BURNINGMAN COOLER ADVICE

I cannot stress how important it is to keep your perishable food untainted and frozen. A few years ago one of our campmates had blood from a thawing raw steak leak into the ice in his one and only cooler, and come into contact with his beer bottles got contaminated. A day or so later he and his girlfriend drank beer and got the runs. There's never a good time to have the runs, but at Burning Man, with porta potties.... you couldn't get much worse.

Here are some suggestions:

• Wash your coolers well, idealy with bleach, before Burning Man
  
• Use "Extreme Coolers" (or 5 day coolers) several companies make them. They have thicker insulation and keep stuff colder for longer. The downside is that they have thicker walls, and so hold less.
  
• Use at least two coolers - one for food (that gets opened occasionally) and one for drinks. Make sure the seal on the food cooler is tight.
  
• I use Dry Ice with my food cooler and wrap dry ice in old newspaper to protect it from exposure to condensation and other moisture. Start with dry ice and add layers of relatively flat (ideally vacuum sealed) food packs between dry ice. Caution: Dry ice melts in a puff of smoke when exposed to moisture. Also, dry ice freeze food like a rock - so you need to plan ahead and take food out several hours before you need to re-heat it. I take Lunch food out in the morning and leave it in sunlight to thaw out. Safety tip: use gloves when handling dry ice as you get freeze burns in seconds - and do not place cans or bottles next to dry ice as they will freeze and burst. I always buy dry ice from an Ice Cream wholesaler - (they supply the Ice Cream man :-) as it is very much cheaper. In the Phoenix I go to:
  Excel Ice Cream & Candy Co
  (602) 258-9793
  1620 W Grant St
  Phoenix, AZ 85007-3316
  
• For your drinks cooler, use regular ice (and replenish daily with ice purchased from Camp Arctica).
  
• If you are using ice for mixed drinks, I recommend a third (clean) cooler that only holds ice, or keep your drinking ice in its own bag and out of the melted mush. Use a plastic cup as a scoop.
  
• Consider additional insulation on the outside of your coolers - or at least for your food cooler (example water heater blankets or material like TCM or the $2 emergency blankets. If possible, raise your coolers off the ground (Or insulate the surface beneath the coolers). Stacking your coolers (and insulating them) will also work well and take up less floor space, but can be more cumbersome to get stuff out.
  
• You can freeze raw food and cook at Burning Man, or pre-cook food that keeps well (pasta sauce, curries, etc) and freeze it in the default world, then vacuum seal (or ziplock bag it) and freeze it. Then store in your food cooler and thaw and re-heat when you are ready to serve.
  
• Keep you coolers in the shade at all times. I usually make a space between tents, and then use TCM or emergency blankets.(highly reflective aluminum foil) as the shade material - with a small air gap above the coolers. This keeps the sun off the cooler and the area below really cool.
  
• Try and insulate your coolers (with sleeping bags, etc) for the for the trip out to BM - this way you don't expose the coolers to unnecessary heat on the way there. See Camping and Traveling with Dry Ice
  
• One the way back, use your coolers for stinky trash - and then remember to empty them out and wash with bleach when you get home.
  

2007 Burning Man onwards - Camp Arctica (Ice camp) update:

Camp Arctica sells Ice at Burning Man. (Ice and coffee are the two things that you can buy at BM). Arctica are always looking for volunteers and you get a free bag of ice and often other gifts for each shift. They also have a tip jar and at the end of the shift you can opt to join in the split. It is backbreaking work though - particularly if you are a desk jockey who rarely visits the gym ;-). NOTE: If you sign up early and commit to work a minimum number of hours, Arctica also will cover your ticket.

Ice will sold in three locations

Center Camp in the usual place
Ice 9 - at the 9:00 keyhole
Ice 3 - at the 3:00 keyhole

Hours will be most likely be

9am - 6pm daily during the event
Labor Day: Arctica in Center Camp will be the only station open and the hours will be from 9am to 12 noon

In 2007 the prices for ice went up - and due to fuel costs it may go up again in 2008. Last year it was:
$3 each (for 7lbs bags of crushed ice or 10lbs bags of block ice).
$15 for six-packs of the 7# bags of crushed ice will cost only $15 (i.e. buy 5 get the 6th free).

Center Camp - Coffee update:

Please try and Bring Your Own Cup (BYOC) - there will be an express line for those who bring their own cup

Hope this helps!

 

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Version 4 - updated July 20, 2008
Copyright None - But drop me a note if you find this to be helpful
Email: ruvi (at) burningtribe (dot) com
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