pole.

We continued training on Thursday starting at 8am with harassment training. This training was new this year and put in place because of issues in prior years, especially at some of the field sites, and was overall well done. This was followed by mattrack training. Mattracks are a type of truck down here that have tracks instead of wheels. They drive a bit differently so they require anyone with the need for a mattrack truck to go through additional training. We use them because both the Willie and Phoenix sites are not on the groomed roads and it's easier to get to them when you can drive right up to them.

One of the mattrack trucks.

At 11:30, we had our Mac-Ops briefing where they went over the procedures for using the radios and when we need to check in and check out if we are leaving base. After that, we were finally done with most of the required training and briefings and could start to focus on our work again. It also meant a little bit of free time to walk around and get some pictures.

I captured this shot one evening as I was headed back to my dorm room. Sunlight can be seen glinting off the glaciers on the mountains.

Hut point, with Discovery Hut (erected in 1902) in the foreground. The cross at the top of the point was placed in memory of George Vince who died in an accident during an expedition nearby in 1904. Glaciers can be see on the mountains in the background.

A banner, or cap cloud hangs over the top of Mt Discovery, an extinct volcano. Winds on this day were moving left to right and blowing snow can be seen on the flanks of the mountain.