Wet and windy Derbyshire- just like Bird Island!

Before we head off to Antarctica BAS want to make sure that we are at least slightly competent in looking after ourselves out in the wilderness. To ensure this is the case we were sent up to Derbyshire for a three day field course to learn all sorts of useful skills.

Apparently last year the weather was really nice, this year we had the worst September storms for 30 years.... It rained and it rained and it rained for the entire time we were there, apart from a couple of dry hours one morning. It really was quite realistic for those of us going to Bird Island, where it is wet and windy most of the time, but not so good for the guys going to Halley or Rothera where it doesn't really rain as it's too cold.

First we were taught how to light the Primus stoves (which looked like museum pieces, but apparently nothing better has been invented in the last 100 years) and the Tilley lamps (to keep us ultra warm in the tent). We had a session on rope work- how to tie in, tie together and walk with a rope between you (in case one of you falls down a big crevasse), then dinner and pub.

The following morning we were up early getting the stove on for a hot drink and had a sandwich production line going. We headed off to the Crag and it started raining almost immediately (that was the dry part of the course). We all took turns abseiling down a cliff and then jumared back up to the top. Jumaring is climbing up a rope using two metal clamps that you can use to hold you in place then slide up as you climb higher. You are supposed to use the strength in your leg to push yourself upwards. I found it pretty hard, but got to the top eventually with a few bruises.

Going over the edge- it was pretty windy up there!

Our campsite- more like Glastonbury!

 Search and rescue is an important skill to have working in such remote locations, so we learnt the theory and then put it into practice using "white out" goggles. It was fun but did require team work and clear leadership. We managed to find all of our missing people in the end, except for the one lost in tussock (but it wasn't too realistic to conditions we have on Bird Island- so we should have found them really).

Search and rescue team

Bird Island team doing blind search and resuce (Chris, me, Hannah and Jerry)

The Islands group were the last to leave the crag, which we were all very proud of, as we are clearly the most hardcore group, or maybe just foolish! It was Hannah's birthday so we had a tasty dinner followed by cake and pub (again).

Happy Birthday Hannah!

The next day we did some navigation and more search and resuce, followed by a demo on how to get someone out of a crevasse. It involved lots of pulleys and knots, but looked very impressive. I think we will be going over a lot of the things we learnt when we are on the island, so we don't have to remember everything first time.

We ended up leaving a day early due to the weather, I was glad in the end as our tent proved to not be waterproof and I had a nice pool of water underneath my sleeping bag on the last night in the tent. Everyone was suprisingly cheerful, which goes to show they definitely have the right people for the job!