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Victoria University Antarctic Research Expedition Science and Logistics Reports 1996-97: VUWAE 41

5. Preparations for the Field

5. Preparations for the Field

Despite a delay in arriving at Scott Base everything at went smoothly in the time before we went into the field. We were warmly welcomed to Scott Base and the staff were most helpful with the endless questions. Our equipment had arrived and was in order. The field training seemed to take up a great deal of the time we had due to the overnight exercise being delayed (New Years Eve). Excusing Julie Quinn from the overnight exercise allowed the science preparation to be done without a last minute panic. The equipment the party received was in good condition and it was easy to change page break our requirements after discussion with Mess. Being able to organise a resupply of frozen food with the Scott Base staff was most useful as we had difficulty keeping food frozen. This was easily done due to the helpful nature of the staff.

Parts of the field training were not particularly useful to our event (much of the snowcraft was not required as we were never on any permanent snow). However, there were other groups on our AFT who needed this training. We had a brief rundown (10 minutes) on the sea ice which was the most important part of our training. Perhaps next summer if there was a second AFT training person the crevasse part of the course could be dropped and this time spent on sea ice training. A fuller brief to the AFT people beforehand may allow this to be organised.