"Snow pits!"
Days on the ice: 5 weeks....35 days!
Time left: 5 more weeks!

For the past week and a few more upcoming days, I'm doing a small side project up here - 6 snow pits that are 1 m deep, measuring about 1-2 years worth of snow and comparing the snow pit locations to see if the measurements are consistent. SO, 2 pits are in camp, 2 are 10 km from camp, and 2 are 20 km from camp! As you can imagine, things get a little more complicated when venturing away from the shelter of camp...

The packing list for a 10 or 20 km pit:
- 2 snowmobiles (check fuel, oil, coolant, and engine before using)
- 1 or 2 sleds to drag behind snowmobile
- 1 survival bag (tent, stove, food, etc)
- 1 Iridium satellite phone
- 1 radio (works up to about 10 km)
- 2 GPSs
- extra batteries
- food and water
- sampling equipment (bottles, scrapers, clean room suits, logbook, and more)
- warmest clothing available - windchill can be pretty cold while snowmobiling!

After checking through the list, I set off with a helper (so far, Mike from U-Washington or Gene from Georgia Tech) driving off into the distance and using a GPS to guide our way. Here's a shot of Mike driving at my side...it is a little crooked since I was taking the picture while driving my snowmobile...sort of hard to do.


Once we are 20 km out, we call in our coordinates using the Iridium phone. Then, we don our clean room suits and begin digging away. I've now mastered the depth without a measuring tape...if I can physically get out of the pit than it isn't deep enough. Mike took a wonderful video of me doing a running start, grabbing at the top of the wall, loosing my grip, and sliding back into the hole.


3 or so hours later...we have finished sampling at increments down the snow pit wall, fill in the pit, and pack up for the return trip. We're usually a little giddy after finishing up...probably a little too much labor at high altitude. Mike took this shot of me ready to head back on my snowmobile...behind me are ice core boxes insulating our samples.

After a 45 min drive back to camp, we have a late lunch (around 3 pm) and either collapse for an afternoon nap or force ourselves to work. Today, I was valiant and dragged our samples out to the satellite camp after the return. On the way into dinner, Gene was an angel and gave me a lift the half-mile in...hee hee hee. Whoever said chivalry was dead? Apparently, I'm the equivalent sled-weight of "1 ice core box with empty bottles and 1 pee jug".


4 snow pits down and 2 to go! Hoping to do another 10 km on Wednesday and a 20 km on Thursday or Friday. Then, we're doing a pre-July 4th party!

June 20th (or 21st?) - Summer Solstice up at Summit! Here is everyone currently staying up here...I'm smack in the center in blue, sitting between Robin (mechanic from New Zealand), and Kim (camp manager from Colorado).

Yay for the longest daylight of the year...which is kind of a joke up here... :-)

"Work and play"
Days on the ice: 4 weeks! (i'm now counting in weeks)

Well, it is a cold and windy day over here...about 18 knots and everyone is getting blown around. I skiied out to our satellite camp this morning (about a half-mile) and was almost knocked over by the wind while skate-skiing. If you aren't a cross-country skiier, skate-skiing is sort of like rollerblading or speed-skating on skis - you are on one leg at a time and your feet swish side-to-side.

I realized I don't have many pictures of me on this blog here since I am usually behind the camera. Here's one to show you all that I'm alive and actually do a little bit of work from time to time! Pat took this picture of me checking out the instruments in the Bally building a couple weeks ago. Directly in front of me are two instruments that measure properties of particles in the air - one measures the number and size of particles, the other measures how much the particles are absorbing light (ie. blackness of the particles). How much the particles absorb light may directly translate to a warming influence over the ice sheet - for example, imagine what happens if you splatter a bit of black dust on a white t-shirt...the shirt may be a little less reflective of the sunlight. Anyway, enough science babble.


AND, play time! Being here this long (it is going to be about 10 weeks total for me), I'm trying to pace myself a bit. I'm usually working from about 8 am - 6 pm, taking my lunch out with me to sat camp. After dinner, I usually hang out with folks for a few hours and then take a ski at 10:30 pm to do my 11 pm surface snow sample out at sat camp. Lately, I've been dragging some folks with me for my evening ski - I am definitely starting to feel the groove of skate-skiing again.

Here's a shot of playtime on Saturday night. We had two semi-sober games going on - Yahtzee in front and I was playing (pathetically) Rummy in the back. In the front of the picture, we have Jeff who is with the US Geological Survey, Kim who is the camp manager, Marge who is the cook (and was dubbed "the hammer" after creaming people in Yahtzee), Jeff who is a staff science tech, and Mike who is a grad student from U-Washington. This is around 10 pm at night...still bright outside the Big House! Sometimes we put down the shades to pretend it is dark.


And the newest activity I am about to start is being a student of Andrew (the medic) and Mike (see above picture) in martial arts. Andrew is a black belt in Wing Chun Kung Fu and Mike is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do...I'm a black belt in laying on the couch. :-) So, we've decided to do 7 am workout time, starting tomorrow. They are going to beat up on each other and I'm going to learn some self-defense moves....and maybe roll around on a yoga ball or something.

Back I go to work!

"A visit to the drillers"
Days on the ice: umm...25? I think I'm starting to lose count.

Two nights ago, I went with two cooks (Marge and Sarah) and Katie (a staff science tech) to check out the big operation going on with ICDS - Ice Core Drilling Services. These guys are testing out a new drill design that will be heading to Antarctica to do deep ice drilling. They have about 8 crew up here working around the clock trying to dig to about 900 m...I can't tell you how far back in time that is, but I am sure it is well over 1000 years back of ice.

We decided to try out the "Mule" - a cross between a tanker and a golf cart...that goes about a mile per hour. I believe it is here for testing use...


A close-up of the group...Marge, Katie, and Sarah. Sarah is wearing a unique neckwarmer - it is actually made out of musk ox fur.


We showed up around 9 pm to visit the night crew that were running the drill. One of the unique things about this drill is that it rotates up after drilling, allowing a very long core to be cut. Usually, drills cut about 1 m at a time - this one cuts 4 m. Below is a picture of the drill rotated up for removal of the ice core.


And here is the crew with the core tube part of the drill, about to remove the ice. I was very excited when they let me pitch in a hand by holding the tube steady with a special wrench while they screwed it all back together.


These guys have about 4 more weeks to go of 24/7 drilling! I believe they are around 350 m so far and going deeper.

"It's a Gene!"
Days on the ice: 22!

Who is that glowing newcomer? Has he come to save me from endless hours of labwork?!


YES! It's GENE!



(we had a little too much fun with the sun halo tonight...)