Happy Camper, Partying, My Future

Friday, shortly after our shift change, I attended a class called Snowcraft I or Happy Camper School which was taught by NSF/Raytheon instructors. The class was designed to teach and prepare you to be able to survive and fucntion while operating out in the field. After some introductions and a little classroom time, we embarked for the same area where our SAR try-outs were conducted to begin our training. Now, at first, I was dreading attending this class at that particular date and time considering I hadn't been sleeping well for 3 days, I'm still somewhat sick, and I had only found out that I was going less than 15 hours before I had to leave. By the time I had left my room, I was actually pretty excited to go on this trip. I've been backpacking for going on 10 years and I've always wanted to learn the winter skills that I haven't been able to learn on the east coast. What a better way to learn them then on top of a glacier in Antarctica! A lot of people complained non-stop throughout the entire ordeal and to be honest with you, there were a few people starting to get on my nerves but for the most part I had blast while I was out there and I definitely learned a thing or two about cold weather camping. I slept in what's called a quinzie. We piled all of our sleeping gear into a giant mound a couple feet thick, then dug out the middle and a 5 foot tunnel underneath one of the walls. To my surprise, the inside of the quinzie was actually about 5 or 10 degrees warmer than the outside temperature. With enough space to lay down flat and roll around, I slept for about 10 hours pretty comfortably. We did more training in the morning and afternoon including scenarios, risk management, radio operations, helicopter operations, and some environmental impact considerations. I'm really thankful for this class considering how much I learned that I use in Virginia and WV backpacking and climbing.

Antarctica is amazing in the fact that you can't go far without being reminded as to how far away you are from civilization. Away from town, out on the middle of the glacier where we were, the landscape is amazing. Asides from the flags marking safe travel routes and the distinct green buildings of New Zealand's Scott Base, The land is virtually untouched, virgin. Mt Erebus dominates the horizon topping off at 3700 m. Mt Terror, Mt Discovery, The Royal Society Mountain Range, all litter the horizon and add to the beauty of the land. One thing I noticed, in the middle of the night while I was outside peeing, when the wind wasn't blowing, when there were no planes, no vehicles, no wildlife, the world was silent. A silence I hadn't heard since Wyoming. A silence I long for and miss. It made me think about where I want to take my life next where I may want to try to live. Where I want to visit. I've been reading a book about a woman that spent 7 years living in Northwestern Greenland near the Baffin Bay. Something is pulling me to live in the wilds, away from society. I don't know. I have a lot of thinking to do on this new found feeling but I think it's something that will play a big role in my life here soon.

Low and behold, when I got back from Snowcraft I, my roommate was a sweetheart enough to pick up one of my packages from the firehouse and it turned out to be my Guitar! Between such an awesome time at Snowcraft I and having my guitar waiting for me when I got back, I couldn't have been any happier than I was at that moment. There were 3 of us from my shift that were in the class and when we called to check in after class was done, we were told to go home and not worry about coming in which led us all to Gallagher's Bar to party for the night. I ended up actually leaving the bar around 12 to go back to a friend's dorm room, only to meet someone in the hall, and go back to their building, building 210. In that building, I met even more people who dragged me to a party at the Antenna Rigger's Shack right across the street from the firehouse. Still drunk, at 3 AM, I walked out of 210, wearing a button up T-Shirt, flip-flops, and jeans, all the way (a 1/4 mile) to the Antenna Rigger's Shack in 20 degree weather. God bless Antarctica. I hung out there for a couple hours with my new found friends and finally walked back to my Dorm around 0445-0500 to go to sleep. Today, I woke up a little sicker than I had been over the past few days...something I attributed to being out in the cold for 48 hours. With that being said, I really didn't do much today.

So all in all, I had a pretty good weekend. Awesome training, night off from work, I got my guitar, met about 30 or 40 new people, life is good.