FTO stands for Field Training Officer or the Fantastically Thrilled Outside
I am writing this as our station is palpably buzzing with anticipation, as a three day blizzard is building. The power of sixty knot winds is awe inspiring. Many of us living down here in this majestic southern land, seek the feeling of being dwarfed by the power of the natural world. Antarctica magnifies this feeling. An Adélie penguin curiously and intently looking at us, a pure white snow petrel soaring above rocky outcrops, the intense colour of an iceberg lit up by the sun at midnight stops us all in our tracks and creates an immediate hush in conversation. These are some of the most powerful moments of our lives.
There are quite a bunch of FTO’s at Casey. For some this is our first season, for others it’s their sixteenth. Some are staying at Casey and are involved in training and supporting a myriad of science projects, some are passing through and spending most of the summer supporting the Denman Glacier campaign at Bunger Hills or on Traverse to support The Million Year Ice Core Project.
Being an FTO is a role that many of us have been dreaming of and working toward for a large part of our careers. Our role in a nut shell is to support:
Search and rescue: training, leadership, response
Science projects: support, guiding, trip leadership, risk management
Field training: survival, field travel, search and rescue, boating, sea ice travel
Recreation: field hut/camping trips, walking, skiing, snow shoeing, mountain biking and coordinating the mid-summer/winter swim
The people here are fabulous - all adventurous enthusiasts. We see the comradery, the open heartedness and the moments where this place inspires awe in our fellow expeditioners every day that we are out in the field. Some of our finest times as FTO’s are when we reach a hut, pop a pot of melted snow on to boil so that there can be much milo drinking, coffee drinking and tea drinking. We then sit back and listen to tales of past adventures and plans for ones to come...
We send every single good wish to you all from this icy, teeming with life, truly remarkable place.
Casey FTO’s
