On this one-week introduction to polar travel, we went on a 10-person expedition led by Eric Larsen on Lake of the Woods in Minnesota, learning Eric's systems and techniques while skiing and pulling 75-pound sleds during the day and camping in expedition tunnel tents on the frozen lake, often in -20F temperatures, at night. Lake of the Woods is more similar to Antarctica than anywhere in the US. While the snow conditions and daytime temperatures in January are nearly identical to Antarctica, camping is more difficult in Minnesota at this time of year. The dark nights are much colder (tents can sometimes get warm in Antarctica in the 24-hour sun, even without stoves), and more humid and frosty. Antarctica is a desert, so gear dries much more easily there.

We melted snow for water, missed surprisingly simple things like sitting in a chair, and learned a lot about polar travel and surviving in the extreme cold, including:

• Temperature Management: Being too warm as you're traveling is just as much as a concern as being too cold. Sweating can be dangerous, and your goggles will fog up and ice over if you're too warm. Wear loose, moisture-wicking base layers (we wore Helly Hansen LIFA base layers) and nothing insulated when you're moving – not even a fleece. But when you stop, put your big down jacket on over your shell right away. You cool down very quickly.
• Fuel Safety: Wear glove liners when handling and pouring fuel, and when lighting the stoves in the tent vestibule. Spilling fuel on your bare hands will result in immediate frostbite.
• Stove Safety: Fuel leaks from accidentally cross-threading fuel pumps can easily occur and can result in tent fires. Use one stove to melt snow, the other for warmth and drying. Keep the lit stoves downwind and leave 12-18-inch openings in tent doors for ventilation, to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning.
• Sleeping Warm: Putting two hot Nalgenes in your sleeping bag as you go to sleep makes a big difference – put one by your hip, one by your feet. The warmth will last about six hours. Hot Nalgenes can also help dry boot liners. If you leave filled Nalgenes out of your bag, they'll freeze solid.
• Morale Boosters: Hot chocolate and soup are morale boosters.
• Sleeping Tips: Loosely cover your head with your outer sleeping bag or bivvy as you sleep for warmer air to breathe and to protect your face from frost falling off the inside of the tent. It'll wake you up!
• Polar Hygiene: Not showering for a week wasn't nearly as bad as we thought it would be.
• Face Protection: Cloth nose beaks sewed to your goggles are the best way to protect your face from the wind. Unlike a mask, they keep moisture off your face and mostly out of your goggles, but still create a warmer environment for the bottom half of your face as you exhale. Keeping tour hood up blocks the wind too.
• Camp Setup: Be ready to set up camp quickly. By using Eric's method of leaving tent poles in and rolling the tent up into a large bag instead of stuffing it into a smaller one, we could have it up in around 10 minutes.
• Camp Roles: Take turns every other day being the cook. The cook goes in as soon as the tent is up and gets the stoves going (matches are more reliable than lighters in the extreme cold) while the other person finishes securing the tent outside, and piles up fresh snow for melting.
• Snacks: Peanut M&M'S are an ideal snack to carry in your pocket. They're great frozen!
• Attitude: Laughing and joking around are crucial ingredients, no matter how you're feeling in the moment. Everything is earned, the work is constant, and you lose a little bit of energy each day, but keeping morale up and having fun with it make all the difference!