Snowmobile Training, Rock Boxes, and More!

Hello All!

We were busy today! We started the day in the Mechanical Equipment Center (the MEC) where the lead snowmobile mechanic, Toby, took us through an impressive introduction to snowmobile operation and repairs. We learned how to prep the snowmobile for use after a night in the snow, how to start and maneuver the snowmobile, and how to diagnose and perform snowmobile repairs. After an indoor tour of the machine, we got to head out to the snowmobile obstacle course to practice what we learned.

Learning with Toby! His course was extremely informative and entertaining. We feel well prepared to nurse our four snowmobiles through 40 days of field work.

I'm sorry to report that I wear an XL helmet. 

Chris walking away from our awesome parking jobs once we had completed the obstacle course. I'm sorry I don't have more action shots. Navigating the slalom course would have been impossible with a camera in my hand.

One critical aspect of our cargo transport on the continent is Rock Boxes! These are littered around McMurdo. We will use them to transport our food out to our field site. As we empty the boxes, we'll refill them with rock samples! To prepare them for field use, rock boxes have to be fortified with metal bands and outfitted with rope handles. We spent the afternoon cutting rope, banding boxes and installing handles.

Michael operating the banding machine!

 

Seth installing our high-tech rock box handles.

 Once the rock boxes were assembled, we picked up our communications gear.  We received the following: 1 Iridium phone and solar charger, 4 VHF hand held radios (very high frequency; for short range use) and solar charger, and 1 HF radio (high frequency; we will use this for our daily 8:00 AM check in with McMurdo!). We finished up our afternoon by inventorying our mountaineering gear (too much to list now, but later!). Kat and Chris learned how we're going to prepare Air Force pallets for return to McMurdo.

Tomorrow morning we do our food pull! After breakfast, we're heading to the McMurdo Food Room to shop for 40 days worth of food. Our shopping list includes 48 pounds of cheese and 480 chocolate bars! I promise to document it thoroughly. More from us soon,

Claire