Thursday, January 18, 2007
Happy Camper aka Snow School aka Snowcraft I
I have survived Happy Camper. Everyone has a different experience, some are good and others are learning experiences. Mine was a mix of the both, I guess.Happy Camper is basically a snow survival course for scientists and workers going out into the field traveling by helicopter. There are a two two-day sessions each week with 12 spots in each course. When there aren't enough grantees or workers that need the course to fill it, people in jobs like mine are invited to participate. The housing department does a drawing for who gets to go, and we call it a boondoggle because it's a special treat and two days off of work. I was the fourth to last person in our department to get a boondoggle.
I was to report to the FSTP (we call it F-stop) classroom at 8:30am on Tuesday morning. We had some classroom instruction. A survival bag was dumped out for us to see. Survival bags are brought on every trip away from station. They include a sleeping bag, sleeping pad, camp stove, dehydrated food, and a novel (to take your mind off being stranded if you ever actually have to use them). By 10:30, we were on our way out to Snow Mound City, as the locals call it. Every Happy Camper group is taken to the same place. There is an instructor hut, classroom, and drying hut and then a 10-15 minute walk from there is the camp area we set up and sleep at. We spent some time in the classroom learning how to use the WhisperLite camp stoves, before bagging and loading up all of our overnight gear and heading out to camp. It was extremely windy while we got our different lessons in snow survival camping, and it was a lot of work. We put up a Scott tent, built a wind wall by sawing snow, put up some mountain tents, and built a quinzie. We took breaks in between each thing to drink some water and consume some simple carbs (like chocolate energy bars, etc). After we finished with our lessons for the day, Kevin left a radio with two people in our group and went back to the instructor hut. The weather had cleared up a bit by then. We made dinner by boiling some water and dumping 2 cups of it into our dehydrated food bags. Our group sat around chatting for another few hours and then everyone went off to bed. I slept in a quinzie with Susan, who lives with Susan (she's been in photos before), across the hall from me in our dorm. We chose to sleep in someone's quinzie built during an earlier Happy Camper session.
The next morning, we were greeted by the wind again as we broke camp. We hauled everything back into the little shed by pulling sleds of gear. Our group walked back to the instructor camp and took everything (sleeping bag, sleeping pads, and fleece blanket) out of the bags to dry it in the warming hut. Kevin did a brief session on how to run VHF and HF radios. Our group had to test out the HF radio by setting it up outside and calling the South Pole. We were successful the first time. Our last unit was on white-out conditions. The USAP has developed a very technical program to teach people how to find a lost soul in white-out conditions. It's called "Putting a Bucket On Your Head". So that's what we did. The situation was that Kevin had wandered out to use the outhouse and hadn't returned. We each had to wear a bucket on our heads and were all holding on to a long piece of rope. Our first attempt was very unsuccessful, but after a little guidance from Kevin we managed to pull together as a team and still not find him. The second time went much smoother, and we were able to work as a group instead of against each other like we did the first time. Once back to the FSTP classroom, we had to watch a video on the Dry Valleys and then learn to buckle ourselves into and unbuckle out of helicopter seats before we had successfully finished the class. I was exhausted and happy to see my bed by the time we finished, but I am so thankful for the amazing amount of information I was given. I can't wait to do some more snow camping!!
The classroom at the Happy Camper site.
LeeAnn and Dave setting up their stove and giving it a test run.
The instructor hut, where our instructor, Kevin slept.
All of our tools: saws, ice axes, shovels, corers, etc.
Setting up the Scott tent.
Sawing snow blocks out to make a wind wall.
Building the wind wall.
Building the quinzie (the big pile of snow in the middle) and setting up the rest of camp.
After camp was set up, we went to grab our bags which we'd left sitting in a pile. They'd been covered in drifting snow.
Cooking dinner. Dave had the great idea to set up all of the stoves in this area another group had made. People took turns boiling the water to dump in our dehydrated food packs and to make cider, hot chocolate, and tea with.
Me peeking out of the quinzie my friend and I claimed.
Our bags in the quinzie. There was an area that needed patching... that's where all the light is coming through.
Another group's old windwall and quinzie.
The Silver City Ice Fall near the campsite. This is where the SAR (Search and Rescue) team does their crevasse rescue training.
Two of the scientists in our group made this snowman after dinner.
Taking down camp... there were a few times we only had 100 feet visibility or so that morning.
The warming hut where we hung our sleeping gear.
Ethan cranking the Hertie Gertie to refuel the warming hut. I started to crank on it, but my arms started to feel like Jell-O after a few minutes so Ethan finished filling the fuel tank.
Our graduation photo!!
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