Another glorious day on the ice

Excavation of trench for elevator and staircase.

The camp is changing shape. Sverrir has removed all snow drifts around garages, and they are now level with the surface. Also, the old skiway is gone, and the new one is fully marked, but it runs in a different direction. Perspectives change as an anchor point in this white ocean changes position. And I have an excuse to make, the ugly igloo I mentioned yesterday was not intended to be an igloo. It’s a dinosaur, a fully bred brachiosaurus made from snow blocks. So much for mister know-it-all, Field Leader. I offer my humblest apologies to the artists. Tonight Sarah served sushi and red curry chicken with wasabi, soy sauce and stir fried vegetables, later H.C. made Danish layer cakes, and people decided to celebrate Sverrirs non-birthday.

What we have done today:

1. Drilling.
2. Logging ice cores. Last Bag logged: 223, depth 122.65 m
3. New skiway fully marked. We are now working on the approaches, the apron and taxi ways. The old skiway is taken down.
4. Excavating for elevator and staircase.
5. Building up in the CFA laboratory.
6. Removing large snow drifts in camp. The Western side of camp is now flat.
7. Setting up tables and saws in science trench.
8. Excavating cave for physical properties studies.
9. Working on assembling the new NEEM drill.

Ad.1: This is how the drillers report looks today:
“Two slush runs with the borehole filter produced 10 kg of chips (wet weight) left in the hole after 13 runs with the EPICA drill. Drilling continued in a normal mode with the EPICA throughout the rest of the day with one slight modification to the drill head. A 0.02 mm shim was placed under the shoes to reduce the cutting pitch. Work continued on assembly of the Long Drill. Some precision adjustments by Steff are needed to make all the parts fit together properly. Both winch control boxes are now mounted along the drill trench wall for easy access if a back up is needed. Slowly the drill trench infrastructure is getting tuned in for efficient work while the drill is on the surface. Driller’s depth is now 145 meters.”

Ad.2: The ice core logging has proceeded into the core drilled in fluid. It appears to be relatively easy to wipe the cores clean with paper towels. The cores can be marked with a pencil. The logging software works fine.

Weather: Clear all day, -22°C to -11°C, 3-5 knots mainly from S.
Visibility: Unrestricted. Beautiful, again.

FL, J.P. Steffensen