We have the best weather ever this season

Snow blower in action on this beautiful day.

A number of important steps were taken today. The drillers poured fluid into the borehole in preparation of deep ice core drilling. One of the broken winch controllers was repaired. We now have a backup. The last finishing touches were made to the drill trench, and now it is ready. Weather was fine; it was a pleasure to work outside. Some were grooming the skiway, some were installing beds and yet some were excavating trenches. All in all it was a productive day.

What we have done today:

1. Inspecting skiway. Grooming away ruts from yesterday’s plane. Writing report on flight operations.
2. 2nd floor of main dome turned into workshop for construction of water vapour sampling station.
3. Setting up bunk beds in three weatherports.
4. Working on inclined trench to drill trench.
5. Ice core pull out table ready.
6. Logging table almost ready.
7. One broken new winch controller repaired. We now have two working winch controllers.
8. Work on composition of drill fluid mixture. Result: A mixture of 65-35 needed.

Ad .5, 7 and 8: This is how the drillers report looks today:

“The second winch control was repaired by Jakob. It was hooked up and tested and is available as a backup. The proper mixing ratio for the two drill liquids is approximately 65:35 (Estisol:Coasol). 350 liters of this mixture have now been dumped into the borehole. The 134 mm diameter borehole requires 14.1 liters of drill liquid per meter (not including losses on the surface and in the chips). The rest of the day was spent preparing the trench to receive long cores. The core receiving table was finished, the core barrel pull out table was adjusted and aligned with the tower, construction of the core logging station (which will now be in the drill trench) was started, and the ventilation system was opened and activated. Modifications to the drill software were also made.”

Weather: Clear all day, fog in the evening, - 23 °C to -13 °C, 10-14 knots mainly from S.
Visibility: 1 km (due to fog) to unrestricted.

FL, J.P. Steffensen