Today, I had my appointment at the Antartic Center to receive my Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear and clothes. That was a lot of fun, actually! First, some intros were made and a small video shown to ensure that we all understand, how important proper clothing is. Then, we were led into this big hall, where two orange bags full of stuff were prepared for every guy (we were about 20 men). These contained a selection of the available stuff in my size. I didn’t have my camera with on this day, but I’ll make pix of the stuff I actually took with me later. Basically, you get to choose between to different types of parkas, three pants/overalls, half a dozen or so gloves, mittens hats, and caps, long underwear, fleece underwear and some causal fleece stuff. And of course, the socks and boots. You try every piece on to make sure it fits and everything works. If you are not happy, there is a counter where you can exchange anything for different sizes or alternatives.
I was there for almost three hours and the last to leave the hall. It was so much fun just to try all the alternative things, even if I ended up with pretty much the standard gear, I guess. I also had brought my regular luggage, there were a few things I added to the ECW (street clothes for inside, personal belongings), the rest of my luggage was stored away. That more or less concluded the day. I went back to my hotel and tried to catch some sleep since we would leave early the next day….