One more special birthday! My big sister!

Kevin (left) and Mike (right)

My baby sister is 19!!


Justin - U-Washington, also wanted to express his congratulations! :-)

"Thanks for the socks, Mom and Dad!"
Days on the ice: 7

There is so much to describe about being up here, I figure I'm going to do it one topic at a time. Today, let's talk a little about sleeping.


Sleeping up here is a complex psychological and physical process. First, you have to convince yourself to go to your tent...knowing that you have to leave the warm sanctuary of the "Big House" which has water, food, and a toilet for your small tent that is frigid and only your body heat to keep you warm at night. But, you know the longer you wait, the colder it is going to be when you walk out to your tent, since temperatures during the day are around -20 C and in the middle of the night drop to around -35 C.

Then once you are in your tent, you have to strategize how to keep warm. We've all developed different strategies. Casey (from NH) has developed an addiction to sneaking hand warmer packets and putting them between two layers of socks. Meredith (U-Washington) heats up water in her Nalgene and throws that in her sleeping bag. Mike (GT - my advisor), wiggles around furiously to try to get the sleeping bag as warm as possible. After 6 nights, I have developed a finely nuanced strategy - first, I put my fleece liner bag in the sleeping bag for an extra layer, then I wear one layer of long johns and a ski hat. If it's really really cold, I wear gloves. And, my most important piece is the fantastic thick wool socks that my parents gave me years ago but were almost too warm to wear in NH. Here, they are my sleeping socks and are worth their weight in gold. I slip in my sleeping bag, tighten every possible cord around me, and slip down underneath the edge to get a bit of darkness...since it is broad daylight all the time.

On top of the clothing issues, there is the bladder issue. It is so dry up here that it is easy to get dehydrated...but, if you drink too much, you are going to have to get out of your sleeping bag in the middle of the night into subzero temperatures to wander over to the outhouse...and then convince yourself to fall back asleep again. I've also included in my sleeping strategy that I stop drinking any liquids about 1 hour before I go to bed...otherwise, it is a very distressing middle of the night wake-up call.

Finally, morning is the most difficult time psychologically. Every morning, I lay there in my sleeping bag and am pretty warm since the temperatures are now back up to -20 C...and I just want to keep laying there and do not want to open up my sleeping bag to the freezing temperatures...but now I really really need to pee. So, I lay there and the two urges fight against one another until finally, the bladder wins and I hop around in my tent trying to put layers on as fast as possible and run to the closest outhouse...then finally go into the Big House for breakfast.

Ah, the lovely romantic life of sleeping on snow.

If you are reading this and are sleeping in a warm shelter with a nearby bathroom, take a moment to appreciate those luxuries! After 9 more weeks of this, I'm going to bow down and worship a real bed with a nearby bathroom.

Location: Summit, Greenland
Days on the ice: 3

Hey everyone!

Finally, I'm able to get some pictures for you to see...I'm on day #3 here on the ice.

Cruising around on the electric snowmobile...behind me is a sled full of equipment I'm bringing out to our satellite camp. Snowmobiles are waaaay too much fun.

Mike (my advisor) on top of the roof and Kevin (middle school teacher from Atlanta) setting up the wind barb on top of the Bally building out at our satellite camp. I'm inside the building wiring things together and setting up a computer program to stop our measurements when wind blows from the camp area...we definitely don't want to be measuring output from the camp generators!


Kevin showing his Artic Oven home. We each have our own...cozy and a little warmer than the outside (last night it was about -25 C inside, -35 C outside).

More to come!

~ Gayle

Hi everyone!

I am now up on the ice sheet and am having a great first day! We made it to Albany late Saturday night, then up at 4:30 am on Sunday to board a C130 headed to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. Sunday evening in Kanger consisted of eating at the Greenlandic cafeteria (a strange all-you-can-eat buffet that had unknown meat and lots of beets), hanging at the airport bar (the airport is the hopping place of the town), and getting our gear ready for this morning’s trip to the ice sheet. We boarded the C130 again this morning, this time with only about 12 of us on board (mostly ice core drillers and scientists) and successfully landed on the ice! First order of business was claiming our tents – the main strategy here is being close to the “big house” (kitchen + bathroom) and far from the outhouse. In “tent city”, I am now 3^rd back on the left side…an important thing to remember since all the tents look the same!

We had a big lunch, where I met a neat guy named Pat who had wintered over here (with 3 other men) and kept active cross-country skiing all winter…at temperatures down to -85 C (if I could capitalize those numbers, I would!)…and in the DARK! He would guide his way back to camp by using the stars. Now this guy has now won my highest ranking of hardcore people I have met. The guy in the Colorado Rockies who hiked up mountains with a broken hip…unfortunately has fallen to second. J I am definitely a softy! It’s ONLY -30 C here today. The air definitely has a bit more bite to it then it did last year in July when it was around -20 C. Apparently, it may get down to -40 C tonight…whooo! It was so cold today that my Nalgene dripped a little on my parka and then froze. AND, what is even more interesting is that instead of having a runny nose, your boogers just sort of freeze in place since you are breathing in such cold air. Thought you all would like to hear the fine details of just how cold it is up here! Luckily, I’m actually feeling fine and I think I have the right gear to be ok at these temperatures. Hopefully I’ll be still saying that in a week!

I’m off to go play a round of cards and then head to bed. Tomorrow we’re going to be riding a zero-emissions electric snowmobile around setting up our satellite camp…40+ big boxes to move and a lab to set up!

I’ll try to send another update later on this week! Right now, the internet connection is too low for me to upload pictures. I'll try to get online at some odd hour for the next update to have enough bandwidth for pictures.

Cheers,

~ Gayle

Location: Atlanta, Georgia

Hi friends and family!

I am kick-starting this blog with the next trip to Greenland! This time, 10 weeks! I will be spending nearly my entire summer camping on snow, skiing about a mile away to take measurements, and hanging out with the very interesting international crowd of scientists, construction crew, drillers, etc.

I will be leaving this Saturday (May 20th) to head up to New York to meet the Air National Guard plane that flies us all over to Greenland...should be arriving in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland (a small somewhat desolate town) on the 21st, and up to the top of the glacier the next day. A week from today, I will be curled up in my sleeping bag inside my tent, with my ski hat pulled down over my eyes to block out the sunlight (the sun never goes down in the summer!). I'm actually getting pretty excited to go! I have some buddies that will be up with me this summer and I'm expecting we're going to have a pretty good time!

All is well with Ty, as well! He has returned to Atlanta from his intense kayak training and has decided to move kayaking to the sidelines (well, "sidelines" meaning several times out on the water per week) and is beginning the job-hunting process. He's having fun putting his design portfolio together and is getting excited about the prospects of using his brain a little more than when he was full-time training in kayaking. I'll bother him to update the blog with his news as he goes along!

I'll try to update the blog with some pictures from Kangerlussuaq when I get there - likely on Monday or Tuesday.

Hope all's well in your corner of the world!

~ Gayle