Thursday 13 October 2005
Antarctic Camping 3: Tent life
Once you've finished the busy tasks of getting where you are going and setting up camp the pace of life tends to slow right down. With so many factors that can prevent travel (high winds, lower temperatures, poor contrast) it's not uncommon to be laid up in tents for several days waiting for a weather window. The best mindset to adopt is to relax and enjoy yourself, but of course this is easier said than done when you know you're missing out on some great days out. Although the outside temperature hovered at around -30C for most of our trip, the time in the tent is largely a cosy, comfortable existence. Most of the time is spent nice and warm in your sleeping bag with everything within arms reach.
Cooking always takes up a considerable amount of time in the field. This is partially because you only have a single burner Primus stove to cook on, but mainly because there isn't a lot else to do when the weather is bad. To make things easier we bring pots of frozen food from the base which can be re-heated, but there is also plenty of dried army-style meals as well as enough basic ingredients to let you be a bit creative if you feel like it.
It can be quite fun trying to come up with gourmet meals under these conditions and on this trip we have certainly risen to the challenge (one of the benefits of having the chef on your trip!). Meals have included Sausages and mash with onion gravy, cheese and bacon burgers, Thai Green curry and Steak and Mushroom pie. Whenever you are cooking you do need to keep an eye on the CO monitor which which informs you with a beep when there is too much Carbon Monoxide from the stove. The usual solution is just to open the door for a while which brings in enough fresh air to clear any build up. In the evenings we tended to gather in one tent to share the cooking and washing up, and have a few drinks afterwards.
The Primus stove and Tilly lamp
Kev (top) and Ian (bottom) enjoying the comforts of their sleeping bags.
Because of the dangers of CO poisoning, as well as the fire risk we turn off the stove and lamp while we are asleep. The tent rapidly cools to the outside temperature, but it's not a problem as by then you are tucked up inside your down sleeping bag. We try to leave the Tilly lamp full of fuel with the matches handy so we can stick an arm out of the bag and get it going in the morning without too much effort. Then it's back to bed for an hour or two to let it warm up!
Occasionally you have to venture outside to siphon more kerosene from the large Jerry cans into smaller flasks for use inside, dig up some more snow blocks or collect something from one of the unit boxes outside. That can be quite unpleasant when the weather is bad! Other than that people tend to spend a lot of time reading, sleeping and melting snow blocks provide water for cooking and hot drinks.
Melting snow for another cup of tea.
Posted by simon at 10:31 AM | Feedback (3)