About once a season we get to go on Search and Rescue training trips to help keep our mountaineering skills from rotting, to become familiar with the terrain in which a SAR might occur, to become familiar with what it takes to plan and execute field deployment, and to get familiar working with other team members in the field. Only a few of us go on a trip at a time so we can maintain enough team members in town to respond to a call-out.
In November '05, three of us spent a couple very-full days climbing Mt Electra in the Olympus Range, then hiking through the spectacular and unique Labrinyth down to Don Juan Pond, where we spent a night camping on the helo pad before continuing down to Lake Vanda for pick-up the following day. The Kiwis have a research hut on Lake Vanda. Because of the ultra-pristine nature of the valleys and the level of protection they are given by the Antarctic Treaty, we carry out all our urine and shit. As you can imagine, it gets rather heavy, which is why we cached some gear and stinkyness at the Don Juan Pond helo pad for retrieval during our flight out.