First full day here..

Team,
I'll keep it short today, as I've posted those photos from yesterday, and well, yesterdays post was pretty bloody long. If you managed to get through all of it, congrats!

It's been a reasonably quiet day today- kinda getting settled in, and doing miscellaneous stuff.. Started with a field safety briefing (well, after breakfast)- which went through a lot of stuff about how to keep safe down here. Included the usual- frostbite/hypothermia/dehydration stuff- the three big risks down here really. The thing that stuck in my mind most was seeing photos of frostbite again- nasty. Going to make sure I stay away from that stuff!! They also showed us a couple of short movies about staying safe round helo's, and our responsibilities in the Dry Valley's, as they're a specially managed area. Basically it's around taking nothing but photos, and leaving as little footprint as u can. I'm not sure if they mean that we've gotta walk on our tiptoes or not... ha ha ha... Tough crowd.

Anyway, then Glen and I went and got our gear that we leave here over winter out of storage. This was the first time I'd really been out in my full gears. There was still about -16°C with a 20 knot wind, so the breeze was definately noticable on exposed skin. But out of the wind it wasn't really that cold at all. That said, I'm still getting used to the layering system, and how much you need to wear for what task and in what combination. One of the problems down here is that you've got to minimise sweating as it freezes and makes you a lot colder. So you need to wear enough clothes to keep you warm (esp when standing still and in the wind), but you don't want to overdo it, or you'll sweat too much.. It's going to take a bit of getting used to, especially seeing as I get overheated walking to work in Wellington!
I think that beign down here really makes you more aware of the conditions, probably to the point of being very overcautious (you don't want to be the guy that gets sent home cos of frostbite). For instance, out in the wind today, it didn't feel that bad, and often when tramping or whatever I've probably encountered worse conditions, but you just don't want to take the chance..

Then we just sorted out some of our GPS gear- making sure its ready to go. And my bag arrived, so I had a play with the photos and stuff before dinner. I've also been experimenting with some time-lapse video out the windows, so we'll see how that goes..

Anyway, now I'm off to read a book in the lounge and look out at the brilliant landscape!
I didn't manage to take any photos today, so I'll try and get some around Scott Base tomorrow..