- 1999
- 2000
- 2001
- 2002
- 2003
- 2006
- 2007
Week 4 - November 18, 2001 to November 24, 2001
Date: 11/24/01
Latitude: 79.15 degrees South
Longitude: 105 degrees West
Temperature: –18°C( 0°F)
Wind speed: 7 knots
Wind Chill: –26°C( –14°F)
Wind direction: North
Meters of ice collected: 0
Notes on daily life:
We finally arrived at our first science site at 3:00 AM this morning. Half the team was asleep and those that were awake went to bed shortly after arrival. The visibility was poor when we arrived and remains overcast so we haven't had a chance to really see what our new 'home' is like. We did find, though, the barrels of fuel that had been dropped earlier in the week by a NY Air Guard Hercules – they were dropped right on target.
Everyone was busy today. Steve N. and Lynn spent most of the day digging out the air–dropped fuel barrels, removing the cargo nets and parachutes, and dragging the barrels closer in to camp. Science programs are now also underway. Paul, Susan and Dan walked about 250 m out from camp and began work in a snowpit, sampling stratigraphic layers for various chemical analyses. Markus also moved his atmospheric sampling equipment a site about 500 m away from camp. Both the snowpit (and later the core site) and the atmospheric sampling sites are upwind from camp, to avoid the possibility of contamination by snowmobile engines or generators. Blue spent the morning driving a GPS–equipped snowmobile in a grid pattern around the camp out to a distance of 2 km, for the purpose of constructing a topographic map of the local area. After lunch he processed the data and made the map. Gordon and Blue used the map to select a site for their mass balance measurements – their site is about 1.5 km upglacier from camp. They spent the afternoon and evening installing 4 markers in 15 m deep holes. Allan used the day to set up his low frequency radar and will conduct surveys tomorrow morning. Mark finished work on the two drill systems – the 3" Eclipse drill and new lightweight 2" model. Drilling will begin with the 3" equipment tomorrow.
By late evening the wind had dropped and a fog bank had moved in. Hoar crystals began to form on all surfaces. In the part of the sky opposite the sun, a fogbow formed – for many of the team this was their first experience of this unusual phenomenon.
Date: 11/23/01
Latitude: 79.2 degrees South
Longitude: 106.4 degrees West
Temperature: –19°C( –3°F)
Wind speed: 12 knots
Wind Chill: –29°C( –21°F)
Wind direction: North
Meters of ice collected: 0
Notes on daily life:
Another short log. We continue to make progress towards our first drill site. At the time of writing, we are about 40 km out and are estimating our arrival at 3:00 AM tomorrow morning. The weather has changed little from the last report – the wind occasionally drops, but visibility remains limited. Our route is taking us upflow from Byrd Station to the major ice divide in West Antarctica (an ice divide is like a watershed boundary – ice on either side of the divide flows in different direction). Byrd is in the Ross Sea drainage. Our first drill site is across the divide in the Amundsen Sea drainage. At the moment we are about 350 m higher in elevation than our starting point at Byrd.
Occasional hot drinks and a continuing supply of cold bean burritos are sustaining us as we work along the route. Everyone is looking forward to a proper hot meal once we arrive on location.
Date: 11/2/01
Latitude: 79.5 degrees South
Longitude: 110.5 degrees West
Temperature: –18°C( 0°F)
Wind speed: 18 knots
Wind Chill: –31°C( –23°F)
Wind direction: North
Meters of ice collected: 0
Notes on daily life:
Happy Thanksgiving! This log will be a short one. Currently we are underway from Byrd Station to our first core site. At the time of writing we have covered 182 km of the 300 km leg and it has taken us about 22 hours. We expect to arrive late in the evening on Friday. As you can imagine, we are traveling very slowly – 10 kph.
Actually it is a good day to be inside the vehicles and shelters and not outside working. We are having the worst weather since arriving in the field. There is low cloud, blowing snow and poor visibility. Navigation is not a problem, though, as we are using GPS to follow a pre–programmed set of waypoints Gordon selected from his examination of satellite imagery. Each waypoint is approximately 10 km apart and we usually stop at each one to let people go to the bathroom, check the loads on the sleds haven't come loose and refuel the tractors.
To do the entire 300 km leg in one continuous push, we are working in eight hour shifts. As well as sharing driving duties, there are also a number of scientific experiments being conducted in route. Brian is running his ice penetrating radar, Steve A. is continuously profiling the upper layers of the ice sheet with a high frequency radar and Blue and Gordon are conducting very precise continuous GPS surveying of the ice sheet topography.
The drive is being fueled by a succession of cold bean burritos, pasta salad and a plentiful supply of snack foods. Hopefully, you are all eating a better Thanksgiving meal back home.
Date: 11/21/01
Latitude: 80 degrees South
Longitude: 120 degrees West
Temperature: –28°C(–18°F)
Wind speed: 9 knots
Wind Chill: –30°C( –20°F)
Wind direction: North
Meters of ice collected: 0
Notes on daily life:
We had our first spell of bad weather since arriving at Byrd. Skies were overcast in the morning and by lunchtime the visibility and definition (how well we make out the horizon) were both very poor. There was also some blowing snow. The timing was inconvenient because we were expecting a flight later in the afternoon bringing in our remaining science equipment. Conditions remained poor for most of the afternoon but just before the plane was scheduled to arrive, the clouds began to clear on the horizon. With improved visibility and definition, the plane was able to land without a hitch. This was the same plane that earlier in the day had air–dropped fuel along the traverse route for us – it stopped at Byrd on its way back to McMurdo. We were all very pleased to finally receive our equipment.
There was a flurry of excitement about 30 minutes later when the plane reappeared. Apparently it was unable to land at another field camp where it was to refuel for the flight back to McMurdo – evidently the bad weather we had experienced earlier in the day was making its way across West Antarctica. The plane was on the ground for a little while before departing again after it received reports that the weather was clearing at its intended refuelling stop.
Today we hitched up all the sleds in their correct order and cleaned up any items left around camp. We are all set to go and will be underway early on Thursday morning. With a 40 hour drive ahead of us, we are unlikely to celebrate Thanksgiving for a while. But we will be very pleased to be finally traveling across the ice sheet.
Date: 11/20/01
Latitude: 80 degrees South
Longitude: 120 degrees West
Temperature: –16°C( 3°F)
Wind speed: 11 knots
Wind Chill: –26°C( –16°F)
Wind direction: Northeast
Meters of ice collected: 0
Notes on daily life:
Today was spent loading sleds and repositioning them in an order approaching how they will be linked in the traverse. We have four large Berko sleds, swedish made sleds used extensively in northern logging operations, that are used to carry the Blue Room, the kitchen, the mechanic Polarhaven and food, and all the ice core boxes (ISC boxes). Another large sled carries our fuel and a succession of smaller sleds carry our remaining equipment and science shelters. The ISC boxes were loaded today. They are stacked four high – this time around the stacking was easy as the boxes were empty, but as time goes on and the boxes are filled with core it will take more and more effort heaving the boxes to the top of the stack.
Hooking the various sleds together will be no trivial task. Each tractor will be hauling about 40,000 lbs so the connections from sled to sled need to be capable of taking very large loads.
We discovered we have two outstanding bakers in our team. Susan spent a couple of hours after lunch baking pecan cookies and blueberry pies from odd ingredients lying around the kitchen. Allan found some old packets of yeast and decided to make some bread – despite the age of the yeast, the bread turned out extremely well. Dinner with fresh bread and pie for dessert was a real treat.
An update on our projected departure – going through the pallets of science equipment that arrived on Monday's flight, we discovered that some critical items that were supposed to be included were missing. Our tentative plan is to wait at Byrd until tomorrow when a Hercules returning from dropping fuel for us along our route will stop here briefly to offload these items.
Date: 11/19/01
Latitude: 80 degrees South
Longitude: 120 degrees West
Temperature: –22°C( –8°F)
Wind speed: 9 knots
Wind Chill: –32°C( –26°F)
Wind direction: Northeast
Meters of ice collected: 0
Notes on daily life:
We continue to enjoy good weather here in central West Antarctica. That helps us a lot in preparing our equipment for the traverse. Last year we spent a few days at Byrd when the winds were blowing a lot of snow around and that slowed progress considerably.
The only people remaining in camp are the members of ITASE. The two carpenters, Pat and Gifford, and the mechanic, Dave, left earlier this evening on the final Herc flight. Their help has been invaluable. After a little more than two weeks out here, they were looking forward to returning to McMurdo and hot showers. Dave Anderson, who helped assemble the new Challenger tractor, has just finished overwintering at McMurdo. His time in Antarctica will soon be over as he heads north to New Zealand in a few days time.
For the rest of us, we continued preparations. One of today's big tasks was to begin melting snow to fill our water containers so that we have a ready supply when we arrive at our first drill site. This turned out to be a bigger job than we imagined, because there was a fault with the heating element and Lynn spent the better part of the day fixing this. Sleds and loads are slowly being assembled. The Polarhaven tent we have used for the past two seasons was lifted onto the deck of a sturdier sled and now acts as a sleeping area for Steve N., Allan and Lynn, as well as a mechanic's workshop. Paul, Markus, Allan, Blue, Susan, Dave and Gordon loaded most of the food boxes on the back of this sled. There is one box of food for each week in the field and they each weigh more than 350 lbs so it required a huge effort to load these up on the deck of the sled.
The remaining science equipment and ice core storage boxes arrived on this evening's flight. These items will be loaded onto sleds in the morning and the traverse trains aligned in their correct order. Then we will be ready to go.
Date: 11/18/01
Latitude: 80 degrees South
Longitude: 120 degrees West
Temperature: –21°C( –6°F)
Wind speed: 7 knots
Wind Chill: Not Given
Wind direction: Northwest
Meters of ice collected: 0
Notes on daily life:
Blue and Dave were first up this morning to make the twice weekly phone call back to the museum. The rest of us were up shortly after. Over breakfast we discussed what needed to be done today and asked if anyone needed help with their tasks.
Nearly all the major preparations have been made. We still have final work to do when the remaining science equipment arrives on Monday's flight, but until then there are a lot of small tasks that need our attention. Pat, a carpenter from McMurdo, finished installing our snow melter tank on the outside of our kitchen building, so we spent some time making sure that the heating elements were working. Cobi and Susan organized the stocking of food in the kitchen – inside are all dried and canned foods, drinks and snacks for week 1 and outside, in two cold storage boxes mounted to the wall of the kitchen, is a serious amount of frozen food. Blue, Dan and Dave were tasked with sawing 10 lb bricks of frozen cheese into smaller chunks that can be used one at a time.
Steve A., Allan and Lynn completed the installation of the antenna boom on the new Challenger tractor – this is part of the crevasse detection radar that will operate while we are traversing between drill sites. The boom extends about 5 m forward of the forks on the tractor. At the end of the boom is an inflated inner tube, around which the antenna cable is wrapped. In case you're wondering, yes, we do have spare inner tubes in case of a puncture.
In between all of his carpentry work, Pat found time to make a vast pot of spaghetti sauce for dinner. Today, one of the other carpenters, Gifford was celebrating his birthday, so to help things along we had wine to accompany our spaghetti and chocolate cake to finish the meal off.