Field training - 17 Feb 2006

With the melt almost over we can finally venture further a field on the quads. We have had some cold days and this has hardened up the ground and the tracks, making travel possible.
Our in the field we do more GPOS work, more compass and map work and general navigation skills. It can’t be emphasized enough how important navigation skills are down here. It is almost impossible to know where you as the terrain all looks the same. Our maps are well defined, but let’s face it; one brown topographic hill on a map in Antarctica looks the same as all the others do. So we need to learn how to look at the map and look at our surrounds and be able to pinpoint our location. A whole lot easier said than done I do have to say! But I am actually not too bad at this skill and enjoy the traverse on the quads which takes us deep into the Mitchell peninsular.
Lunch sees us up by a melt lake and then we head off to some ice cliffs.
Here we learnt the art of step cutting our way to the top of an ice cliff, quad recovery with pulley system and Ice anchors and then the all important self arrest with an Ice Axe if you should ever find yourself falling or sliding down an ice cliff at a great rate of knots. Personally I hope I never have to put this skill to use because it is bloody scary and it hurts like hell!
On the Up side of things, once you have done it a few times it can be rather fun and I did end up throwing myself down the ice cliff quite a few times, jut to perfect the technique. It is a bit of fun, but it really does still hurt like hell. I end up covered in deep black and purple bruises on arms, knees and one hip for about a week afterwards.