This one time on survival camp......

Morning aurora. Photo: Stu Shaw

In order to be able to travel around in the field in an Anatrctic winter, we all go through survival training. This would normally be completed as a part of a group, but with my last minute deployment I missed all of the training sessions that were undertaken in the summer.
Our Comms Tech Officer (CTO) Stu was appointed a delegated field traing officer position, and embarked upon the task of getting me field trained.
Aside from vehicle travel, navigation, snow and ice travel, gear familiarisation and other things, one of my tasks was to bivvy out overnight.
We chose a still night earlier this week, which coincidentally turned out to be stunningly clear, and hence cold!
We headed out to the camp site to the south of Station and went through setting up our different styles of tent, and I set up my bivvy site.
Everywhere we go here outside of the immediate Station area, we are required to carry a survival pack. It contains sufficient gear to enable us to go to ground should there be an incident or unexpected deterioration of weather. The objective of my sleep out was to spend the night in my survival bivvy, become familiar with this equipment should I ever need it, and well, basically survive.

The night unfolded a little like this....
1600hrs: Arrive at site. Erect the polar pyramid (our traverse camping tent), and a polar dome ( an impressively designed dome tent) - which Stu will sleep in.

Polar pyramid and the blue hagg. Photo: Jacque Comery

1700hrs: I started  to set up my bivvy site after choosing what i considered to be a sheltered place in the lee of a small rise and some rocks I dug myself a 'grave'. and used the blocks of snow to build a well engineered (of course) wall around the trench site for extra shelter.  The bivvy bag, or chip packet, as it is known, is a big non-breathable water proof bag, with a foam camping mat and a sleeping bag inside. It is wide enough to also hold a backpack and our boots.

Setting up my bivvy site in daylight . Photo: Jacque Comery

1800hrs: Collected snow to boil water. Demonstrated my stove lighting skills, waited for water to boil, and what seemed like 7 hours later made myself a delicious dinner of Katmandu lentil curry.  Temp around minus 10C. So far so good. I am already a little chilly out, so I stuck my packet of dinner down my jacket to 'cook'.

2000hrs: Skills and training talk completed, I tagged along with Stu as he took some photos of the rising moon.  But frankly I am getting cold, so I called it a night and am taking shelter in my bivvy bag.
I am wearing the following - thermal pants, fleece pants, two pairs of socks, thermal top, merino fleece top, synthetic down jacket, down jacets, wool gloves, mittes neck gaiter and a beanie, all packaged inside a down sleeping bag. I deceided to sleep on top of my Canada Goose jacket for extra insulation from the snow.

2030hrs: My body atop my Goose jacket is warm. My legs and feet are freezing.

2130hrs: Damnit! Can't fall asleep, shouldn't have had that Mars Bar for dessert. My feet are still cold. I think about putting my survival mittens on my feet, but can't be bothered digging them out of my pack. I just wiggle my feet instead.

0130hrs: Checked my watch as I thought I still hadn't fallen asleep.. but apparently I was asleep! Joy!  Hang on.. my watch is still set to Hobart time... 3 hours fast! Urghh! It is only 2230hrs.  Maybe I wasn't asleep afterall.

0000hrs: OK fixed my watch to avoid confusion. Not really sleeping. Kind of bored. Deceide to go for a pee for something to do. There are so many stars it is beautiful. I quickly got back into my bivvy again, and made the decision to sleep with my pee bottle on my feet as at least it was warm!

0200hrs: Warming up now. Pee bottle success. Deceide to kill time by taking selfies inside the bivvy! The flash is a bit bright. Watched old videos off my camera for the next half an hour for entertainment. Hoping Stu can't hear the elephant seal sounds through the still night air.

2am bivvy selfie. Photo: Jacque Comery

0230hrs: Snuggle back down and try and fall asleep thinking about special people whom I am missing, adventure ideas for November, and the sound of surf on rocks on Macquarie Island... my 'go to' relaxation sound. Temp now is minus 14C.

0430hrs: Hmm. Woke up again, but I am actually very cosy! Only a few hours to go. I think I am running out of fresh air.... I make a hole in my sleeping bag to breath out of but it is cold on my lips. My throat is sore from the dry air and I am so thirsty. I was sleeping with my drink bottle so that it didn't freeze. Successfuly, I did not confuse the drink bottle with the pee bottle. That there alone is a good enough reason to sleep with a head torch on my head. I also now have the giggles thinking about how hilarious this must all look.  Perhaps this isn't so bad afterall. At the very least my sense of humour will survive survial camp!

0600hrs: Stu wakes my up. "Jac wake up. Did you survive?". I flail around try to get my face out of my bivvy (My sleeping bag is my fully done up over my head, as is my bivvy bag, and i am still wearing mittens!), and when i do emerge, I see Stu looking down at my, but above him an aurora stretching right across the sky.  "Stu! Look up!! " I squealed.

Stu spent the next half an hour taking photo and I laid snuggled up in my finally warm downy grave hole, watching the ribbons of colour dance and pulse overhead.
The easterly horizon started to glow, so we packed up our camp, and headed back to Station for breakky and a coffee.

Aurora over the polar pyramid. Photo: Stu Shaw

The lowest temp of the night was minus 15.8C.  Fun experience. I did indeed survive. The take home message - good planning and safe travel is key. Spending a night in one of these things  in an incident situation would not be the highlight of my season. Mittens do fit on yor feet, and the orange jar is the pee bottle.
A big thanks to Stu for camping out  with me, and taking some great photos!
If you made it to the end of this story....thanks for sharing survival camp with me!!!!