Finally Training with the Crew!

Yesterday was my first day of training in Denver with the South Pole crew.  There are about 30 of us here from around the country (and the world!) completing two weeks of trauma, first aid, and fire training.  It is great finally meeting some of my future co-workers and family members for the next year!  The crew attending this training was split into two groups - my half of the group is doing the safety orientation/trauma/first aid training this week while the other group is fighting fires.  Next week we'll switch and head over to the fire academy.

Training has been fascinating so far.  We began with the safety systems at the Elevated Station.  Compared with the ship (and most other non-spaceship structures), the fire detection, suppression, and other systems are amazing!  Here are some fun facts and statistics we learned:

• SPO (South Pole Observatory) potable water is made by pumping warm water into holes drilled 800-1,000 ft deep in the ice.  The water melts surrounding ice and creates a 'lake' under the ground.  
• SPO water is the most pure water in the world - if we drank it untreated for a long period of time, it would kill us because the water contains zero minerals.  It would eventually cause minerals to leach out of our bodies.  Luckily, it would take several years.  Needless to say, our water is treated.
• What happens with the wells that are completely depleted?  We use it for 'outfall'... *ahem*... solid waste.
• The daily usage of water at the Pole is about 18 gallons/person/day.
• It costs about $25 to create one gallon of water.
• There is a 3-year supply of frozen food at the Pole.  An emergency 3-month food cache stored in the snow is rotated every ten years.  Yummmmm. 
• The station is powered by diesel generators - three 750 kW generators and one 239 kW generator. One generator runs at a time and they are periodically switched.  The lower-rated generator takes up the slack if the maximum load for one generator is exceeded.  All generators run on JP-8 jet fuel.
• Fuel is delivered to the station through two means: 50,000 gal are brought to the station via fuel traverse (35-day trip across the continent with snowcat-like vehicle towing fuel sleds) and by siphoning off 2,000-3,000 gal of fuel from each airplane landing at the station.  
• Aircraft cannot land at the Pole if the temperatures are below -57 degrees F.
• Although its a little chilly outside, the Elevated Station is kept at a balmy 65.
• Up to 250 people live at the South Pole in the summer - about 100-150 people live in tents (aka 'Jamesways') outside the station.  Hard. Core.
• If the station lost power, you would be able to see your breath inside in 2-3 hours.

Today's training consisted of dealing with traumatic incidents - the main take-away message is never tell someone to 'calm down'!  ...Or tell them they need to calm down!  It was very interesting because they were involved in cases such as Columbine and the incident at Virginia Tech.  The psychologists had a lot of experience.  Hopefully we won't ever need the tactics of handling critical incidents during the year on the Ice.

So far so good!  The training continues tomorrow with wilderness first aid...