Saturday, October 6, 2012

Well, today was filled with trainings and refreshers. I was in some kind of training class from 8:30 AM till 5:30 PM. We re-learned how to sort our trash, how to keep the continent clean while working out in the field, how to stay safe and everything in between. Some of the more enjoyable training parts of the day were re-learning how to use some of the things in our survival bags. A survival bag contains enough equipment and food to keep two people alive for three days in the case of an emergency. It has radios, shovels, two sleeping bags, a tent, a stove etc. We are required to take them with us any time we leave station. It was fun to learn about the stoves that USAP trusts to put in survival bags is the same stove that I take with me every time I go backpacking! Here we are learning about the MSR whisperlite.

Next we all set up tents that are found in the survival bags as well.

After all of the training, I went to work out. There is a group of people who do the "Insanity" workout system five days a week. I don't know if I will be able to make it every day since some of our experiments take up most of the day and night, but even if I can make it to a few a week, I will be happy with that. 

The weather was great when I got here, but it started snowing pretty heavily and visibility dropped quite a bit. You can hardly see the buildings behind me! About 3 hours after I took these pictures.

These pictures were taken when the weather was Condition 3 but shortly there after went to Condition 2. There are three weather conditions that exist in Antarctica: Condition 3, Condition 2 and Condition 1. Condition 3 is normal or good weather...for Antarctica. I'll give you a quick idea of what the three conditions are:

Condition 3: Windchill: warmer than -75 F

                     Visibility: greater than 1/4 mile

                     Wind speed: less than 48 knots

Condition 2: Windchill: between -75 and -100 F

                     Visibility: between 1/4 mile and 100 feet

                     Wind speed: between 48 and 55 knots

Condition 3: Windchill: colder than -100 F

                     Visibility: less than 100 feet

                     Wind speed: greater than 55 knots

The weather can change very quickly here so we always try to be prepared. And no matter what happens, we try to stay calm and roll with the punches. There is a funny website called "The Chive." It's motto is "Keep Calm, Chive On." The science building here is called "Crary" and I saw this posted in the science building yesterday. It's a good motto to have down here, no matter what happens, just keep doing your science. Today was a really great day!