Antarctica!!!

Once we arrived, we had a quick briefing, and then all of the newbies headed out for snow school, or happy camper as most call it, the next morning. I must say, happy camper school was a tremendous amount of fun. I learned a great deal. Many things were very surprising and incredibly useful. For example, I didn’t realize how important it is to eat food to keep warm, especially sugars and fats. At one point I woke up in the middle of the night and was cold. I had half of a chocolate bar, and within minutes, I was warm again. It was startling actually. I know at least two other people did this same thing, and were equally impressed.
The first shelter we constructed was a quincy. It involves piling all of your sleeping bags and soft equipment into a mound and covering it with snow. When everything is solid and hard, a hole is dug for an entrance, and the soft sleeping bags inside are pulled out to reveal a hut of sorts. Very effective and quick. This picture shows the quincy in progress.