Gearing Up for Christmas

Merry Christmas. It's Christmas day here on the Ice and we are getting ready for our time in the borehole tonight. We have an all-night seismic shoot all ready to go. It has taken two weeks to survey the line, drill and load shot holes, lay the seismic spread and get all the equipment ready and it is time to shoot.

Christmas Eve was our big dinner (45 in Camp). No turkey but we did have ham and a nice prime rib with all the fixings. No freshies but lots of nice deserts. And some wine, maybe a bottle or four of Glen'. I played Santa (again). Two years ago I swore I would never do it again but it was a really nice evening and everyone behaved themselves. We have a White Elephant gift exchange and it is always a good time. The complex make-up of Camp changes from year to year depending on who is here. It would be quite the social dynamics study

So I slept in till 11, had lunch, and it is time to gear up. There is something energizing, almost cathartic in the process of getting ready to spend time outside here in Antarctica. If I am going to spent time on the snowmobile, like tonight, it involves getting hot drinks ready in a thermos (for me it's two packs of cocoa into coffee, others prefer tea), making sure you have a radio with a charged battery plus a spare, GPS, extra gloves, dry socks and neck gators (they get wet and frozen from your breath and need to be swapped out). I also have the tools I need to shoot the explosives off, a copy of the shooting plan and my yellow notebook.

Then the dressing begins. Dry socks (trying hard to keep the sock you just took off separate from the sock you are about to put on; sounds simple, but…); wind pants over two layers; then dry boots (I keep two pair and rotate); four layers on top plus Big Red (the Canada Goose issue jacket); neck gator or two; two hats and a light hood; and goggles (I can't drive with sunglasses. They don't offer enough protection from the wind.)

Should be a good night. The winds are up a bit for shooting seismic (10 knots) but the sun is shining so I will be able to see the bumps in the snow when I drive. It should be about zero F or below. I think we are ready.