{"id":784,"date":"2014-01-19T14:04:42","date_gmt":"2014-01-19T14:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artscilabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/?p=784"},"modified":"2014-11-12T16:13:32","modified_gmt":"2014-11-12T21:13:32","slug":"camp-from-above-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/2014\/01\/19\/camp-from-above-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Camp from above"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Winds were perfect yesterday for getting a kite cam up in the air. You can see our four main tents, the poo and science tents, our skidoos, a red sled, some fuel and cargo depots. The distant horizon at the top continues much like this for 350 miles to the South Pole, and on for many hundreds of miles beyond to the east coast. Many thanks to Ralph Lorenz for his gear!<\/p>\n

-posted by Jani<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Editorial note from Ralph: <\/em><\/p>\n

This is a great opportunity to explain a bit about our camp architecture, so I’m chiming in. \u00a0In this view South (or more SSE) is at the top, and that’s where the wind is coming from. \u00a0The wind is the force of nature that affects us the most, and as a result ANSMET camps are set up to deal with it. \u00a0The top row of four tents is where we live, \u00a0two to a tent, with doors in the downwind direction (some Antarcticans prefer a side door arrangement. That lets in less snow when open but lets in a much stronger blast of cold wind). \u00a0They are separated by 15-20 meters or so, \u00a0or sometimes more. \u00a0Get them too close together, they create a broad air dam that enhances drifting off to the sides. Get them just right and the Bernoulli effect sends that snow far downwind.<\/p>\n

Off to the ends of that row on either side are cargo lines; \u00a0the crates and boxes of stuff we use every day layed out in a line parallel to the wind to avoid big drifting. After 37 years of doing this we have a very nice collection of crates that are both windproof and can be opened without pulling your gloves off.<\/p>\n

The next row from the top is mostly snowmobiles, and some flags too. \u00a0The snowmobiles sit nose into the wind and are covered to keep snow out of their innards. Flags left lying down get buried quickly, since they are “rough” to the wind, creating turbulence that drops the suspended snow. \u00a0Leave them standing and you get an awful cacophony of flapping, leading to nightmares straight out of Hitchcock’s The Birds. \u00a0We tend to bundle them together, and leave only one small flag standing so we can dig them out of the drift they create.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Very purposefully downwind are two tents that can’t be called essential but in fact make ANSMET camp life livable; \u00a0the Poo tent and the Science tent (also called the Party tent). \u00a0 The latter is basically a Scott tent that’s old, beat up, \u00a0and has no liner; \u00a0we use it to store crates that we really don’t want snow to get in (like electronics, collection kits, etc) and as a workplace when things need repair, like our solar power centers or snowmobiles (the tent becomes a garage when we drop it over the hood of the skidoo). \u00a0 It gets called the party tent because it’s the only indoor space we have where 8 can gather in reasonable comfort, \u00a0so when it’s xmas or new years, that’s where we end up. \u00a0 Usually our small camp oven is set up in there for warm and the occasional roast game hen.<\/p>\n

The Poo tent has an obvious use, and usually is very Scandinavian Modern in decor. \u00a0A few boxes of toilet paper, trash bags and hand sanitizer sit at the walls, \u00a0and in the middle is a bucket with (if you’re lucky) a big pink foam seat. \u00a0 I won’t lie to you, \u00a0the comfort aspect of the Poo tent is not trivial. \u00a0When I started in this business we simply went outside in the blowing wind, \u00a0dug a hole (or not), \u00a0dropped trou and let ‘er rip. \u00a0 But there’s a “green” aspect to this as well- once we knew McMurdo was equipped to deal with it, we embraced the charge to return all solid human waste to McMurdo for proper disposal. \u00a0So yes, \u00a0as a very early post said, \u00a0 ANSMET really can be about moving \u00a0“…. S@#$ from one godforsaken place to another”. \u00a0 \u00a0The Poo tent helps us with that.<\/p>\n

There’s another cluster of camp stuff further north, \u00a0off the bottom of the page- \u00a0it’s our refueling station, \u00a0about 100 ft downwind and sidewind from camp. \u00a0Usually we have 20-30 propane bottles (used for heating and cooking) and 6-16 motor fuel barrels (for the snowmobiles). \u00a0Like the cargo lines discussed earlier, they’re laid out in lines parallel to the wind to avoid drifting. We try to keep this area very uncluttered so that snowmobiles can maneuver easily and we can manage the risk of spills without difficulty.<\/p>\n

One final thing. \u00a0A fair number of people are amazed that we’re not living in buildings at some base or the polar equivalent of RV’s, driving around in vehicles with sealed cabs, that kind of thing. \u00a0We have seriously considered such things, \u00a0but in fact they trade away function for comfort. First it’s important to note that aboriginal peoples have been living in similar environments for tens of thousands of years with few permanent buildings of any kind; \u00a0the hardship level is exaggerated, particularly given the comforts we now associate with a modern home. \u00a0We live primitive, \u00a0yes, \u00a0but it’s not “barely living”. \u00a0 Our long history of Antarctic work has allowed us to find a sweet spot in the space between logistical capability, the capacity of people to deal with the weather and the very remote places we need to go. \u00a0Add more gear or stay closer to home, \u00a0suddenly we can’t get to most of the meteorites due to cost, lack of aircraft, or lack of range. \u00a0 We’ve got a “cowpoke” kind of life now, \u00a0mobile enough to get where we need to go without it being too much of a burden on USAP, light enough for 8 people to deal with, \u00a0and everyone with their own “hoss” (the snowmobiles) letting us be very very flexible in terms of daily activities. \u00a0 I don’t think we’ll be messing with this basic design unless we’re forced to.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Winds were perfect yesterday for getting a kite cam up in the air. You can see our four main tents, the poo and science tents, our skidoos, a red sled, some fuel and cargo depots. The distant horizon at the top continues much like this for 350 miles to the South Pole, and on for many hundreds of miles beyond to the east coast. Many thanks to Ralph Lorenz for his gear!<\/p>\n

-posted by Jani<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Editorial note from Ralph: <\/em><\/p>\n

This is a great opportunity to explain a bit about our camp architecture,<\/p>\n

Continue reading… Camp from above<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[7,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1435,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784\/revisions\/1435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}