A plane arrives and camp experiences a revolution

A picture from our borehole camera from about 90 m depth. To the right is the outline of the bottom end of our fiberglass casing, and the hole continues down into the ice sheet proper.

Today the plane arrived, bringing 15 new members to camp. Two people, HansPeter and Henrik left, so for the 8 remaining of the in-put team, it was no less than a revolution. So many people! However, with the new people came new energy and they brought nice weather too. We used both things. The afternoon was spent cleaning up in camp. Piles of cargo sitting in snow drifts and cargo from today was sorted and distributed. Camp now looks less messy. Today was the first day in 5 days where we could work outside in a constructive manner.

What we have done today:

1. Received Skier 71 in marginal weather conditions.
2. Received 15 new members of camp, and said good bye to two. We are now 23 in camp
3. Finished drilling with HT drill.
4. Deployed borehole camera.
5. Broke down and unpacked arriving cargo pallets.
6. Cleaned up camp for cargo in snow drifts after 5 days of blowing snow.

Ad.1: This is how the drillers report looks today:
“Continued with smooth drilling with the HT drill in dry mode. We have now reached a depth that the full length of the EPICA drill will fit entirely into the new borehole. The HT drill will be dismounted and we will work next with the EPICA drill. We welcomed three new drillers Driller’s depth is 111.80 meter. “

Ad.1: Weather this morning was dominated by snow squalls. For 15 minutes, we could have sunshine and good visibility. 15 minutes later, we would have overcast and snow with low visibility. We kept our fingers crossed, and as the plane came in to land, the weather was fine. The crew was happy with our skiways, and the whole operation was successfully concluded.

Weather: Snow squalls in the morning, later clearing, - 18 °C to -9 °C, 8-19 knots mainly from SSW.
Visibility: 300 m to 5 km. Some blowing snow.

FL, J.P. Steffensen