We started out in a classroom to learn some key components before heading out to our camp site. Things like the survival bag, risks and important points to remember. Then we jumped in a Delta and left for the evening.
The camp site is on the south side of Ross Island, past Scott base in a really snowy area right by Mt. Erebus. You can also see Mt. Terror as well. Tidbit of trivia, the two mountains were named for the first two ships to sail down here. This is Mt. Erebus, it was smoking pretty good Monday. Mt. Terror would be to the right of it, but I couldn't fit in the picture. The little building was our outhouse. (Dad I know how to make the most kick ass outhouse and solved the cold seat issue during ice fishing. I will tell you all about when I get home. No more cold butts from peeing!)
This first thing we learned was how to light our camp stoves and then set up a Scott tent. Here is what a Scott tent looks like folded up.
And then set up. It has four poles to make a square tent with a circle opening that feels like coming out of the womb everytime you get in and out. It is staked it down using dead man's posts and fancy knots.
After setting up the Scott tents, we moved on to making a quinsey. It is a shelter made out of snow that you can sleep in. First, we piled all our sleeping gear up.
Then you cover it in snow and pack it down nice and tight.
After enough snow was piled up and packed down, we left it settle and harden. While waiting, we built a snow wall to protect the mountain tents we were going to set up. This involved quarrying blocks of snow and carrying them to the wall site. Due to my perfectionism, I was one of the builders. I'm really good at piling and packing snow. I owe all that to the many snow forts we made as kids. Here is the completed wall.
This whole time we have been setting up, a storm was moving in on us. We were watching landmarks disappear in snow all afternoon and by this time, it was falling all around us. All you could see was white and more white. Luckily, the winds stayed down for the most part and it wasn't a hard snow. After this all my pictures become a lot of white so you will see what I saw all night.After finishing the snow wall, we set up the mountain tents.
Then moved back to the quinsey to help dig out all the packs we buried in snow. Its that mound of snow you can hardly see.
A couple guys dug an entrance.
Here is the completed project. This is the door and the quinsey is the mound you can't see. It was pretty neat inside. Like a snow cave.
Here is a picture of our camp after all the tents where up, quinsey finished and we could start to boil water for dinner. 
Dinner was a dehydrated meal that you pour boiling water into and let sit for 15 minutes. It wasn't too bad, not great but edible. Besides I was so hungry, I would have eaten my arm if you said I had to. It took forever to melt snow and boil the water so we had dinner around 8:30 pm.
We cooked inside the Scott tent which is where I ended up sleeping. They gave us some really nice fleece liners and sleeping bags. Leslie and Mahesh gave me all sort of hints to stay warm and I took them all. I changed clothes, laid out my wool blanket from my bed, put my boots in my sleeping bag, had a hot water bottle and buried myself in all the fleece and sleeping bag. I was one of the only ones to stay warm all night. I was even told that I snored all night long. :) It was cold but I stayed warm. Here was our tent in the morning.
The next morning we boiled more water for hot drinks and oatmeal and then tore down the camp. A couple guys stayed in the quinsey and two even decided that they wanted to build and sleep in trenches.
Everyone was calling them the graves because it looked like an under ground tomb. But I guess they slept pretty well and were able to stay warm. After tearing down the camp, we learned how to use HF radios and tried to call the South Pole but nobody answered us. I guess they don't monitor the radios until summer season. The last activity on the list was a survival game. We simulated a white out by putting buckets on our heads.
We were given a rope and told to go find the person who was stranded in the white out on her way to another building. Trying to work together as a team with buckets on is hard. We split into two groups and I was able to watch the first group go. It was funny.
They ended up not finding the person in the snow but our group sort of did. After watching the first group we thought we had a plan. She ended up having to scoot in front of us because we passed right over her with our rope.
Then it was time to head back. I was so tired and sore that all I did was shower and take a nap. I went to dinner with Leslie and we tried to watch a movie but I was too tired so we went to bed early. This morning I woke up with a little bit of the crud (a cold). So now I'm not only sore and tired, but have a nose that wont stop dripping and a sore throat. I did have a blast though. It was the craziest thing I have ever done but it really was a lot of fun. Just had to get past the fact that it was really cold and all was good. I guess we lucked out on weather too, the snow helped keep it warmer and the winds really didn't get bad until the morning. What a crazy experience!
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