A thousand souls populate McMurdo during the Austral summer from
November to February – not just scientists, but also pilots, plumbers,
burger flippers, and everyone else needed to keep a small city ticking.
Down here, even a job like plumbing can transform into a survival epic
in the blink of an eye. Just a few days before our mid-November class,
a caterpillar-tracked truck caught fire while traveling on the sea ice.
The passengers escaped the flames, but were stranded without shelter 15
miles from town. It’s no wonder that anyone whose job might take them
away from McMurdo must first attend Happy Camper School, a hands-on
exercise in surviving overnight in one of the harshest spots on Earth.

Antarctica’s required course is the Happy Camper School of survival | csmonitor.com