Happy Camper School, with a special surprise.
Hello All.
Today's post was to be all about my time at Happy Camper School, the nice weather we have been experiencing, and the fact that Mainbody starts next week. Well today's topic has changed.
On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week myself and 10 other newbies attended Happy Camper School. It is a school on how to survive outdoors in Antarctica with the survival gear provided in any vehicle that you can take out of town. So kind of like camping in Yosemite just 100 degrees colder.
Here is a photo of our camp. The tent is a Scott tent and in the front you can see the snow wall that we made to protect our mountaineering tents. Please take note of the vehicle that you see. It is a Nodwell, and it will be the focus of our story very soon.
So we had survived the night outdoors without any major incident and we packed up came to head back to MacTown. On our trip back in the Nodwell we had 2 instructors and 2 stundents riding in the cab of the vehicle and 9 of us riding in the passenger box in the rear. We were headed up the long hill from Scott Base which is allot like Warner Hill road above the RR tracks (if you are not from South Wales, imagine a very long gradual climb) when at the top of the hill we had a problem. The driver was just starting to make the turn at the top of the hill when the vehicle stopped and then we started to back up. Us in the back thought this was odd, but we didn't see a problem with it yet. After a few seconds, I looked out the window and saw us rolling backwards across the shoulder of the road and not stopping. Well after that things only got much worse. We suddenly dropped off of a 20 foot embankment, followed by another, and another, and another. Each one seemed to get larger time and time again. After what seemed like an eternity we came to a very sudden stop. All nine of us were piled up in the back of the Nodwell and beat up pretty good.
After about 1/10th of a second we started to check to see if everyone was alright and we quickly determined that two people couldn't move themselves. So someone opened the rear door to get out of the Nodwell, and as soon as they did we realized our next major problem. We were on the edge of another 75 foot cliff. So we couldn't get out the door. So someone found the roof hatch and jumped onto the roof. Each time someone moved the vehicle rocked back and forth, this was not reassuring at all. We were very certain that we didn't want to take another drop. The first round was more than enough, and this one we could see how high it was. So, everyone got out but myself and the two injured people. That took about 45 seconds and then one of the instructors got onto the tracks to get in (he is a Physicians Assistant back in the states), I had him knock out a window to make an access hole to get the injured people out. He got the first person out while I checked out the second. We quickly make a splint out of some tent stakes that we had and then we got the second person out. The entire time we were worried about how stable the vehicle was. As we got the second person onto the roof of the cab, the Fire Department arrived and help get him off of the cab and prepared to go to the hospital. The rest of us were taken to the firehouse to warm up and be checked out.
So we later found out that we dropped about 4 times and about 150' and the sudden stop was when we struck an empty above ground fuel pipeline. So, after 19 years of arriving just after the accident with the Fire Company, this time I got to experince it first hand. And hopefully I can go another 19 year at least before I have to go through it again. Everything is under investigation here, and so I am not going into great detail, but one preson that went to the hospital is off of work for a few days maybe up to a week. And the second person has a leg injury and he is flying out Tuesday on the first flight to Christchurch for futher examination of his injuries. But nothing was life threating for either.
This photo is a side view of the hill. We came from the top left side of the photo, and we stopped right where you see the pipeline crest over the ledge on the right side.
This shot is front the very bottom. The pipeline at the edge is where we were wedged.
I escaped with only a burise on my calf. So I was very lucky. Everyone was quite sore for the next few days, and we have become a pretty close group of friends all of the sudden. We have gotten together several times to talk about everything and we will be finishing the classroom part of Happy Camper school on Tuesday this week. So, this wasn't part of the big danger of being in Antarctica, it was just a vehicle accident that could have happened anywhere, it just happend to be here and in a funny looking vehicle.
So that is it for now. I'll resume my whitty story telling next week. And everyone enjoy the weekend. And maybe stay out of tracked vehicles for a little while.
R.J.
Today's post was to be all about my time at Happy Camper School, the nice weather we have been experiencing, and the fact that Mainbody starts next week. Well today's topic has changed.
On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week myself and 10 other newbies attended Happy Camper School. It is a school on how to survive outdoors in Antarctica with the survival gear provided in any vehicle that you can take out of town. So kind of like camping in Yosemite just 100 degrees colder.
Here is a photo of our camp. The tent is a Scott tent and in the front you can see the snow wall that we made to protect our mountaineering tents. Please take note of the vehicle that you see. It is a Nodwell, and it will be the focus of our story very soon.
So we had survived the night outdoors without any major incident and we packed up came to head back to MacTown. On our trip back in the Nodwell we had 2 instructors and 2 stundents riding in the cab of the vehicle and 9 of us riding in the passenger box in the rear. We were headed up the long hill from Scott Base which is allot like Warner Hill road above the RR tracks (if you are not from South Wales, imagine a very long gradual climb) when at the top of the hill we had a problem. The driver was just starting to make the turn at the top of the hill when the vehicle stopped and then we started to back up. Us in the back thought this was odd, but we didn't see a problem with it yet. After a few seconds, I looked out the window and saw us rolling backwards across the shoulder of the road and not stopping. Well after that things only got much worse. We suddenly dropped off of a 20 foot embankment, followed by another, and another, and another. Each one seemed to get larger time and time again. After what seemed like an eternity we came to a very sudden stop. All nine of us were piled up in the back of the Nodwell and beat up pretty good.
After about 1/10th of a second we started to check to see if everyone was alright and we quickly determined that two people couldn't move themselves. So someone opened the rear door to get out of the Nodwell, and as soon as they did we realized our next major problem. We were on the edge of another 75 foot cliff. So we couldn't get out the door. So someone found the roof hatch and jumped onto the roof. Each time someone moved the vehicle rocked back and forth, this was not reassuring at all. We were very certain that we didn't want to take another drop. The first round was more than enough, and this one we could see how high it was. So, everyone got out but myself and the two injured people. That took about 45 seconds and then one of the instructors got onto the tracks to get in (he is a Physicians Assistant back in the states), I had him knock out a window to make an access hole to get the injured people out. He got the first person out while I checked out the second. We quickly make a splint out of some tent stakes that we had and then we got the second person out. The entire time we were worried about how stable the vehicle was. As we got the second person onto the roof of the cab, the Fire Department arrived and help get him off of the cab and prepared to go to the hospital. The rest of us were taken to the firehouse to warm up and be checked out.
So we later found out that we dropped about 4 times and about 150' and the sudden stop was when we struck an empty above ground fuel pipeline. So, after 19 years of arriving just after the accident with the Fire Company, this time I got to experince it first hand. And hopefully I can go another 19 year at least before I have to go through it again. Everything is under investigation here, and so I am not going into great detail, but one preson that went to the hospital is off of work for a few days maybe up to a week. And the second person has a leg injury and he is flying out Tuesday on the first flight to Christchurch for futher examination of his injuries. But nothing was life threating for either.
This photo is a side view of the hill. We came from the top left side of the photo, and we stopped right where you see the pipeline crest over the ledge on the right side.
This shot is front the very bottom. The pipeline at the edge is where we were wedged.
I escaped with only a burise on my calf. So I was very lucky. Everyone was quite sore for the next few days, and we have become a pretty close group of friends all of the sudden. We have gotten together several times to talk about everything and we will be finishing the classroom part of Happy Camper school on Tuesday this week. So, this wasn't part of the big danger of being in Antarctica, it was just a vehicle accident that could have happened anywhere, it just happend to be here and in a funny looking vehicle.
So that is it for now. I'll resume my whitty story telling next week. And everyone enjoy the weekend. And maybe stay out of tracked vehicles for a little while.
R.J.
posted by R.J. at 4:10 AM
3 Comments:
I hope you are working on a script for a movie when this part of your adventureous life is over. Excitement is one thing but you appear to be going above and beyond the norm. Your blog is better than the weather channels best stories.
Dawn
O.K., enough is enough. I order you guys to stand down. Return to us and be safe FIGHTING FIRES!! Seriously, thank God you're O.K. RJ, who else would I have to pick on. Buy the way, was it you who did the PM on this vehicle? Just asking.
9-1
Hey - take it easy down under will ya? Glad you guys are ok. I am....stuck in a world "with" engineering......You got any video games down there?
Cowboy
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