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2007

Date: November 14, 2007
Location: ITASE Winter Over Site
Latitude: 80 degrees, 18 minutes South
Longitude: 144 degrees, 41 minutes East
Temperature: −37°C ( −35°F)
Wind Speed: 7 knots
Wind Chill: −49°C (−56°F)
Elevation: 2191 meters (7189 feet)
Kilometers Traveled: 0
Ice Core Drilled: 0 meters
Written by: Nicky

No delays today! Not mechanical, not weather, not otherwise. Our flight arrives, as anticipated, with Josh, the new generator and the remainder of our fuel. While cargo is being loaded and unloaded Josh and Kasey have time to talk about what's been done during Josh's recovery period and what still needs to be done. Then Kasey hops on his flight back to McMurdo (not a moment too soon, we're sure!). Our 11 person team is now complete (at least until Sharon arrives in December) and all we're waiting for is the radiator and the fan for the Dozer CAT.

As a follow–up to yesterday's crevasse detecting radar lecture the PB is fired up for the "lab" portion of the course, if you will. We all take a turn riding with the radar screen in our laps watching the rate at which the data scrolls across the screen and begin to train ourselves to watch the lower right hand corner of the screen, rather than the middle (like you would for TV). As I said in yesterday's log there are no big crevasses in our immediate vicinity, so the best we can do to show some disturbance of the stratigraphy (layering of snow and ice) is to put the detector directly over a metal airforce pallet, in which case the stratigraphy completely disappears and you have a big empty spot on the screen.

In addition to our radar training, many of yesterday's tasks roll over into today. More work is done on the 2 inch drill by Mike, Gordon, Dan D. and Dan B. Paul tests the instituteís new skis to see how they'll fair when he and Dan D. do surface snow sampling away from camp at a later point in the traverse. Brian digs his ropes and cables out of the deep snow drift they've been covered by over the last couple of days and carefully lays them out again in anticipation of a test run. Elena and Luci melt snow for water and continue to search for an optimal arrangement of the food sled. I unpack my light table, sweep the blowing snow out of all its electrical components, put in the bulbs, cross my fingers, plug it in, and it still works! Luke and Josh work together to get the new generator set up properly.

Basically, we all stay busy doing the best we can to make sure that our outfit is totally prepared for departure at the earliest conceivable date. And we now know that when that day comes our driving will be split between two 5 person teams each driving 4 hours, resting 4 hours and so on. Those five people will have the following jobs 1) PB driver 2) Crevasse Radar Watcher, 3) Fork CAT driver, 4) Dozer CAT driver, 5) Radar (either Dan B. or Gordon) and the teams will be split like so (for the time being):

TEAM 1: Josh, Dan. D., Nicky, Elena, Dan B.
TEAM 2: Paul, Mike, Luke, Luci, Gordon

Brian will be a team of his own, as apparently riding on his sled requires an iron stomach!!

 

Date: November 15, 2007
Location: ITASE Winter Over Site
Latitude: 80 degrees, 18 minutes South
Longitude: 144 degrees, 41 minutes East
Temperature: −31°C ( −24°F)
Wind Speed: 4 knots
Wind Chill: −39°C (−38°F)
Elevation: 2191 meters (7189 feet)
Kilometers Traveled: 0
Ice Core Drilled: 0 meters
Written by: Nicky

Ah, science! Today we test the 2" drill. This activity serves a number of purposes. Last year this drill had a tendency to be a bit finicky and generally did not return nice core. So, this year a few minor modifications have been made and we'd like to know the result of those efforts. Second, Dan B. has a new instrument, a downhole density logger (not yet having a snappy name like MADGE) meant to provide an indication of areas so soft they may crumble before the core is above ground (and thus be lost from the record). This instrument has never been down a borehole and a testing of the drill will also give him a chance to test his instrument. Finally, Elena and I have never seen an ice core drill in operation, let alone operated one. Unlike the 3" Eclipse drill, this drill is manually operated, so you do have to know what pins to pull, when to stop the hand winch, etc. This is our opportunity to learn. Lucky for us, we're being taught by a very experienced driller, our very own Mike W.

Before the drilling lesson can proceed we need to fix up our power source. Dan B. and I spend the morning building battery boxes to house the batteries and the charge controller. These will be hooked to both the solar panel and the drill. Once this task is complete the lesson commences. Mike, Dan D. and Gordon provide instructions to Elena and I about how to operate the drill. Mike drills the first several meters and then Elena and I have a chance. It seems to me that this drill could probably be operated by only two people, so long as they possess an uncanny synchronicity of thought and action. But for now there are at least three people at the site at all times, all of whom are involved in what seems like choreographed movement. The pins go in and out, the drill goes up and down, the handle goes round and round. The test is quite successful, it appears that the modifications have done the job and we end the afternoon having drilled a leisurely 11 meters. We're all very happy about this result.

Throughout the day, those instructing at the drill site peel off to do things of thier own. Dan D. left to work on the 3" Kovaks drill (a manually operated drill meant to provide a record of the upper meters of snow/firn, typically lost when using the Eclipse drill). Brian takes a test ride in his sled and finds that all is well. Everyone else begins the work of organization and consolidation. We have a plane coming tomorrow and it is bringing CAT parts...this means we're almost out of here!