For geoscience students and researchers in the field
Developed by Regine Hock, Inger Bij de Vaate, Grégoire Guillet, Luke Copland and graduate students from the FieldEx Consortium, the new online guide FieldEx Field Guide – Best Practices and Safety Measures for Fieldwork in Cold Environment provides practical advice for researchers, students and field teams working in remote and cold-region environments.
The guide covers planning and preparation, codes of conduct, safety plans, permits and regulations, cultural awareness, and the prevention and handling of harassment in the field. It also includes guidance on travel in remote terrain, camping, snow shelters, clothing, weather, wildlife encounters and communication systems.
Practical sections address useful knots, glacier travel, crevasse rescue, avalanche safety and rescue, and health precautions. By bringing these topics together in one accessible resource, the guide aims to help field teams reduce risks and work more safely in challenging cold-environment conditions.
Background
The guide was developed as part of the Field Safety and Preparedness course, held at Finse Research Station in Norway from 6–16 April 2025 and organised by the Department of Geosciences at the University of Oslo. It is based on topics covered during the course.
The course was conducted as part of FieldEx – Field Instrumentation and Measurements in Cold Region Environments (2025–2028), an exchange programme for geoscience MSc and PhD students from Norway, Canada, the United States and Japan. FieldEx aims to foster educational partnerships through short-term student exchanges focused on field techniques in cold region environments.
FieldEx is funded by the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-dir) through the UTFORSK programme (grant UTF-2024/10399). FieldEX is hosted by: The Department of Geosciences, The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, at University of Oslo, Norway.
ShortLink: www.mn.uio.no/fieldex
Read the guide
Hock, R., I. Bij de Vaate, G. Guillet, L. Copland and FieldEx Consortium, 2026. FieldEx Field Guide - Best Practices and Safety Measures for Fieldwork in Cold Environments. Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. 57 pp. ISBN 978-82-91885-49-0
Available from Zenodo (read and download)
URL: https://zenodo.org/records/23035643
Disclaimer
This field guide is intended as a practical reference for investigators, staff and students preparing for and conducting fieldwork in remote cold-region environments. It is not a substitute for comprehensive safety training and does not claim to be exhaustive or free of errors. The authors assume no responsibility or liability for errors or omissions in the guide, or for any use of the information it contains.