Survival Training

  Survival training took place a couple days after arrival on continent. This involves going out into the wilderness overnight on foot to learn basic survival skills to stay alive if things go pear shaped. Our group consisted of six newbies (me included) and a Field Training Officer (FTO)

Drilling Sea Ice

After a morning brief on mapping and compass/GPS navigation we kitted up and left Casey Station for Shirley Island. To access the island we had to cross the sea ice which needs to be drilled and measured for thickness to determine if its safe to travel on. It was about 1.4 metres thick - plenty as it only needs to be 30cm for pedestrian traffic. While we were drilling the odd curious penguin came up to see what we were doing.

Oi you lot! Get off my lawn!

Shirley island is host to several Adelie Penguin colonies. After a couple hours of ice rescue and crevasse location training we made it up a rocky hill to sit and eat smoko amongst the penguins. Adelie penguins are unique to Antarctica and are about 45 - 70cm tall. They also look like they are wearing tuxedos and are cute as hell! It was great to watch them as they carried on unafraid of us, finding shiny pebbles to take to females to win their affections and waddling around honking at each other.

Eating smoko amongst the Shirley Island Colonies

     After eating we left Shirley Island for camp with some more nav training on route. Once in camp we built our kitchen by cutting out a channel to create a table and ledge to sit around then used the ice bricks we cut out to build a wind break.

Sawing and digging out ice bricks 

 Inside the Mega-Bivvy

Once finished we boiled some snow on shellite stoves and got inside a Mega-Bivvy for cuppa soup. A mega-bivvy is basically a big nylon cover that can be used by many people to huddle under if your caught with your pants down in a sudden blizz. Once inside we also did the 5pm radio check in - basically a to-n-fro with station comms about our planned movements and the weather.

The finished ice kitchen

After the bivvy session we tramped up the northern side of the O'Brien Bay to arrive at a rocky vantage point looking out along what is affectionately known as Iceberg Alley - the long groups of icebergs that stretch along the coast here. This was hands down one of the most glorious views I've ever seen - photos and words just don't do it justice. The whole crew just sat on the rocks in silence for ages.
   Soon enough it was about 8pm - time to go cook dinner and set up our sleeping arrangements. Dinner was dehydrated ration packs that just needed hot water so more snow was boiled up in the "kitchen".

Ice Berg Alley

Happy Gilmore taking survival
training very seriously...

Nothing is left in the field haha

In our packs we carry bivvy bags which are basically a nylon sack with a yoga mat. When you sleep in your bivvy you take everything in with you so nothing freezes - this includes your water bottle and your pee bottle (yes we have a pee bottle, nothing is left behind in the field). Some of the group just got in their bivvys and racked out but a few of us got creative with the saw again and cut level sleeping pads out of the slope and used the residual ice bricks for windbreaks again.
  Being summer the sun didn't quite go under the horizon so thankfully the temp didn't get much below -12 degrees celsius.

Poor man's Igloo

The morning brought a lovely sunrise/sunset (something!) as we roused ourselves to break camp and make it back to Casey. Unfortunately I didn't sleep with my gloves in my sleeping bag so they did't dry out overnight. Within minutes of putting them on my hands were so frozen that it was like trying to pack my stuff wearing boxing gloves. I was glad to get everything stuffed in my pack and get on the trail to get warm, boot spikes biting in as we headed across the ice and snow for home.

Not a bad view to wake up to.
The Polar Pyramid tents are for the FTOs (done their time in bivvy bags apparently haha)

Just follow the penguin belly slide tracks home...

Anyway, that's it from me this time. Thanks for reading.
Don't hesitate to ask any questions you have about life down here.
Stay Safe

Wayno