A beautiful day - what a contrast to yesterday

Grooming the skiway with camp in background.

Sunday morning, the crew starts working a little later than normal. Nevertheless, we achieved quite a lot. The drillers now have contact with the drill, and some time was spent on optimizing the communication. They have been discussing with people back home on which version of the software was the best. The weather allowed us to spend the whole day on the skiway with two vehicles in action. We are now almost ready to receive the first aircraft on Tuesday. After dinner, the generator was powered down for a routine oil change so our mechanic and plumber moved the water pump outside, and the rest of the crew installed bunk beds in tents and weatherports.

What we have done today:

1. Working with drill computer and drill software. The drill motor runs again.
2. Work on the drill fluid mixing station. One pump needs some repair.
3. Assembling bunk beds in weatherports and red domes. We have now beds for arriving crew next week.
4. Grooming old skiway. It is now finished.
5. Grooming taxiways and apron to full width.
6. Zig-zag grooming with beam on new ski landing area.
7. Mounting hoses and adapters on aircraft fuelling system.
8. In the evening, main generator power down, and routine oil change.
9. Made items for drillers: Filters and sieves.
10. Moved water pump outside the main dome.

Ad 10: Ever since we got the water supply running, we have been annoyed over the noise from the water pump. It is now placed in an insulated box outside the main dome.

Weather: blue sky, -33°C to -23°C, 1-5 knots from S later NE.
Visibility: Unrestricted.

FL, J.P. Steffensen

Some ice cores planted in the snow at the air sampling site from last year still stick out of the snow, quite weather beaten.