GRIP

Well it was another beautiful day on the ice sheet. This morning I downloaded all of my data and made a few graphs. I was very happy with the data so I took the afternoon off and went with the DISC drill team on a field trip to the GRIP ice core site.

Yes I know you may be asking what does a field trip look like on an ice sheet. Don’t worry I will tell you as well as post of few photos. Make sure you look out for the new red darthlora.

Let me go back a step. First the Disc drill team is group getting the new deep ice core up and running. This core can core for kilometers into the ice sheet. They are testing it at Summit this year and then in about 18 months it will start drilling the next long ice core in Antarctica. The Disc drillers are all really cool. They are easy to spot because they are all from Wisconsin and speak with accents. (Some claim to be from other places but I find this suspect because of the strategic use and command of the word eh and they are all drinking Milwaukee’s Best.) Actually there are so many people here from Wisconsin I think Summit may be annex into the state. The Veco sport Staff are running a close second in an attempt to claim summit for Montana. Actually there are no posted speed limits so maybe they beat the Wisconsin’s to it.

Ok back on track now that you know the people I am around. The field trip: We had no school buses just Naansen sleds behind skidoos. The uniform was red and puffy. Image a group of grown ups three to a sled all sitting on each others laps, legs out, bouncing around in giant puffy red coats, that was our transport. We ride in style. A special thanks to Michelle for lending me here puffy red coat, I fit right in.

It was about 25 km out to the GRIP site. The site was abandoned in 1993. It is now completely buried from about 1 meter of accumulation a year. There were many building but we can still get into one because people have dug a hole into the skylight in the roof. OK this is a little safety last but don’t worry we had a rope and Andrew the adventure medic. So to get into the building you slide down a hole/tunnel. You slide about 7 meters until you hit a skylight. At this point you push back the broken plastic of the skylight and slide through the hole where a ladder has been placed. Down the ladder and you are on the second floor of a geodesic dome. This I believe was a sleep loft and office judging by the bunk beds and desks. Then down the stairs into a kitchen area. Last time they measured it was about -55 F in the dome. For the first time in my life I had icicles hanging form my eyelashes. Your breath would instantly freeze onto you facemask and eyelashes.

On the bottom floor of the dome, we should have had about 13 meters of snow over head. Everything at the camp was abandoned. There was still food on the shelves and other random junk. There was a Danish newspaper from Jan 1, 1993. (Ok I can’t read the Danish months but I was told it said January, wish HC was here) The floors of the dome are all bulging in for the weight of the snow.

As we were leaving I got a picture by the drill shaft. I have now stood on the spot of one of our greatest Paleoclimate records. Very cool. To top it all off as we were loading the sleds Andrew the Adventure medic decided to deem the dome a hazard so we may be the last people to ever go into the GRIP camp.

The day ended with a BBQ and a game of snow horse shoes. I actually was quite pleased with my horse shoe skills, however, it was a bit slow of a game to play in the snow. Perhaps we could have a running game next time to generate more heat. -26 C -14 F out right now. Amazingly it really doesn’t feel very cold.

Summit Arrival

Well I made it to summit. It was a great flight out of Kanger to Summit on a C 130. I have already forgotten the tail number of the plane. All the cool kids remember the tail number so they know which planes they have been on. I flew in to Summit with one of the coolest kids, Bob Hawley. He has helped me get settled in to Summit. On the flight I was able to get to a window and see the edge of the ice sheet. I also got to hang out in the cockpit for awhile. It was a super comfortable flight compared to the one over from New York. We had tons of space to spread out all over the cargo area.

Our plane was greeted by Meredith, Justin, Shelley and Aaron. Shelley and Aaron left on the plane I came in on.

I am amazed by Summit Camp. It is huge. I have included some photos. Kathy is the Camp manager and I have a feeling Kat and Julia put in a good word for me. Actually I know they did because Kathy gave me a real bed with a dresser in a heated jamesway tent. The jamesway tent is a large tent that looks like a half cylinder. Currently I am typing this while lying in my bed. I have a power outlet, heat, water, wireless internet, skype and a window. The food is amazing. I have already eating about 10 days worth of food in two meals. My first meal here was lunch. Rosemary and Sarah, the cooks, made homemade Macs and Cheese, my favorite! Also at Summit there are 2 TV’s, lots of movies, a gym, a perfectly groomed skiway which you can ski on, games, showers, flush toilets. As far as I can tell right now it rival the Hyatt Regency Waikoloa with much better food. I can’t believe this is field work. I have even looked for a mean hatch and there appears to be none. As a matter of fact there is a medic here just incase I do find a mean hatch.

Today was a rest day. I have had no troubles with the altitude. Tomorrow I will get my gear ready and get a snowmobile lesson. Should be digging pits in a few days.

Technical difficulties

I could not get blogspot to upload my picture for the Swiss Camp Blog. To go http://students.washington.edu/lorak/swissblog.shtml
to see the photos that go with the text.
:-)

Swiss Camp

Had a good time at Swiss Camp. Left Kanger on a twin otter. We had breakfast in the morning at the kanger café. Koni was talking to people at the next table. It was apparent that they were Canadian. They were talking about how they wanted get home, Canada is not very far away, to watch the NHL championships. I laughed and noted that no one even missed the NHL when it was gone. I didn’t think much about this knock on the NHL until I got the tarmac to load the plane. It just so happened that the guys at the next table were the pilots. I apologized profusely for insulting the NHL while asking where the air sickness bags were located. The pilot just had a grin on his face saying you will pay for your commentary on the NHL. Even though the pilot could have gotten me back, we had a great flight. Rule #1 Do not insult the sport of hockey when you are on an ice sheet.

As soon as we took off you could see the edge of the ice sheet. It was about an hour flight to Swiss camp and we went right over Jacobshaven, one of the fastest moving glaciers in the world. (see the photo it was amazing) We had a beautiful sunny flight. As we approached Swiss Camp we could see its three red tents as well and Ginny, Tom and Julie’s camp. I was very excited to see Ginny and give them their care packages. The landing on the ice was very smooth. It was about 0 C out. Not very cold no wind. It was gorgeous. There were 6 of us coming in. Koni, Jay, Kevin, Louis, Jose, and I.

We unloaded the gear and the plane left us. We started the two day process of digging out Swiss camp from a years worth of snow and Ice. We had to start the snowmobiles that are stored on the roofs and shovel out the snow that had gotten into the hallways that connect the tents. We also put up our sleeping tents. You get into Swiss camp through a hatch in the roof. Then you go down a steep ladder into the sauna room. This room connects to the kitchen and the “icey hall” that connects to the work tent and the sleeping tent. The sleeping tent is not used because it is half full of ice. You can see all this in the photos.

I call the hatch the mean hatch. You see the first few days at Swiss Camp were a bit misleading. It was beautiful warm and sunny. There was no wind. Since Swiss camp is on the edge of the ice sheet it is generally affected by large katabatic winds that flow down from the top of the ice sheet. About 3 days into being at Swiss camp the winds picked up. Then it was very difficult to keep the hatch from blowing closed. One morning when we had winds in excess of 20 m/s Jay warned us that the hatch could swing closed and kill someone so be careful. Well Jay was wrong. The mean hatch does not actually kill but it smashes and bruises hands rather well. Right before dinner that night I took out the slop bucket where we dump waste water. I was walking up the ladder, which was already my nemesis because it was really hard to carry boxes and gear up and down it without falling. I had opened the hatch before navigating the ladder with the approx 30 pound bucket. Just as I put my right hand on the top, the hatch swung closed. I must have put my left hand up and stopped the full force of the hatch from hitting my hand. In the end I ended up falling off the ladder into a puddle of slop with a very swollen hand. I immediately iced my hand which was rather easy on an ice sheet. It still hurts when I dig and I think it has a permanent bump on the back. I was lucky I didn’t break anything. Rule #2 Never open the mean hatch before climbing up the ladder.

I had a great 29th birthday on the ice sheet. I slept in until 9:00am. When I got flack for this at breakfast I said, “I can do anything I want today. It my Birthday.” At dinner Jay made sushi. Yes Sushi on the ice sheet. Swiss camp has the best food on the ice sheet. Anyways for my B-day party Ginny, Tom and Julie came over and we had all you can eat sushi. It was really fun. I also got a present from Louis, who is Swiss. I got a Swiss army knife and Swiss Chocolate. Rule #3 Eat lots of Swiss Chocolate instead of cake when celebrating birthdays on Ice Sheets.

Some more about the food at Swiss Camp. Yes we really eat well. We eat lobster, filet minon and cheese fondue. There is no official cook here but Jay Zwally is the unofficial chief. His cooking is even better than his science. (Jay basically started the field of passive microwave remote sensing of snow and ice) The only problem is that most of the food does look like the animal it came from. No matter I still ate it and it was great. I really liked the Lobster tail dipped in butter. I did skip all red meat. Koni made cheese fondue, yes it was from a box but he added special Swiss liquors to kick it up a notch. Bammmmmm Rule #4 When eating on an Ice Sheet go to Swiss Camp and make sure Jay is in camp.

Two journalists arrived at Swiss camp by helicopter. One was from a Swiss magazine named Facts, Thomas, and the second, Paul, from National Geographic Adventure. They arrived right after big snow storm, it snowed about 20 cm. Then the wind picked up and the wind blew in our faces for 2 days straight. This was not really pleasant. This horrible storm started a few hours after the journalist arrived at camp. I blamed the journalist for the bad weather. Rule #5 Journalist with nice cameras, that can not have blowing snow in them, will always bring bad weather to an Ice Sheet

So we sat in our tents for a few day. I watched Sex in the City with Ginny and Tom. Then I went crazy and decided I would take my measurements no matter what. I couldn’t stand being on an ice sheet and not getting data. This was a rookie mistake. I geared up in my Darthlora gear. A quick aside. Somehow all of my gear is black. When I get all geared up I look either like a snow ninja or Darthlora. The journalist loved my outfit as well as Ginny. I have posed for many photos doing ninja kicks and saying, “ Luke I am your mother.” See the photo with my lovely glasses that I have named Ed. Ok back to the rookie mistake. So geared up head to toe in goretex and I took on the Swiss Camp blowing snow. I dug my pit and jumped in armed with my Radiometer and Thermal Conductivity probes. What I forgot was a shovel. Within minutes my 168 cm pit was only 158 cm. then 140cm. I bragged the shovel. I dug while taking measurements at the same time. I struggled to keep the snow off the radiometer horn with one hand and shoveled with the other. I finally gave up. Well actually the key pad I use to start the equipment froze up. I brought the equipment inside to access the damage of blowing snow in all my electronics. The final damage that night was a broken Campbell datalogger key pad. I decided to let the rest of the equipment dry out over night before powering it up again. Then next morning I started the AC/DC converter used for the Radiometer and get this it caught on fire. Yes my first ever electrical fire. Who would have thought that adding a little water would start a fire. This was bad because I could not run the Radiometer with out the converted. I was very lucky that that day the journalist were leaving and the Swiss Electricians were coming in to install a wind generator. I basically attacked Karl upon hopping out of the Helicopter and got him to help me rewire the radiometer through a 100 amp battery lent to me by Ginny, which I attached to a generator charger. This got the radiometer back up and running.
Rule #6 When you are on an Ice Sheet bring Arcteryx cloths for your equipment as well as yourself.

A little about my science measurements. When we first got here it was above freezing. There was actually to much water and it was too warm to take many of my measurements. Then it snowed and turned into blowing snow which tried to ruin the equipment. Finally it cleared and we had great weather. We drove the snowmobile up 50 km and I got a really good set of data. I am very happy with the measurements I got. I took both Thermal Conductivity measurements and Radiometer extinction length measurements. The extinction length measurements are the first ever on an ice sheet. I hope they turn out well when I process them more back in Seattle. Rule #7 When it is sunny and Kevin helps you dig your measurement will turn out just fine.

Some thoughts on Ice Sheet life. Ice sheet life is not that hard. It has not been that cold -15 C one night but usually just below 0 C. The wind has been a bit harsh some days but a face mask make everything fine. There are no trees to hide behind when use the restroom on an ice sheet. I never really though about that before. We have a pea pole which I feel is self explanatory with out a picture. The worst thing about ice sheet life is snowmobiles. Why have a machine that you spend more time digging out and fixing than actually using. I think we should all have lighter equipment and skies or just use helicopters. The only time I have been cold has been on the snowmobiles. I have included a photo of the snowmobile in its most common appearance, hood up. The snowmobiles are mounted with GPS and you just follow the arrow to navigate on the ice sheet. It is amazing how disorienting a flat white ice sheet can be. Especially when you can not tell what is sky and what is snow. The GPS are essential when using a snowmobile. My hate affair with the snowmobiles started on my birthday morning, Jay told me to take the snowmobile about 1k from camp and use the GPS to navigate back. After using all of my energy to start the snowmobile with the pull cord, it took at least 15 minutes of constant pulling, I collapsed on to the seat. I pushed the throttle and started off the snow drift. I immediately drove into a hole with a another snow drift in front of me. I could not get out of the hole and was not heavy enough to rock the snowmobile free. I was not strong enough to lift the snowmobile. It was a good think I had only made it 10 meters from camp when I got the snowmobile stuck. I spent the next hour and a half crying in humiliation and digging the snowmobile out. Yes I am the first person to only make it 10 meters away from camp during my snowmobile lesson. The next day I went out with Tom and Ginny to help with a radar line. They gave me some ski doo and ski don’ts. This helped a bit. Also in the short time I have been here I have learned to replace spark plugs and drive belts on snowmobiles. I pretty much know all about the snowmobile engine because everything has broken on the them. I can’t believe people use these for recreations. I hate snowmobiles and they hate me. Give me a set of skies anyday. Rule #8 Never take a snowmobile away from camp if you don’t have two of every part in the engine.

The second to last day in camp it snowed hard about a foot of snow. The most they have seen. We spent a lot of time indoors. I watched some more sex in the city with Tom, Ginny and Julie. IN the afternoon we ventured out to dig out some equipment. It was rather miserable. The last day in camp was gorgeous. Huge snow drifts, no wind, lots of sun. A lot of work could have been done but In the morning we managed to break something on every ski doo. The camp turned into and assemble line of broken ski doos being fixed. One even had to be retrieved on a sled. That afternoon I started to dig my tent out of the snow drift it had accumulated in my time at Swiss Camp. I spent about an hour. Then Kevin and I started making snow angles. The snow was to lite to make a snow man. Rule #9 You must add water to ice sheet snow to make a proper snowman.

That night Ginny, Tom and Julie came over for the last dinner at Swiss Camp. A Swiss Cheese fondue. It was great. After dinner we played fresbie in the midnight sun. It was really fun. You could dive in the fresh snow. The wind was picking up a little bit. At 3:00 am I was woken up by the sound of my tent flapping. The Swiss Camp winds were back in full force and this time they had over a foot of powdery snow to redistribute. I did not sleep well that night. I woke up at 6:45 and stuffed my sleeping bag. I was not sure if the twin otter could land in these winds. I went over to Tom’s tent while he called in the weather. This was relayed to the pilots and they said they would fly. We started packing in the 20+ knot winds. My glasses were getting filled with blowing snow while digging out the tents. We broke down our tents in the crazy wind. It was really difficult the four of us all had to work on one tent at a time. We got everything packed and in a cargo line for the plane. Then we waited in the kitchen for the sound of the engine. The plane came in. It brought in a LA Times reporter. He was happy to see me in my Darthlora gear and for the last time I posed for pictures. This time I apparently had a long icicle hanging from my darthlora nose. Lovely, I hope that makes front page news. That morning was the only time my face mask froze up from the blowing snow. It was -16 C. we got on the flight for another beautiful ride back to Kanger.

I am finishing this blog lying on my bed at KISS. I have showered, napped and ate. I think I may go for a quick jog to burn off some of the Swiss Chocolate I have consumed. I will rest here again tomorrow and do laundry. Then it is off to Summit on the 24th.
I miss you all.

After a walk

 
 
 
 

Went for a walk to settle the stomach after pizza. Here are the pretty pics. We saw 3 Musk Ox. I felt quite sorry I had just tasted one. It is very beautiful, sunny and even warm 40 with some wind. If you look to the back of the landscape pictures you can see a straight feature which is the ice sheer. The other pics show the ox and kanger in all it's glory. Oh and the fjord out to the sea. 

KISS

I made it thought the entire C130 flight without getting sick. We were very lucky because of a strong tail wind we had enough fuel to fly directly to Kangerlussuaq. This was a very good thing because if we had landed twice my first sentence would no longer be true.

I woke up at 4:00 am this morning. I heaved my bags out to the minivan taxis and loaded up for a 10 minute drive to the 109th air national guard base. After showing my passport and getting weighted, it was still per 5:00 am. We sat in a room and watched CNN. The typical military hurry up and wait. We were briefed and watched a short safety video on EPOS. Some hood that supplies oxygen and makes you look like a space man. Then at about 7:00 am we got on buses. We loaded onto the C130 and took off at 8:00 am. I have no idea what anything looked like because there are no windows when you are cargo. I was riding with 30 other scientists. At first we all had our coats on. Then the heater kicked on. Here is the irony, during my entire flight to Greenland I thought I was going to die of heat exhaustion. The seats were fine and I was not too uncomfortable because I am small. I moved around a few times and got to go up to the flight deck. We were in the clouds so the view was not spectacular. It was cool to see all the instruments on the plane.

At about 1:15 pm (still New York time) they announced we were landing. I was feeling great. No motion sickness even with no windows. Then the decent started. According to my stomach I think we barrel rolled about 10 times. There certainly was a quick decent and then we landed. I got out at a typical air strip to have my ID checked and stamped. Are bags came off in pallets. Now I am at KISS (Kangerlussuaq International Science Station. It was an old barracks. Shelley and I are sharing a room. Tomorrow Shelley will head to Summit and I to Swiss Camp. I have meet the other four people headed to Swiss Camp and they all seem nice.

I am headed out for a walk to try and find a Musk Ox. Tonight we are having Musk Ox Pizza. I am not kidding. Haven’t yet decided it I will try it or not.

Excited to be in Greenland. There is a little patchy seasonal snow on the ground. It is 60 degrees, very warm. So far I have been overly hot and over dress. Haven’t actually seen the ice sheet yet.

Later…. Walked around a bit. It is getting cooler. It will be light until midnight. I accidentally ate Musk Ox from the Veggie Pizza. Also had pizza with pineapple, shrimp and other random fish.

Schenectady Public Library

No matter where you are going, or how cheap it is NEVER FLY UNITED. The first leg of my trip has been rather stressful. I arrived at Seatac at 10:00 pm on May 5th for an 11:20 pm flight. I had given myself plenty of time to get my science gear cleared through security and to make sure my warm cloths in checked luggage made the flight. I swiped my credit card thought the self check-in kiosk ready to drop my bags and head to security. The kiosk would have none of that. The screen said see an agent. I knew this was bad since United had already charged my credit card twice for the same ticket. Apparently when they had refunded one of the tickets then voided both tickets. Once 11:00 rolled around, and I was in tears, the Lady at the counter finally said I could head to security. Thankfully security didn't look twice at my equipment and sent me right thought. I have never been so happy to be a small-non-threatening-looking women. This left me approximately 15 minutes to take the train to the N terminal and make my flight. I ran fast.

I made the flight but I was sure my bags would not. For the next 3 hours I contemplated how cold I would be without my luggage. I calculated all possible flight connections to get my baggage to New York ASAP. I didn't sleep much on the red eye.

Here is something funny, the Seattle flight to Chicago lets out at a gate with a Starbucks. There was an instant line of junkies so I joined it for a tall peppermint hot chocolate skim with whip. I slept a bit in the airport and ate my Essential bread with Salumi meat. Ymmmmmmm. I boarded the flight to Schenectady and immediately feel asleep. I woke up about 2 minutes before landing. It was drizzling when the plane arrived. I looked out through my rain covered window and watched the conveyor-belt-o-bags. I first saw my giant red bag. That meant I would have a sleeping bag and parka. Yeah. Then I saw my blue bag. Amazingly all my bags made the flight. According to all the special tags added to my luggage, the United ladies in Seattle got the bags special delivered to the aircraft.

So now I am waiting to check into my hotel. I left my bags at the reception and asked about a public library. Lucky for me the library is about 2 blocks from the hotel. It has free WiFi and today is their annual book sale. This was prefect because I wanted one more book. I spent an hour looking at all the books and settled on "The Feminine Mystique" for 50 cents. I can't think of a better book to read while on an ice sheet with lots of men. This afternoon I will hit the gym and pool at the hotel before heading to bed around 6 or 7 pm if I can make it that long. That will give me a good night sleep before I have to be at the Air National Guard Base at 5:15 am tomorrow. Next stop Kangerlussuaq.