Jennifer here,

I think it would be an appropriate time to discuss with all of you what the different weather conditions are at McMurdo Station. There are three conditions: Condition 3= could be cold and relatively miserable out, but it isn't windy, the visibility is good, and it is safe to travel wherever you may need; Condition 2= it is windy (and most definitely cold) and the visibility has dropped such that you are not to leave 'town' (i.e. McMurdo Station proper); Condition 1= the wind has increased dramatically (often to gale force), the visibility has dropped to less than a few feet, it is now definitely very cold, and you are not to leave the building you are in until the weather lifts.

Today Jim, Craig, and myself had Sea Ice Training where they take you out onto the sea ice and teach you how to recognize cracks in the ice, how to determine whether the crack is potentially dangerous or whether it is superficial and stable enough to drive over, and how to anchor a tent on the ice (ever think about that?).

	One of the possibly-happy-but-probably-not-ecstatic SeaIce trainees showing the proper technique for anchoring a tent to the ice, while Jim and Craig look on in admiration.

Many of the people in this class were also in our 'Happy Campers' school so we were all pretty good friends by now and had been through a few ordeals of freezing together. In fact, we probably weren't all together fully recovered from 'Happy Campers' school because we all seemed a little punchy.

	Commuting to SeaIce training (Jen on R, Jim on L).

When we first got onto the ice and hopped out of the Hagglund (a very old army type vehicle with tracks like a tank and a trailer to haul gear, or people in this case) the wind was a little brisk. Of course it was cold, but it was difficult to tell exactly how cold it was through the 6 layers of clothes we were wearing unless you had a piece of skin exposed, and then you knew full well that it was cold because your skin was probably burning because it had already frozen. I would have called that Condition 2. We hopped back into the vehicle and were whisked off to the next site where we would erect two tents. This time when we hopped out of the vehicle the wind was blowing so hard that if you let go of anything (gloves, tent, water bottle, etc.) you would be waving goodbye to it because it would be blown out towards the ice edge and into some poor seals home. We could still see the ice hut (heated, or so we thought) that was about 50 feet away; it was still Condition 2.

	A well situated camp in Condition 1. Hold on to your hats...

We erected the tents and finished our exercise while the wind was increasing steadily and it was becoming difficult to see the hut; it was still Condition 2. Once inside the hut, where we had high hopes of thawing out in front of the heater and listening to enlightening fireside talks from our knowledgeable Field Safety Training Instructors, we noticed that the hut had a very strong smell of soot, which could also be carbon monoxide. We determined that the wind was blowing so hard that it was blowing the exhaust from the heater back into the hut. To avoid asphyxiation from carbon monoxide poisoning, we decided to turn off the heater and keep the door propped open during our lecture about how to operate camp stoves.

	One of the instructors trying to light the stove, while Jim (possibly wondering who brought the marshmallows) holds open the door so everyone dosen't asphyxiate.

The wind was still increasing, we couldn't see the Hagglund anymore, the hut was quaking uncontrollably, and wind and snow were blowing wildly into our small shelter; it was now a full blown Condition 1. Back at McMurdo, we found out later that the rest of our team was now stuck in the Cafeteria while we were stuck in a small hut on the sea ice without heat. At least we had the good company of our veteran Happy Campers and a nourishing meal of frozen candy bars and sandwiches. If you tried to go outside (to use the outhouse for example that was only a few feet away) the wind was so strong that it was difficult to walk against it, the snow froze to your body instantly and it was very difficult to see. One thing I haven't mentioned yet is that once the sun goes away, from clouds or a blizzard, there are no shadows and you loose all depth perception. When this happens, it is very difficult to see irregularities in the snow such as mounds, trenches, holes, or chunks of ice and it makes walking very difficult.

Once our lectures were over we had decided that we would attempt to drive back to town via the heavily flagged route and the modern convenience of GPS.

It really was as cold as it looks...heaters are for sissies (or for vehicles that work).

Once we piled into the metal vehicle (with no heat, and mind you that metal conducts heat 50 times greater than air) we sat there...and sat there. We couldn't see out the iced up windows and we were all postulating why we weren't moving. Maybe they had unhitched the trailer that we were in and had left us on the ice? Then we saw somebody opening our door and they informed us that the Hagglund wouldn't go into gear. OK- back into the hut where it was warmer, despite the lack of a heater. Once the Hagglund was fixed we piled back into the vehicle and made the slow ride back to town with our drivers sticking their head out the frozen window so that they could see the next flag on the road.

We made it back safely to the lab to find that Stacy, Dan, and Jonna were allowed out of the cafeteria (I guess they ran out of food). We also found out that it was blowing 75 kts, and the temperature was -21degF with a wind chill of -64degF!

Just another day on The Ice. Until next time, stay warm up there, Jennifer :)!