Frolicking, Freezing, and Formations of Frivolous Frost

27th Oct 10'

My Grave

Well that was exciting! I have had harder classes, I have had more intuitive classes, and I have had more intense classes. But none as much all together as "Happy Camper". To begin, this is a 2 full day class with one overnight stay spent out on a floating glacier in the Ross Sea. We started out learning about hypothermia and frostbite and as well as how to treat certain symptoms, just like any typical day in boyscouts or outdoor class. Then we drove 30 minutes out to a glacier in the middle of the water. Here we were taught basic skills on staying warm, cooking food, melting water, constructing snow walls to shelter from the wind, and dig snow trenchs/caves/graves to protect from the elements. All the while it is below 0 degrees F. In fact that was the high for the past couple of days. Add a little wind and who knows? Its a fiesta! The instructors left us around 7pm to fend for ourselves and protect against jaguars. There were 20 of us so many hands make light work, but too many cooks... God cliches can be contradictory and used for any and all situations. Digressing once again, we built a 50 ft long wall out of blocks of extremely durable snow about 1'X1'X1.5'. Set up some tents and made dinner. Afterwards about 10 of us set out to dig snow trenches. I was the last to start and as people dug down, i meticulously carved perfectly etched rectangular blocks. Within an hour everyone else had shanties somewhat erected with bits of sleds and tents covering the sky and protruding from below. Acting as ghetto McGayver  roofs. I however being as brilliant, intuitive, and creative as I am constructed a 7' long 2' wide and 3' deep grave. Snow blocks fit like a lid on my trench, and gave me just enough room for my Tolkien liking to comfort. I filled in little seams with snow to prevent too much ventilation but left my entire face open to breathe. I took my wet socks off, crawled in, covered my eyes, and woke up 8 hours later extremely warm in my bag. I awoke to scratching feet clawing at the insides of my tympanic membrane. Some people however did not have as comfortable of a night as I and due to that fact had chose to wake me up instead of resting. I took my head out from the sleeping bag and as wrapped up like a deuce as I could be, was blinded by the light. Damn sun was lighting up the entire night. We take down camp and return to the instructors to receive more training in the snowy arts. Practiced/failed some rescue scenarios and set up hamm radios to communitcate with McMurdo and the South pole which was quite interesting to learn how to use an instrument from the Korean war. With about as much sophistication involved. We asked for the weather report from the South Pole and they said it was a balmy -38 degrees F. We then got last nights weather report of our glacier and the temp dropped to a low of 23 degrees below zero that "Night"! And my tomb led me to overheating due to expertise in the construction of insulating containers. Suck on that Trebek! Came back to my empty dorm room expecting it to be overcrowded and am now going to take a nap. Here is where we were.
For my mother...When you see a highlighted word or series of words also known as or AKA a sentence, click it and it will take you somewhere like here. or Here.

Working effectively

Working efficiently

Working epiphytically

The holiday inn...took much longer to build

Here will lie me. Dug his grave only to sleep in his grave.

Is this Wyoming or is it always windy?

Stupid tents

Stupid wall

Stupid dinner and stupider scott tents

I hate setting 7 of these up only to sleep in a trench

Some glacier action off in the distance if it wasn't so foggy.

bum bum bu bum bu bu bum bu bum bu bum...the grave music thing

Its so like perfect size for me and stuff!

frozen face

Good"night" This is about as dark as it gets...and this is super foggy...wait till the sun comes out.

This is the Holiday inn. Notice the light at 11 at night...

And I come back to a fire truck in front of my dorm...