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Jeff, Ed, Tom and Dale - Adventures in Snow School

Overview
TopHat in Antarctica
Links
Please click on each image to see a larger view!

These images were taken by Ed Cheng during survival (Snow School) training.

Lecture

Listening intently to the theory...

No Hotel

*Where* are we staying tonight !!?!?

Hitch a ride please

Trying to hitch a ride back home, but the road is too far away.

New Zealand's Scott Base

New Zealand's Scott Base is also quite far in the distance.

Pile of gear

OK ... make a snow mound ... first pile up all the gear ...

Tarp time

Then cover with a tarp ...

Dale loves shoveling snow Everyone hard at work Almost finished guys

Now shovel snow on top like crazy and pound it hard. Notice that Dale needs supervision by the graduate students.

We just covered it with snow Now you want a hole I don't want to go in
I think I found something Bags of stuff That was it

The main entrance is downwind. It goes down and then up in order to stop the wind. The upwind hole is used only to remove the gear and tarp, and is sealed up again.

A piece of the wall came down

The master of the castle.

I think I can make it move with my mind

Notice Dale lacks motivation without supervision.

Tent village

Here we have built a snow wall by cutting "bricks" of snow. The walled city is well protected from the wind and houses two small mountaineering tents. It is also a fine place to have dinner and socialize.

It is a bird

Dinner attracts an uninvited guest. This one is big enough for dinner!

First animal that was seen He does not seem to want to go away

Too bad there are Antarctic wildlife conservation laws.

Ya, chow time

Resting after a hard day's work.

Hurry and take the picture

EC retires early in the luxury suite.

Morning after

The morning view from our site is out of this world!

Did you get that

Dale making the morning head count and radio check.

Potty time

Going to the potty ... (it's the small structure in the center)

Checking the walls It stayed up over night

Checking out of the walled city in the morning.

Is class over now

The TopHat crew in the class.

Box of stuff

We finally found one of our "stakeholders". According to NASA policy, we ask what it wants.

Time to get back to town
Sadly, it is time to go.
They came for us

Piling up the luggage at the bus stop.

Deseted snow town
The deserted city. Note Mount Erebus in the background coming out of the clouds.
Checking for people that want to stay

Last check for stragglers.

By for now, others are on their way

Our snow city joins those from earlier campers, and will slowly be returned into the Antarctic landscape.

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