Con, Cindy, and Jim at varying stages of ascending the ropes with prusik knots with the rest of the ANSMET team helping and encouraging.

Although you wouldn’t know it from the picture alone, today was all about safety. After the official and mandatory briefing on how to sort our trash in McMurdo, we began the ANSMET specific safety and survival training. This started with each of us sharing our skills and previous experience. The bulk of the session consisted of reminders and detailed descriptions of Antarctica specific hazards. The general takeaway, as scary as crevasses are slips, falls, and improper hygiene are far more likely to be our demise in the field.

Part of our training included familiarizing ourselves with our individual survival packs. These bags follow us everywhere in the field and contain essentials such as: a basic first aid kit, hand warmers, binoculars, rock hammers, and a climbing kit among other items. The climbing kit was key to the hands on portion of survival training. We practiced proper use of the harness and several knots and hitches. Once the basics were mastered we got to try out the use of prusik knots to climb a rope. This and other exercises are fun but also good to know in the unlikely case a crevasse rescue is necessary.

Our workday ended with carting several truckloads of gear down to the ice edge in McMurdo Sound. We depart for our shakedown, an overnight trip to a nearby location on the ice, in the morning. Hopefully we will be successful at driving snow machines, setting up tents, and operating stoves; all of the essential tasks of an operating field camp. If anything needs fixing or changing out, it is far better to know now rather than after we are out in the Miller Range.

In other news, the male/female ratios at McMurdo Station are very similar to those of professionals in academic institutions and laboratories (see the pie chart below). Not the best at less than 30% female but slowly improving with time. Way to go ANSMET for being ahead of the curve with an even 50%.

(editorial note from Ralph-  if the numbers seem low to the vets in our audience, you’re right.  For most of the prior decade McMurdo’s summer population was pushing 1250.  Kudos to USAP: the government shutdown of 2013 showed how hard it was to support a (frankly) bloated McMurdo, and it looks like they’ve been successful in reducing the footprint.)

updates from Ellen, enjoying the panoramic views in McMurdo, 4 Dec. 2015