Sunday 9 October 2005
Antarctic Camping 1: Preparing to go
A typical winter trip consists of four people, working in two pairs of two. Each person drives their own skidoo and each pair has two sledges - one full unit and one half unit. The full unit contains everything which the party is planning to use during their trip. That includes a pyramid tent, Jerry cans of skidoo fuel and kerosene (for the stove and lamp), sleeping bags, a tarpaulin for covering the skidoos once you arrive and five unit boxes (pots, inside tent, inside food, outside food and personal). One of the pairs also carries a radio box containing the HF kit.
The unit boxes are sturdy wooden boxes containing everything you need to survive in the field. The photos below shows the contents of some of them:
The contents of the pots and inside tent boxes.
| 1. Inside tent box 2. Cooking board 3. Pots box 4. Toilet rolls 5. Washing up liquid 6. Washing powder 7. Matches 8. Carbon Monoxide monitor 9. Water bottles 10. Flasks 11. Spare toothbrush and toothpaste 12. Pot handle 13. Bottled kerosene fuel for stove and lamp | 14. Methylated spirit for lighting stove and lamp 15. Primus Stove 16. Tilly Lamp 17. Spare glass and mantles for Tilly lamp 18. Assorted items including stationary, a torch, alarm clock and first aid kit 19. Tent repair kit 20. Plastic mugs and plates 21. Stackable pots for cooking 22. Spare parts for Primus stove and Tilly lamp 23. Sealed box of matches 24. Containers with nozzles for Methylated spirit 25. Tough plastic bags for rubbish 26. Non-stick frying pan | 27. Kilt pins for hanging clothes in top of tent 28. Wet wipes 29. Cooking utensils and cutlery 30. Washing up clothes 31. Fuel funnel with mesh to prevent water containation 32. More matches 33. Siphon tube for transferring fuel from Jerry can into bottles 34. Spanner for tightening Primus stove 35. Wire brush for cleaning stove and lamp 36. Tool for repairs to Primus stove 37. Cloths for padding Tilly lamp in transit |
Sorting through the inside food box. We tend to suppliment all the dried, frozen and packaged meals with frozen meals from base (kept in the outside food box). Photo by Vanessa.
We have one box for personal stuff. Typically people tend to take books, a personal stereo and speakers for music, extra goodies like chocolate or sweets, toiletries and a bottle or two of booze. Photo by Vanessa.
The half unit sledge is a stripped down version of the full unit and contains the minimum equipment needed to survive (assuming that you no longer had your full unit). It is designed for use in an emergency, such as if the full unit was lost in a crevasse or if a pyramid tent was torn in high winds. If you want to go on day trips from your campsite by skidoo you can take the half unit to avoid having to dismantle the whole camp.
Once you've gathered all of this equipment together you need to lash it to one of the wooden Nansen sledges. The unit boxes and Jerry cans are designed to fit nicely together on the sledge. Once everything is in place you throw the tarp over the top and lash everything down. It is particularly important to get all the ropes nice and tight as it can be a long and bumpy drive and you don't want things working loose and falling off. Once your done it should be possible to tip the sledge onto its side without anything coming free. Sledges can tip when you're driving along if the surface is particularly bad although they are remarkably stable so fortunately it's pretty rare. Nansen sledges have changed very little since the early days of Antarctic travel, but they are very robust and well suited to the task. It's amazing that a sledge made from ash and held together by rope can carry a ton of equipment over great distances and difficult surfaces with so few problems.
A finished sledge. Photo by Vanessa.
The final task is to link each pair of skidoos and sledges together using link lines. The lead skidoo is attached to the full unit by a 10 metre line, which is attached to the second skidoo by a 30 metre line. The half unit is attached to the rear skidoo using another 10 metre line. The drivers have a safety line which connects them to the system via a safety harness, the idea being that if either of the skidoos fell into a crevasse they wouldn't go far and could be pulled out again.
Learning to travel linked takes a bit of getting used to, particularly for the second skidoo driver who has to be careful to keep the right amount of tension in the line in front of them. If it is too tight the lead skidoo is pulling all the weight, but if you let it get too slack it is possible to run over the line which can get caught up in the tracks and spin the skidoo through 180 degrees! To make it a bit easier the end of the link line has a foam 'dongle' which is like a section of pipe insulation. This makes the end of the rope in front of the skidoo stiff, which makes it a lot easier to keep it out of the way of the tracks. It also helps protect the rope if it is run over, hopefully preventing any damage to the rope from the skidoo's ice cleats.
Skidoos and sledges linked together and ready to go.
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