25 November, 2002
Preparing for our Shakedown
Almost everyone who comes to Antarctica is given a bit
of survival training after arriving on "The Ice." For
ANSMET team members, we must do a bit more. This
includes a complete shakedown overnight trip that will
take us on snowmobile about 12 miles from here.
However there is a great deal of preparation that goes
into this.
John Schutt and Jamie Pierce are our mountaineering
guides and safety experts for our expedition. This
truly is an expedition, much like the ones held in the
early part of the 20th Century. Despite our
technology and knowledge, the same dangers are here as
existed 100 years ago. Jamie and John made that very
clear to all of us yesterday through a serious lecture
on what can happen to us in the field. There are many
hazards to the work we'll be doing, and as long as
we're smart and prepared, the risk should be lessened.
However, as John and Jamie showed us, a little first
hand experience goes a long way.
Jamie needed to demonstrate methods for performing CPR
and the Heimlich manuver if someone was choking. He
used me as the model for this. I trust Jamie in that
he is confident and experienced. But at one point Dan
Glavin came over to get a feel for where to press when
doing CPR, and Dean Eppler nearly had a heart attack
himself. He was worried Dan would start CPR on me,
which can be deadly to a healthy subject. Luckily,
Dan knew this too.
The afternoon was spent learning some rope techniques
that could save us if any of us should fall into a
crevasse. We learned how to put ourselves on a rope
securely, and how to climb a rope if necessary.
Afterwards, we learned about setting up a pulley
system to rescue a victim. I pointed out that we
learn about and calculate the mechanical advantages of
pulleys in 9th grade Intro to Physical Science at
DCHS. This brought a good laugh in that here was a
room of scientists and experienced mountaineers trying
to figure out something that we do in 9th grade.
We got a little break from our preparation this
morning when Cady Coleman arranged for us to speak to
the astronauts on the Space Station. Each of us got
to introduce ourselves over the phone and say a few
words. I mentioned that one of my astronomy
assignments is to visit:
http://www.heavens-above.com
and to find out when the space station is passing
over. I asked that they wave to my students at DCHS
next time they pass over Colorado and they said they
would be happy to. We all got a huge rush out of
getting to talk to people orbiting above, as did
several others who just happened to be passing by.
One gentelman approached Cady at dinner and thanked
her for the opportunity to be a part of our call to
the astronauts. Once again, much like last month when
I visited Mission Control, I felt like I was 10 years
old again creating imaginary NASA missions with my
toys.
It's so hard to put everything we do into words,
because there has been so much. We're all exhausted
this evening after a day of preparing our meals for
the expedition, and hauling all our equipment to the
ice edge to be loaded in the morning for our
shakedown. I will be up bright and early (~5:00AM)
for my first webcast. I'm already looking forward to
some down time this Thanksgiving weekend.
![](../Images/caldwell/caldwell_Hangin_around1.jpg)
Hanging around doing rope training.
![](../Images/caldwell/caldwell_Hangin_around3.jpg)
Still hangin' around...
![](../Images/caldwell/caldwell_Dscn1044.jpg)
Phone call by Cady to the Space Station (photo by Daniel Glavin).
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