Bundling Up!

Antarctica is one of the extremest environments on Earth. So it goes without saying that it takes extreme gear to survive here. Luckily, the NSF makes sure that every person deployed to the Ice has the proper gear. Most Antarctic voyagers deploy from the United States and are flown to Christchurch, New Zealand, where they await transport to one of the stations in Antarctica. While they are waiting, they are outfitted at the Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) with Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear. This gear includes all of the clothing we need to survive in the harsh, frigid environment. A sample of issued clothing can be seen below.

Appropriate clothing for the Antarctic consists of many layers.

Base layer: this layer is a soft, comfortable layer that does it’s best to keep you warm and dry. Generally, most people think of this as ‘thermal underwear.’ It is important that this base layer is not made of cotton because cotton tends to hold onto moisture, making you colder!

Insulating layer: this layer depends mostly on how cold the environment is. Generally, woolen sweaters, fleece, or thick shirts are appropriate insulating layers.

Outer shell: this layer protects you directly from the elements. Generally called a parka (see the red jacket to the far left in the image above). Depending on the environments, most outer layers are waterproof, but don’t necessarily have to be.

Hands and Feet: in extreme cold, your hands and feet feel very cold because of poor blood circulation and the fact that they have such large surface areas from which heat escapes. So, it’s very important to wear proper gear: wool or polyester socks work well, and layering gloves works very well as well.

Head: they say, ‘if your feet are cold, cover your head.’ You lose most of your heat through your head, so it’s very important to wear a hat to prevent unnecessary heat loss from your body.

So, what else do you bring for 4 weeks, living in a tent in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica? Well, although you are issued all of the necessary gear, most people also like to bring their own additional gear (this usually includes additional base layers and wool socks). I’m also bringing extra pairs of glasses and artic-grade prescription sunglasses to protect my eyes from intense UV exposure, as well as heavy duty sunscreen prescription (100+ SPF) to protect my skin from the UV exposure.

One thing that most people would not have guessed I’m bringing is baby-wipes! Four weeks in a tent, in the Antarctic, without a shower, and only 3 changes of clothes and no laundry, can be pretty dirty.....And because water is a scarce resource out in the Dry Valleys (melting ice is prohibited - in the effort to keep human impacts on the environment at a minimum), bathing is not really an option. In order to ‘shower,’ using baby-wipes is the next best option. I’ve never showered by ‘baby-wipe’ so this will be an interesting experience for me......we’ll see.....I’ll let you know how well it all works out!

And now, all that awaits are my deployment details......woohooo!!!!