It is warm and we have Christmas snow

This picture is taken from the drivers cabin of our tracked vehicle. A freshly groomed track is to the left. This is how the surface looked until the gale and new snow covered everything. The new snow covers everything like a blanket

The poor contrast from yesterday continued today. And it snows. We have got about 10 cm of new fluffy snow, and since the wind this morning still is strong enough to move this snow, all camp people got a new experience. Walking around is a heavy affair, because in very loose snowdrifts, you sink in to the knees. Needless to say, that this weather does not make it easier for us to get the skiway ready for Thursday. All the new snow has to be groomed an compressed so the plane does not get stuck here on Thursday. It is quite hot ( -7 °C ) and this makes the snow sticky and lumpy. I guess summer has come to NEEM.

What we have done today:
1.  Drilling. Depth: 236.85  m. Bag 430.
2.  Processing NEEM S1 2011 420 m core. Bags 178-231 (97.35m – 127.05m).
3.  Measuring with CFA system. Measured 25.3 m. Depth: 2454.65m
4.  Taking down logger weatherport.
5.  Cleaning up in camp with Snow blowers and Pistenbully.
6.  Groomed skiway lengthwise and turnarounds with beam groomer.

Drillers report: We continued to make good runs with 1.5 m cores, then we needed to re-terminate the cable and to cut off 1 meter. This caused a 4 hour delay. Later, drilling resumed.

Weather: Thick overcast and snow of and on all day. Temp. - 7 °C to - 11 °C ,
12 knots from W, later 2 kt from SSW. Visibility 3 km, during snowfall 1
km.

 FL, J.P. Steffensen