How to Pack for Antarctica.
Scientifically and Personally.
I’ve been asked multiple times “How does one even pack for Antarctica?!” First and foremost you will have to make
sure you look inside your luggage and remove the handful of stowaway friends,
family and colleagues hiding in the depths claiming their skills as
photographers, porters, and helpers eager to accompany on the journey to Antarctica. In my case I had to also think about how to
pack for 1. living on a ship, 2. backpacking/camping around New Zealand and 3. Looking pretty.
Because scientists are overly concerned about their flare and looking good ;-P In
all honesty, packing for this trip has probably been one of the most
challenging and stressful tasks I’ve ever accomplished. It has been the heaviest
packing I’ve ever done for an international get-a-way.
These are the items I packed: scientific supplies (cardboard
box in upper right), science binder, pleasure reading books, (should have
bought a kindle!), wordsearch, Hiking boots, sandals, running shoes, sparkle
shoes, night-life clothes, summer dresses, outdoor clothes, workout clothes,
warm/rain clothes, Cards Against Humanity, sunscreen, backpacking/camping gear,
St. Patrick’s day socks, sparkly shoelaces and a banana costume. For a detailed
list, you can email me.
They seem to have packed similar items: nothing sparkly, but
they did pack musical instruments, board games, cards, etc. We have musical
instruments on board The Palmer.
SCIENTIFICALLY
The ship is designed to be a research vessel. This means it
has counter space, sinks, gas lines, refrigerators and freezers. This does not
mean that it is set up and ready to go. It starts off as a skeleton lab space
with no supplies or equipment in it. It is up to us to fill it to our liking. Unlike
some cruises, we were fortunate enough to be given lists of items that were
available to use (that we did not have to buy and ship down on our own dime):
compressed gases, ice and cryogens, analytical instruments and equipment,
stocked chemicals, and other basic supplied materials, etc. The USAP provides
these items for us through NSF (are you remembering all your acronyms from my
earlier blogs?!). I requested these items through a website called POLAR ICE: The Participant On-Line
Antarctic Resource Information Coordination Environment
http://www.usap.gov/scienceSupport/POLARICE/ This is the web-based software application
used to assist in deployment preparation, and coordinate and facilitate support
for Antarctic research missions.
This was such a huge help because I had to rack my brain for
every possible lab item I think I might use and could possibly need over the
course of 53 days on the ship. How many Ziplock bags? How many bottles? How
many pipette tips? Do I take the exact amount or do I bring a whole extra box
in case they spill? I sat at my desk envisioning what I use on a daily basis in
the lab at Seattle.
In order to know what types of materials I would need, I needed to know exactly
what I would actually be doing aboard. I
went through the very detailed descriptions Monica and I wrote up of the experiments
I’ll be conducting to envision all the other items I would need. I had to think
of all the possible chemicals I would need, the jars I would need to mix them
up in. The stir bar, the mixing boats, the scale, the scoopula (it’s a scoop
and a spatula in one!) EVERYTHING! Are you feeling exhausted yet? I was too.
Ok, awesome. These will all appear on the Palmer when I
arrive in McMurdo. I have a rough idea of what I need, but not everything I
need is listed on the POLAR ICE web-site! Items that were not provided by the
USAP were our responsibility to mail to the ship (which was located in California at the time)
no later than October 2012.
I spent a couple weeks ordering supplies and gathering
anything I thought we may need. These
items were shipped to Port Hueneme in California
and loaded on to the ship. I originally packed all of these items in cardboard
boxes. Fed Ex sends me packages in cardboard all the time, so I didn’t think
there would be an issue! What was the problem?! The problem was, THESE cargo
items were going to spend the next couple of months living in temperature and
weather extremes, exposed to the elements where cardboard would liquefy in no
time! I had to pack all of my gear in sturdy plastic boxes with straps holding
everything together. [I’m sorry I don’t have a photo!]
We still had 2 months until the cruise so any items I
realized I had forgotten I needed to pack with me and check-in on my flights
from Seattle to Christchurch. Talk about NOT packing light.
Not to mention I had booked some vacation time to backpack/camp around which
was a whole different set of personal items. There was the “cruise” bag and the
“camping” bag. I have always traveled as light as I possibly could and having
to keep track of THREE different bags each weighing 35lbs, plus a fancy digital
SLR and a laptop loaned to me by my institute (Institute for Systems Biology)
was frazzling.
PERSONALLY
Over the holidays I received buckets of hand and foot
warmers, glowing light sticks, guides to Antarctica, chocolate bars, warm
socks, a compass watch (sadly its set to the northern hemisphere’s magnetic
pole and won’t work in the southern hemisphere), as well as signaling mirror
that can shine up to 30 miles away! I
think my family and friends were under the impression that I’d be lost cold and
naked and alone in the middle of the continent. What they didn’t realize is
that the Nathaniel B Palmer has a
workout room, sauna, library, a millionaire’s-worthy theater room with a vast
collection of DVDs and popcorn, and an espresso machine (we have Italians on
board who NEED their cappuccinos!) Such a comfy life it seems, that talk of the
“Palmer Pounds” may not be just rumor. Palmer Pounds is the weight you will
gain while on the ship. This brings back the nostalgia of the college “Freshman
Fifteen” (which I never experienced, thankfully). Nearly everyone is already
talking about their fitness goals and frequency of gym use they plan to do
while on ship. Some of us girls want to be able to do at least 1 pull-up by the
end of the cruise (shoot high!). I want to do at least 30 pushups in a row, and
as a newly founded marathon runner I have clear visions of maintaining my
marathon mileage baseline…with only a treadmill? We’ll see how long I last. This
could be tricky if the treadmill craps out after 3 miles and I’m battling the
rocking motion of the ship.
I hadn’t even thought of what type of creature comforts to
pack. I figured, what is the big deal going without something for 2 months?! I
knew I couldn’t go without chocolate so I packed a lot of Theo chocolate bars
(and ate nearly half of my rations before actually flying out of Seattle). I packed books
(I SO wish I had a Kindle or a Nook because some of my literature is thick and
heavy!) There was talk amongst fellow colleagues about what they packed and I’ve
heard their necessary items they couldn’t live without consist of hangers
(don’t want wrinkly clothes!), a head tingling massager (its only $3.50 and
feels sooo tingly on the scalp!), a onsie, fuzzy bunny slippers, a pillow,
sheets and pictures framed of mom, dad and the family dog.
The “necessary items” that I packed were The Ultimate Guide
to being a Ninja, Valentines Day & St Patties Day Green Themed clothes,
action figures, sparkly shoelaces, hipster sunglasses and a banana costume (why
the heck would I need that, you ask? Stay tuned to find out why in a future
post….) For next time, I’d pack a
camelback to stay hydrated. You do a lot of running back and forth and up and
down the stairs and you have to make a concerted effort to leave the lab to go
get a drink of water.
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