The 2019-2020 ANSMET field team in front of the Pink Pig of Case’s Squire Valleevue Farm, our home for Boot Camp. From left to right: Alex Gerst, Brian Rougeux, John Schutt, Emilie Dunham, Nicole Lunning, Jim Karner, Cindy Evans, Marc Caffee, Lauren Angotti.

The last weekend in October, the 2019-2020 ANSMET team met each other for Bootcamp in Cleveland! We set-up a Scott expedition tent similar to the ones we will stay in when we are at our remote field site collecting meteorites at the Davis Ward Icefields in the Dominion Range (DOM). This gave all of us newbies a chance to pile into the tent and get a sense of the size of the interior space and how we will organize our tents with our tentmates.

We also got an introduction to the skidoos that we will ride to commute from our camp to the moraine were will we hunt for meteorites on foot, including the portion famously known as the beach because it yielded numerous meteorites hiding among terrestrial rocks. We will also slowly drive around on the skidoos to systematically search across the ice fields.

The leaders and veterans of ANSMET gave us newbies insights into the gear we will need to bring, which I found incredibly valuable! One of the things that has changed for ANSMET over the last few years is we need to bring more of our own gear. I was fortunate to receive some awesomely warm pieces of gear from 2017-2018 ANSMET team member Juliane Gross. I am also going to borrow a bunch of long underwear from my mom who lives in Minnesota, likes to go outside in the winter, and likes to be warm. Being the same size as your mom has some perks.

-Nicole Lunning,  13 Nov 2019