Outside of a classic Scott Tent showing Jon’s form exiting through the “birth canal”. This is the Science tent.
Well, today wasn’t a full tent day, but the wind did pick up a great deal. It was -24° F ambient and with 15-18 mph winds it was -35° F with wind chill. Most of the morning was spent grooming the skiway for the flight tomorrow which will take away a bunch of cargo and 5 of our skidoos. Yes, our time at Davis Ward is coming to an end.
With the season ending and most of our work at DW done, it’s time to head home. One flight tomorrow will carry away lots of cargo, and then a Basler and a Twin Otter on Friday will carry the rest of us away. In addition to skiway grooming we also did inventory and organized cargo to ship out.
Still, I wanted to talk a bit about our tents! And also about what people do during downtime here. We haven’t had too much downtime or tent days, but when we do most people spend time reading, or watching a show.
What do we read? Books on the heroic age of Antarctic exploration are popular. This year I read Madhouse at the End of the Earth — the story of the Belgian antarctic expedition that got stuck in the ice, and Alone on the Ice — the amazing survival tale of Mawson and the Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-1914. Two other favorites are The Worst Journey in the World — a memoir of Scott’s fateful expedition to the south pole, by one of the expedition members Aspley Cherry-Garrard, and Endurance by Alfred Lansing — the gripping tale of Shackleton’s famed 1914-1917 Antarctic expedition.
Everyone is currently reading:
Robert – Monday Starts on Saturday by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky.
Daniela – Horizon by Barry Lopez (the author deployed with ANSMET in 1999), which is an autobio about all the author’s travels, including the Arctic and Antarctica.
Minako – Where the Crawdads Sing (a very good fiction book).
Brian – The Human Comedy by Henri de Balzac.
Jim – The Man Who died Twice.
Lauren – the aforementioned Endurance.
Erin – The Feast of the Crows.
OK, on to tents!
The classic in use is a standard “Scott Tent”, a four wall pyramid designed to withstand extremely high winds. One enters and exits the tend through a round opening in the double layer wall, which we have all aptly dubbed the “birth canal”. The circular opening is located a bit off the floor, and is designed both to maximize warmth when closed, and also maximize the likelihood of tripping entering and exiting the tent.
The newer tents are a Vestibule Tent. This modified Scott Tent contains a separate vestibule compartment in the entrance to the tent. This came about from a redesign after a chance meeting between Ralph and the tent designer in Christchurch. The vestibule is a great place to take off Big Red, boots, and other outer layers while entering/exiting the tent. It’s also great for storing things you want easy access to. Most importantly, it provides a private compartment out of the wind for utilizing one’s Pee Bottle.
The outer room of a Vestibule Scott Tent. Jon peeks out from the inner tent.
Inside the Vestibule Tent, you can see a classic setup from Erin and Lauren’s tent. One unique aspect of ANSMET life is having a stove inside the tent. This may seem like blasphemy for campers, but it is 100% necessary in these conditions, to keep the tent warm and have easy cooking access. The tents have vents on the top to release the fumes and are equipped with carbon monoxide detectors. Each tent also has a fire blanket and extinguisher due to the open flame.
Interior view of a Vestibule Tent. Erin and Lauren in their home sweet home at Davis Ward.
Stove heated tents make for an interesting thermal gradient. In the lower foot of the tent things are still frozen, and at the height of the sleeping bags it gets to about 20-25 F at night with the stove off. Items placed in the middle row of pockets can remain warm, and items hung from the top are basically at room temperature due to the heat of the stove. We hang our boots and socks at the top of the tent to dry overnight, and also hang things at the top that we absolutely want to not freeze. Overally these tents are quite cozy and generally a great place to live, cook, and sleep while at camp.
Inside the Poo Tent. Our apologies if you really didn’t need to see this. But it’s an election year so full disclosure is an important principle to uphold.
Last but not least, let’s talk about the Poo Tent. Lots of people ask how we relieve ourselves in the field. According to the Antarctica Treaty we must carry all of our waste out. The Poo Tent is a classic Scott Tent in which lives a bucket under a foam seat that collects our waste. When the bucket is full we hammer it shut to seal it and ship it back to McMurdo, where it eventually gets shipped off continent. The tent is actually not as gross as it sounds. Because everything freezes the smell isn’t that bad, and overall it is better than a generic outhouse or portapotty. There’s also a candle generously provided by the 2015-2016 ANSMET crew. Also pictured is a poo stick for finessing the bucket if needed, and of course Purell (hand sanitizer). Not shown is the infamous “poo flag”. When you enter the tent you raise the poo flag outside the tent so everyone knows the tent is occupied. Of course, if someone leaves the poo tent and forgets to lower the poo flag, others may be left peeking out from their vestibules wondering what is taking someone so long, only to later discover the poo tent is unoccupied, to great dismay. Unfortunately, it as been 0 days since the last poo flag incident.
– Robert from Davis Ward
(note from RPH: Thank you, Robert, for not throwing someone under the bus for their the poo flag violation. Shaming is against ANSMET policy even when the crime is this heinie-ous).