| Antarctica - Nuggies On Ice |
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| Preparing For The Ice - Pre-Season Training |
| Following 2 or 3 weeks of medical, dental and psychological assessments to determine fitness for wintering over at 78 degrees south, Scott Base staff gather at Antarctica New Zealand's headquarters in Christchurch for pre-season training. For the engineering staff there are training modules specific to their occupation on the Ice - such as use of heavy machinery and driver skid training. Then, for the two weeks before deployment to the Ice, all base staff have their final briefing and training sessions. The second week is spent doing Fire Crew Training. This is a fairly strenuous week of intense training on how to be firemen. Although there is a fire station at McMurdo Station, there is still a need for fire fighting staff to be at Scott Base. The base support staff therefore double as the Scott Base fire crew - sometimes known as the Pram Point Fire Brigade. For more details on what we do during that week, check out this link to the fire training page. Meantime, during the first of these two weeks, there are a lot of training workshops that are especially useful for first-timers to the Ice. Some of it is perhaps old-hat to those who are returning for another term of duty. This year, as normal, there will some staff who have wintered before returning to Scott Base. It is always good to have somebody else with you who has done it before. In this way, those who are new get a balanced view point of what it is really like to spend a year on Ice. |
| The first week of pre-season training is taken up with learning about Antarctica New Zealand systems and policies, lectures on what to expect from our time in Antarctica and how what happens will affect people differently. As well as the workshops on subjects such as; "how the isolation could affect you" and "cold climate injuries"; there are also training workshops on the survival equipment that is to be encountered. This is probably the first that those going to Scott Base get of what they will be using when working in the field. There are training sessions on how to put up tents, start Primus stoves and how to use radio communications equipment. |
| Sometime during this first week we are all kitted out with the clothing that we will be required to use at various times during our year on ice. This ranges from windproof clothing to emergency cold weather clothing (ECWs). Antarctica New Zealand provides excellent cold weather clothing and it is only under extreme and prolonged cold conditions that you should ever feel cold while wearing it. Clothing is built up in layers; thermal underwear, followed by a fleece layer and then the ECW layer should keep you comfortable in temperatures down to -50 degrees Celsius. For your feet are woollen socks, quilted boot liners and boots called "mukluks" (insulated and with a very thick rubber sole). On your hands go a range of wool, fleece and padded gloves and/or mittens. |
| To cap the whole ensemble of, (so to speak), is a range of balaclavas, neck gaiters, headbands and finally a possum fur lined cap (in deerstalker style). You are now a picture of sartorial elegance and are ready for the wilds of Antarctica. |
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