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, ideally with bleach, before Burning Man
  
• Use "Extreme Coolers" (or 5 or 7 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 coolers (particularly the food cooler) is tight.
  
• I use Dry Ice with my food cooler
  • 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 layers of dry ice.
  • Caution: Dry ice sublimates into a gaseous state (water vapor) if exposed to moisture . It disappears really quickly when wet and your food will be ruined.
  • Dry ice freezes 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 freezer burns in seconds
  • Do not place cans or bottles next to dry ice as they will freeze and burst.
  • Some grocery stores carry dry ice, but I always buy dry ice from an Ice Cream wholesaler - as it is much cheaper. In the Phoenix I go to:
    Big Boy Ice Cream Co (used to be Excel Ice Cream & Candy Co)
    1620 W Grant St
    Phoenix, AZ 85007-3316
    (602) 258-9793 (call and check weekend hours)
    
• 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 (boil in the bag) 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.
  

Burning Man - Camp Arctica (Ice camp):

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. If you are hauling ice, it is strenuous work but they also need people to work the cash register, etc. NOTE: I believe that if you join Arctica and sign up early and commit to work a minimum number of hours, they have a small number of openings for "staff" - and with this commitment they will cover your ticket.

Ice will sold in three locations

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

Hours will 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

Prices are :

• $3 each (for 7lbs bags of crushed ice or 10lbs bags of block ice).
• $15 for six-packs of the 7lb bags of crushed ice (buy 5 get the 6th free).
  

Also (I digress) re: Center Camp - Coffee:

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

Hope this helps!

 

Other help pages

• Packing List
• Playa Bike advice
• Playa Tents
• Daybed
• Visit the AZBurner's Newbie advice page

 

Version 7 - updated July 4, 2011
Copyright None - But drop me a note if you find this to be helpful
Email: ruvi (at) burningtribe (dot) com
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