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Date: 12/15/03
Latitude: 82.01 degrees South
Longitude: 96.76 degrees East
Temperature: −22°C( −8°F)
Wind speed: 22 knots
Wind Chill: −37°C( −34°F)
Wind direction: not given
Elevation: 11,720 feet
Kilometers traveled: 890

Notes on daily life:
By Dan

Tom and I concentrated on snow pit sampling today. Yesterday, while I was adjusting the ice core drill, Tom dug a beautiful 2.5m snow pit (complete with semi–spiral staircase and everything). Tom takes a lot of pride in the digging of his snow pits.
I spent the rest of this morning sampling two 1m snow pits at 2cm resolution and in the afternoon Tom helped me sample the 2.5m pit at ~1cm resolution. Snow pit sampling is very cold and monotonous work, the high winds and cold temperatures at this site do not let up. Although the sky is clear and a beautiful deep blue, the temperature is still −22°C and the wind blows at ~22 knots constantly (there is a small fluctuation depending on the time of day). Several trips to our heated living modules were in order to warm up, preventing hypothermia and frostbitten fingers.
The rest of the LGT crew spent the day cleaning up the site, grooming the skiway and preparing several cargo retro pallets that are to be flown out on the plane tomorrow.

At the end of the day everyone was exhausted and after a well–earned dinner decided to try out the solar shower. The solar shower is a five–gallon bag with a tube protruding out of the bottom. In order to take a shower one has to boil some water, fill the bag, take the bag and all personal shower equipment out to the tent, hang the bag in the apex of the tent, strip off and then take a quick shower (and I mean quick!). The wooden pallet is usually coated in ice from the last shower and this can be quite painful on the soles of your feet, but if you turn on the water quickly the ice soon melts and the bare wood actually feels quite warm to the touch.

Matt coined the experience perfectly when he said, “I have never felt as completely naked as I felt taking a shower standing in a snow pit in a tent on the East Antarctic Plateau.”

It sounds like a mortifying experience, but everyone who took a shower was glad they did and felt a lot happier (and cleaner) afterwards.

 

Date: 12/16/03
Latitude: 82.01 degrees South
Longitude: 96.76 degrees East
Temperature: −25°C( −13°F)
Wind speed: 23 knots
Wind Chill: −41°C( −42°F)
Wind direction: not given
Elevation: 11,720
Kilometers traveled: 890

Notes on daily life:
By Dan

Today is our last day at AGO4. The Herc arrived at 21:30 and delivered an additional passenger to the traverse: Tim Watson. Tim is a masters student at Pennsylvania State University and is working for Dr. Andrew Nyblade remediating several broadband seismic stations from the TAMSEIS (Trans–Antarctic Mountains Seismic) scientific experiment. The Herc remained on the ground for quite some time as we loaded it with all our retro cargo pallets. When it came to take–off time the high elevation and heavy load meant that the plane had to use JATO to get off the ground. JATO stands for Jet Assisted Take Off; the Herc has eight small rockets bolted to its rear quarters (four each side) and as it accelerated down the skiway the pilot ignited them to gain extra speed and lift. The result is a spectacular cloud of smoke and flame accompanied by an almighty roar as the plane hurtles past. The JATO provided such an enormous burst of speed and lift that the plane didn’t even use up half the skiway to get into the air.

While drilling this morning, the drill ended up spinning in the hole at depth. This meant that about 12m of drill cable were severely twisted and had to be cut off, then the end of the cable had to be re–terminated. The drill cable is a multi–layered braided steel cable with electrical power wires running through the center. When the time comes to re–terminate the cable the power wires have to be adjusted to the correct length and then re–soldered onto the drill power connector. The cable termination itself is a special piece of looped non–slip wire which wraps around the end of the drill cable and leaves the power connector accessible to connect to the drill. The end result must be very strong because the entire weight of the drill itself hangs from this loop. I re–terminated the drill cable successfully and spent the rest of the afternoon packing up the sleds ready for travel in the morning.