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Some 50 to 60 percent of our body weight is water, and water is important to maintaining the balance of chemical substances, such as sodium and potassium, in our blood and tissue fluids. Mild to moderate dehydration can cause headaches, poor concentration, constipation, and bad breath. Severe dehydration can produce muscle cramps, sunken eyes, and eventually cause your body to go into shock. Erik and Brian's advice - drink up! Drink frequently, drink copiously, and if you have to go to the bathroom, don't hold it. If you don't go, you will waste precious energy trying to keep your urine warm instead of the rest of you.

Factors Contributing to Frostbite · Exposed skin · Inadequate insulation · Wet clothing · Fatigue · Poor nutrition · Dehydration · Alcohol · Tobacco · Restricted circulation - for instance if your clothing is too tight · Contact with metal - it conducts heat away quickly

Signs of Hypothermia · Difficulty working with hands - for instance tying boot laces · Shivering · Stumbling · Withdrawn or grumpy attitude · Denial that having trouble

With new incentive, I filled my two water bottles and then boarded a Nodwell, the funny looking "bus" that was taking us to a camp on the ROSS ice shelf where the outside portion of our training would take place. This shelf is a sheet of ice that is hundreds of feet thick, has an area the size of France, and partially floats on the ocean.

Our bus

Inside the Nodwell Tim, Jen, Erik, Shelly and Shawn catch a ride to camp

 

Gearing Up As well as going through training (if you haven't done that during previous visits), the first team members down must take care of a lot of logistics. This includes locating, doing an inventory of, and inspecting all of the team's gear and scientific equipment, figuring out what equipment goes to which base camp, packing the equipment, and weighing those packages. Weights and the way items are packed are very important since all of our stuff will at some point be helicoptered out to the base camps. In addition, to gathering our gear, we have to do the all important food pull and decide what we'll be eating for the next few weeks before we do a resupply. And we get to wash hundreds of stream chemistry sample bottles. Thus far the Stream Team has well over 1500 pounds of gear and food to be shipped out. That figure does not include the equipment and belongings that team members arriving in December will be bringing out to the field. Organizing all this stuff can seem daunting at first, but we've had a lot of people help us along the way. (Thanks Kathy, Tim, Rae, Alejandro, Guy, Deb, Karla, Mike, Jina, Meghan, Peggy and others whom I haven't mentioned!)

 

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