Moving on, me and Julie wandered on to Silver City. It’s just a tiny hut with a stove and some real beds just in case the weather gets too bad on the Castle Rock Trail and you need a place to bail. And play cards. And eat snacks.

Never did find the front door, though.

Then we headed back to Snow Mound and the group gathered around the boiling snow and filled water bottles to take to bed. Killa (NCHB1) made a card table out of snow bricks.

And just before we turned in, there was a mirage on the southeastern horizon. Because the reflection is on ice and snow, it reflects an image upside down… it’s a phenomenon here called 'fata morgana.' In the kinda middle of the pic, there is a strip of haze and some faint rocks with the tops cut off. That is phantom organa, reflecting the mountain upside down. They’re not really there. Freaking cool. It happens all the time on clear days and really warps the landscape to trick you into tripping. This picture was taken after midnight. It looks like the moon.

Good night.

I retreated back to my quinzee. With sandwich.

Did not sleep well. At all. Quinzees are not heated. They are ice caves. Even with all my ECW, huge sleeping bag, 2 thermalites, parka, and wool blanket, my feet still froze. But hey. I slept in an ice cave. Kind of. I also slept through all the survival courses the next morning.

Woken up at 7.

Woken up again at 7:45.

Out of the sleeping bag at 8- something.

Susan came to fetch us at 9.

Jesse the Coastie (Coast Guard) made brekkie.

Broke down the Scott tent and cleaned up camp. Schlepped the camp stuff back to the Connex box on sleds. Erebus emitted the most amazing volcanic puff I have ever seen. I stretched nearly 180 degrees across the sky and around the horizon.

(the little black trapezoid on the right is the pooper with the most breathtaking view)

Packed the Haag:

Then we walked .5 mile back to the I-hut for training on High Frequency radio. Very fascinated, nearly passed out from lack of sleep and warmth. We called the South Pole on the HF with antennas about 60 feet across. It was cool.

Susan gave us situations to put our training to use. Cruel, Susan. We all had no energy at this point. My ass was kicked.

Situation one:

Condition One storm about to hit….. Must build snowall with 15 bricks, put up mountain tent, call South Pole on the HF radio, and boil 1 liter of snow and complete all tasks within 20 minutes here are your shovels go.

We finished in 16.

Situation two:

Condition one storm is in full effect, everyone is safe in the hut, but one member of the group is missing. Last time someone saw her, she was heading to the outhouse. You have a lot of rope and 30 minutes to find her before she dies.

To simulate a whiteout, we put big white buckets on our heads, so all we saw was white and our hearing was impaired. Pretty accurate, actually. We tied ourselves to the rope spaced out every 3-4 feet, kept one person at home base, and wound around the hut both ways, combing the immediate area. It was morbid fun.

We found her in less than 15 minutes.

Then we headed back to FSTP to watch a helicopter safety video and a three minute talk on the Dry Valleys.

Happy Camper school was one of the funnest things I’ve done since I’ve been here. I wouldn’t have thought I would’ve gotten on so well with 8 dudes from the Navy and Coast Guard, but I really couldn’t have asked for a better group.

Meet Killa, Toad, Alex, Erik, Elaine, Joe, Chad, Julie, Nick, Jesse, and me, sandwich with the silly elephant-and-giraffe blue thing on my head.

Thanks, guys. And special thanks to Mt Erebus for looking so pretty.

Love, sandwich.

Sandwichgirl.com