Jon and I had to attend a course on how to camp outside in Antarctica. It is called Snowcraft I, but it is more popularly known as Happy Camper School. We met at the Field and Safety Training Program or FSTP (pronounced "F-stop") building for a brief class on keeping warm, eating, basic needs, etc. We loaded our sleep kits and duffel bags into a vehicle called a PistenBully. Then, we loaded up in the back of the Delta and drove to the Galley to get our lunches and fill our water bottles. Then we loaded up again, 20 people in all. The FSTP Delta is no longer allowed to travel on the ice, so we were dropped off and some of our gear and food was loaded onto a sled pulled by a snowmobile, while the PistenBully kept going out to the Snowcraft site with our bags.

We walked out on the ice shelf to a place where they hold the classes. It was a beautiful day, lots of sunshine and no wind. Nobody seemed to mind the walk. When we got to a small rectangular building called the Fish Hut, we had a quick class on how to use the Whisperlite stoves. A few people in the class had not evein all, and drove out to the edge of the ice shelf. They do not drive ther camped outside before, so it was good to go over everything. It had been a while since I set up one of those stoves since Dan usually takes on that task while I do other tasks, so I definitely needed a refresher.

We took the stoves outside and split up into 5 groups and everyone was able to try one out. We were going to use these stoves later on when we got out to our camp site for the evening.

We also had to put together our sleep kits and load them up in the sled. A sleep kit has a sleeping bag, fleece liner, and thermarest or other insulated pad. The sleep kits we take in the field with us also contain a pillow and a "P" (pee) bottle. The last thing you want to do in a howling storm is go outside just to pee.

We then walked back to the campsite. Here, the first thing we did was to set up the Scott tents. We were told to always set them up first so that if a storm came up quickly, we would have some shelter. They go up fast and are very solid in the wind. We used a rope to belay the tent up while people pushed from the other side. Then we stretched the poles out to make it taught and staked the corners down with snow stakes. A Scott tent is a pyramidal tent made of canvas with the poles incorporated into the tent. It does not have a floor built into it, but it does have a skirt around the bottom that we throw snow onto to keep air from getting into it.