April 8, 2007
Wind speed 14.5 mph
Air Temperature -19 C -2.4 F
Wind Chill -22 F
Latitude 73-12.62 N
Longitude 146-38.33 W
There are several things that are different when living in the ice camp. Besides dealing with the cold, and going to the bathroom in an unheated outhouse, taking a shower is also difficult. Freshwater is limited. So in order to shower the first thing that you need to do is take a trip to the ice mine.
At the ice mine you shovel the snow off the ice and then use the pick to break up the ice. As sea ice freezes the salt gets pushed out. So ice that has been frozen a couple of years is very fresh. We shovel the ice chunks into buckets and take them back to our hut to melt.
After the ice melts, we warm the water on the stove. Then we put the warm water into a cooler and carry it to the shower hut. In the shower hut there is a heater and a sprayer. You put the water into the sprayer and pump it up to get water pressure.
Then you use the hose and the nozzle to take a short shower. Since it takes so much work to take a shower, most of the people in camp are only showering once a week.?
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