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Date:   January 9, 2007
Latitude:   80 degrees, 18 minutes, 30 seconds South
Longitude:   144 degrees, 41 minutes, 27 seconds East
Temperature:  −24°C (−11°F)
Wind Speed:   6 knots
Wind Chill:  −32°C (−26°F)
Elevation:  2,279 meters (7,477 feet)
Written by:  Lora
Kilometers Traveled 480
Meters of core drilled: 485

The camp is all a buzz getting everything ready to leave the field.  Andrei, Mike, Dan D., Joe, Gordon, and I were all working at the drill site.  We finished the 2-inch core at a depth of 25 meters.  The 3-inch drill was down to 70 meters at the end of the day with 10 meters more left to drill tomorrow.   Dan B. spent the morning helping at the drill site and then fired up MADGE after lunch.  He was logging the density of the 2–inch core late into the evening.  Paul and Rick spent the day building the ski–way for our take-out flights expected on the 11th, 13th and 15th.  Josh continued building large berms, 10 foot hills of snow, with the dozer CAT. The sleds and vehicles will be set on top of the berms for the winter.  Two and a half berms were completed by the end of the day and Josh will build a total of 10.  The berms help protect the sleds and vehicles from getting drifted in from the blowing snow over the winter.  Brian did one last radar survey yesterday morning and then started packing things up.  He also helped at the drill site in the afternoon.  Cathy continued to inventory food boxes.  At the end of the season we have to construct a master inventory of everything that is in camp.  This helps us plan supplies for next season. 

As you can see, our camp has been very busy.  We are excited to be finishing up our science experiments, which have given us excellent data and samples to work on back in the labs. I am starting to count the days until we are back in McMurdo; warm showers and soft beds and ice cream from the Frosty-Boy machine.  Yes, even though I am on a very cold ice sheet, I still crave ice cream!

Date:   January 10, 2007
Latitude:   80 degrees, 18 minutes, 30 seconds South
Longitude:   144 degrees, 41 minutes, 27 seconds East
Temperature:  −24°C (−11°F)
Wind Speed:   17 knots
Wind Chill:  −38°C (−36°F)
Elevation:  2,279 meters (7,477 feet)
Written by:  Dan D.
Kilometers Traveled 480
Meters of core drilled: 495

The wind started to pick up today, and by the end of the day we were all fairly well chilled. We finished drilling the 3-inch Eclipse core and packed up both drills. The rest of the team continued winterizing the camp, packing up science gear, dragging the ski-way, building berms, making food inventory, etc

A Twin Otter is due to fly in tomorrow and take out Paul, Gordon and Andrei. Paul and Andrei will be flying home briefly and then leaving again after only a few days to conduct fieldwork on the Antarctic Peninsula. Gordon will be returning to McMurdo, meeting up with Leigh Stearns, his graduate student from Maine, and then the two of them will be flying around the continent in a Twin Otter trying to find his coffee can sites from previous ITASE traverses.

Resurveying the coffee can sites is a core part of Gordon’s research. He uses a high–precision GPS unit to measure the exact orientation and position of the coffee can poles. In doing so, he can determine accurate ice flow velocities in both the vertical and horizontal directions. This is called a “coffee can” experiment because when Gordon first started work on this project, he used empty coffee cans as cheap markers to leave on the ice.  They no longer use coffee cans, but the name has stuck.

Gordon’s measurements are essential for the correct interpretation of our ice core records. If the ice is flowing at a speed of 100 meters per year, then the ice in the core that is 200 years old will have originated from a location that is 20 km upflow from the actual drill site location. The topography between the drill site and the 200–year upflow location can have a significant effect on environmental parameters such as accumulation rate; accumulation tends to be higher in topographic troughs and on the lee–side of hills where the wind speed is slightly lower. These topographic accumulation effects must be disentangled from the ice core record before a climatic interpretation based upon accumulation rate can be made.

Date:   January 11, 2007
Latitude:   80 degrees, 18 minutes, 30 seconds South
Longitude:   144 degrees, 41 minutes, 27 seconds East
Temperature:  −22°C (−8°F)
Wind Speed:   21 knots
Wind Chill:  −37°C (−34°F)
Elevation:  2,279 meters (7,477 feet)
Written by:  Lora.
Kilometers Traveled 480
Meters of core drilled: 495

Take out started today.  At 11:00 am Andrei, Paul, Gordon and Josh left for McMurdo on a Twin Otter with a load of science gear. By now they are showered and sleeping in warm soft beds.  We are all a little jealous. The Twin Otter also brought us three people. Michele and Larry, who are carpenters helping with camp take down, and Brendon, a mechanic to replace Josh for the final few days.  Josh left today because he was feeling a little under the weather. 

Those of us remaining in camp continued winterizing things.  Cathy and I inventoried all the items in the kitchen while Dan B., Dan D. and Mike inventoried the Blue Room.  Brian worked on taking down and closing up his radar sled.  Rick continued building berms for the sleds, 6 of the 10 are completed so far.  Camp is closing up nicely and ahead of schedule.  Larry and Michele got right to work strapping the winter over boxes onto the sleds.  Brendon replaced the generator brushes and checked all of its parts for the winter.  He also diagnosed a starting problem for the dozer Cat and will put in a part order for next year.  We are all anxious to get back to McMurdo.  Joe and I packed up our personal gear this evening.  Hopefully the good weather will hold so we can end our successful season on time.