ICEBLOG

Friday, 7th July: The last three leave Station Nord.

2006-07-07T16:37:00.000+02:00

At noon the Twin Otter left Station Nord for Longyearbyen with Dorthe, Sverrir and Trevor. They are expected in Copenhagen Sunday evening.
There was just time to re-erect our kitchen weatherport from Flade Isblink at Station Nord. During summer the weatherport will serve a living quarters for scientists at Station Nord.

This is the last entry in the diary from Flade Isblink. It has been an eventful season – a little more dramatic than we are used to; but we got what we came for: All results indicate that the new drilling fluid works, so our primary goal is reached. We have got 430 m of the possible 600 m ice core and it is going to be interesting to see the climate history of Flade Isblink unfold as we analyze the core. The radar operations of our colleagues from the University of Kansas have also been successful, so all in all it has not been a bad season.

We are grateful for the financial support from The Danish Research Council for Nature and Universe (FNU) and National Science Foundation (NSF-OPP) that made this project possible. We thank the New York Air National Guard (109th TAG) and VECO for wonderful support and Danish Polar Center for logisic support.

A special thank you from all of us to the Danish Forces four FUT's (Svend, Thomas, Kim and Klaus) and the Royal Danish Air Force personel at Aalborg Air Base for their competent assistance.

Thursday, 6th July: Cargo is re-packed and dried.

2006-07-07T16:36:00.000+02:00

The Twin Otter is fully occupied transporting people for other projects from Longyear-byen in Svalbard to Station Nord.

During the day our three re-packed our cargo and dried out boxes and crates. The cargo is put on pallets and made ready for transport to Denmark by C-130 later in July, along with the ice cores. During the coming weeks the ice cores remain in the freezer at Station Nord.

Wednesday, 5th July: Flade Isblink camp is now closed.

2006-07-07T16:35:00.000+02:00

As the e-mail connection with people in the field is now closed, the following is composed in Copenhagen:

At 0600 the Twin Otter flew to Flade Isblink to pick up the remaining cargo. As in prevoius days the weather was marginal: Fog, and poor visibility. At 1315 Dorthe could report taht all cargo had been retrieved from camp site. During the last flight the Danish C-130 arrived in Station Nord. The cargo from the previous day was loaded on board, while the ice cores and the rest of the cargo had to wait. Dorthe, Sverrir and Trevor said good bye to Lars, Peter and Nancy who left on the C-130 for Denmark.

Now tree people remain at Station Nord.

Tuesday, 4th July: We have picked up the ice core.

2006-07-05T13:39:00.000+02:00

We wake up in the same dense fog, but at 1200 the fog is lifting so at 1215 we depart with the Twin Otter towards Flade Isblink. Unfortunately, the fog still shrouds the center part of the ice cap, and it doesn’t look like we are going to make it to camp. However we get the most fantastic ride to camp: Capt. Jim Haffey finds a clear spot some 10 km from camp, and then we “surf” a few meters above the surface all the way to camp. Well done! We taxi to the spot where the ice crates are buried. We excavate the crates from the wet snow while it is raining and pull the completely soaked crates up. Luckily the ice in the crates is still “ice”, and we manage to load 18 crates into the Twin Otter that takes off towards Station Nord in the first attempt. One hour later the Twin Otter lands again, and we load the remaining 21 crates. At the third Twin Otter landing, the fog has closed in again and reduced visibility to 300m, so we decide to load priority cargo and ourselves.
We take out all Kansas equipment so that we may send it back to Kansas quickly. We are so happy that we now have still solid ice cores in our freezer being cooled down to -20 C.

In the evening we have a special 4th July meal: Hamburgers.
After supper we build a pallet for the Danish C-130 consisting of all the cargo we have retrieved from camp and personal gear left at Nord.

Tomorrow the Danish C-130 will arrive. In the original plan it was intended that everybody and all cargo, including the ice should go back on this plane. Since we still have 5 tons of cargo on the ice, we decide that Dorthe, Sverrir and Trevor remain at Station Nord and that only Lars, Peter and Nancy fly back tomorrow.

If weather permits, we will pick up the rest of the cargo at Flade Isblink, dry out the equipment and palletize it for later C-130 transport to Denmark.

Weather at Station Nord: Fog in the morning, lifting during the day, sunny in the evening. Temperatures: 0 deg. C

Monday, 3rd July: Boring fog.

2006-07-05T13:37:00.000+02:00

A really boring day of waiting in dense fog. Visibility never exceeds 400 m and this halts all flight operations. The highlight of the day is Trevors cake baking project.

Weather at Station Nord: Fog, no wind and 0 deg C.

Sunday, 2nd July: Arrival of the Twin Otter. First attempt failed.

2006-07-03T23:03:00.000+02:00

Twin Otter sitting in weather not suited for flying.

The Twin Otter crew start to work at 1800 after crew rest and start to mount skis on the plane. At 2200 we fly towards Flade Isblink. Unfortunately the weather has become progressively worse during the day and we are not able to land at the camp site. During flight we saw the margin of the ice cap, and it is now heavily affected by melting, and we saw several melt water rivers between the ice cap and Station Nord. It is now impossible to drive to camp by snow mobile. We saw the cargo line in camp as we flew over and we observed that it rained on the windscreens of the Twin Otter. The climax of the day is a walk to the other end of the run way at Station Nord with Thomas and Lars from Station Nord and all their sled dogs (At Station Nord there are now three Lars’es: Little Lars (our 7 foot guy), Lars the cook and Lars).

Saturday, 1st July: We wait for the Twin Otter

2006-07-03T22:59:00.000+02:00

The tough Flade Isblink crew (the rifle is compulsory as polar bear protection).

Another day of waiting. Weather is fine so we take a walk to the drinking water lake. Later in the day rumours start to come in, that the Twin Otter is coming and that it will arive Sunday morning at 0600 hours. We spend a really nice Saturday evening with the people at Station Nord and enjoy the fantastic food prepared by the chef (Lars).

Weather at Station Nord: Sunny and windy.

Friday, 30th June: Waiting at Station Nord.

2006-07-01T23:21:00.000+02:00

Spring has arrived in Station Nord, and the lemmings are out. We wait the whole day on news about airplane or helicopter. The day passes with ‘pre-sleep naps’ before and after meals. The internet cafe is open and is used intensely. In the evening we watch a movie in building 19: Aliens vs. Predators which begins with a tough expedition to Antarctica. Late in the day we learn that the Twin Otter has received permission to fly in Greenland. We hope to get our cargo out before Wednesday 5th July.

Weather at Station Nord: Fine with winds up to 12 m/s from S. There were clouds at Flade Isblink, and we believe that winds have been high on top of the ice cap.

Thursday, 28th June: Goodbye to four.

2006-07-01T23:18:00.000+02:00

There are no news about airplane or helicopter so we decide to stick to our plan to send four people back on the Danish Challenger. At lunch time the Royal Danish Air Force Challenger arrives, and an hour later we say good bye to sigfus, Steff, Bo and Thorsteinn. The Challenger is a small jet for 7 passengers. It is equipped with leather seats with good leg space so the four departing people enjoyed a luxury ride of 3.5 hours to Denmark.

Weather at Station Nord: Fog in the morning, sun the rest of the day. We can see our snow mobile tracks going down off Flade Isblink from Station Nord.

Wednesday, 28th June: The great journey by sled to Station Nord.

2006-06-30T00:11:00.000+02:00

This is where all the ice core boxes are buried.

This is our cargo line.

Everybody is up at 0300 and before breakfasr we all take our tents down (North Face 12' domes). Breakfast consists of muesli, bread and cheese, Parmaham and a good cup of coffee. Personal equipment of the first four to go (Sigfus, Steini, Bo and Steff) is strapped down on the two Nansen sledges along with the Kansas internet equipment, and at 0430 Sverrir and Lars drive off with the first crew to Station nord. The snow is very wet, soft and heavy. The drive down off the ice cap is quite unnerving since
the snow is so slick that the snow mobiles have no way of stopping during the decent. The terrain outside the ice cap is only partly covered with snow, which is so soft, that the unfortunate one who steps off the sleds sinks in to the hips in soaking wet snow. The trip is done without incidents, except for Sigfus who falls off the sled and takes a few rolls in the snow.
While the first team in on the way, the second team takes down the kitchen weatherport.and packs the last items. Sverrir and Lars are back in camp at 1100. With the sledges and snow mobiles we move the last cargo into the cargo line, where we now have lined up 101 pieces of cargo. Together with the 39 crates of ice core which are buried in the snow we have a total of 9219 kg cargo. We have to leave this cargo behind until we get opportunity to pick it up by Twin Otter airplane or helicopter.
There is less load on the second trip which has to occur during the warmest part of the day; but we reach Station Nord safe and sound at 1500. We are received in a fantastic way by the four Station Nord people (Svend, Thomas, Kim and Claus) and a bone weary crew eats supper and try to be in a celebration mood in the bar until the eyes simply close on their own. We will take revenge tomorrow!

Weather: It has been white out by fog all day and no wind.
Temperatures: -2 to +2 C.

We are so glad that we mapped out the route on GPS on Monday. Otherwise we would not have been able to navigate down in conditions with zero contrast and visibility.

Tuesday, 27th June: Camp is struck.

2006-06-30T00:08:00.000+02:00

It is the grand day of packing! We weigh and move all boxes from the drill dome tent to our cargoline. Then we take down the drill tent.
There is also hectic packing activity in the kitchen tent. The great tangle of internet connections and lap-tops is reduced to one single line which is kept open until 2100 in the evening. Late in the afternoon we celebrate midsummer with a bonfire of the flooring plywood from the drill tent.
During the day we pack, weigh and document 70 boxes of cargo and it is a very tired group of people that goes to bed at 0200. At 0300 they all get up again!

Weather: Overcast, fog and frost, wind 3 m/s from S. Temperatures 0 to +3 C.

Monday, 26th June: We are packing down.

2006-06-27T16:15:00.000+02:00

We wake up to a warm sunny day and everybody starts packing equipment into boxes. Sigfus measures temperatures in the bore hole. At the bottom it is -12 C. During the day we pack all drilling and scientific equipment. The remaining food is sorted out. Dry food will be transported to Station Nord. The frozen food has been stored at
marginal temperatures for a while so we decide not to bring that out.
Plastic and cardboard is removed from the frozen food we plan to leave on site. Sverrir and Thorsteinn drive down to Station Nord on snow mobiles to check if it still is possible to to go all the way. They return after supper and report that the track is still good, but the snow is wet and heavy so the snow mobiles may not pull a heavy load.

Weather: Sunny, wind 2 m/s from NW, temperatures 0 to +3 C.

Saturday, 24th/25th June: Drilling is done!!!

2006-06-26T19:47:00.000+02:00

This is our last day of drilling, and at 4 AM we pull the last ice core up. It is very beautiful, 1.40 m long and the final depth is 435.93 m. The core is logged and processed and packed to 435.70 m. The lowest 23 cm receive special treatment: It is carefully cleaned and used for ‘party ice’ in whiskies served. The final 3 crates of ice cores and samples are buried in our ‘cementery’, where we now have 39 crates buried under 1 m of snow to keep them from melting.

It is Saturday ‘night’ and we begin preparations with ‘snow showers’ and cooking. The day is warm and sunny with temperatures above freezing so the snow is wet and heavy. We enjoy an excellent meal with grilled salmon and gorgonzola, lamb roast with red wine sauce and vegetables and mashed potatoes (chefs: Steffen and Sverrir) Afterwards we move outside to enjoy the weather.

A surreal evening begins (probably best understood by people in camp): We had a shooting contest with a laundry machine filled with tomatoes as target. During the last days of drilling it was a fight to make the laundry machine spin our ice chips because the drill fluid caused the machine to slowly disintegrate. We wonder whether the producer of the laundry machine ever considered these two uses: Spinning ice chips and target practice? Later we got a telephone call telling us, that the Danish C130 flight to Station Nord was cancelled, but a substitute would be found. A short while later we were called again and told that the Twin Otter that was supposed to pick up the whole camp and fly us to Station Nord in three days was postponed. However, spirits in camp were high and we decided to go to the Moon. We walked into the ‘dark’ of the kitchen tent with blinds on the windows and enjoy the premiere of ‘Life on the Blink’. We laughed our way through three shows of the movie and continued the evening playing dice and talking. This Saturday night has to be really long because we want to switch back to a normal day and night rythm. Sunday is therefore cancelled, and people have to sleep through until Monday morning.

Weather: Sunshine, winds 1 m/s from NW, temperatures -1 to +2 C

Friday, 23rd/24th June: 400 m passed and 400 m cake eaten.

2006-06-26T16:09:00.000+02:00

We woke up to a day with 13 m/s winds and low clouds. It is now our second last drilling day, and we spend again the whole day drilling and processing. Today we passed 400 m depth and we celebrated this by eating a cake. We still drill in the new fluid, and we have enough of this for the rest of the drilling. The fluid column is about 10 m now, and drilling is a little more difficult at this depth. We have lost the inner core barrel several times, and it is difficult to get the reamer down to full depth. Theories are that either there are ice chips sticking to the hole wall or that we are now so deep that bore hole closure by ice flow becomes a problem.

For supper we got a fantastic pork roast with gravy and mashed potatoes and vegetables and for dessert a 400 m cake (chef: Bo).

Weather: Overcast, snow, winds 10-13 m/s from NW and temperatures -3 to -1 C.

Thursday, 22nd/23rd June: Record Drilling

2006-06-26T16:08:00.000+02:00

Ice core drillers come in different sizes.

An overcast day with winds ou to 8 m/s. All hands have still been busy drilling and processing ice cores and once again we succeeded in beating our own record.
We drilled and processed 35.50 m ice core and reached a depth of 382.11 m. We did not encounter any major incidents.

The laundry machine we use to spin and separate the ice chips from the drilling fluid is about to disintegrate after 2 weeks of use.
We have now filled 34 crates with ice cores and samples, and we estimate to fill a total of 39 crates when we stop drilling Saturday evening.
Temperatures today: -4 to -2 C

Wednesday 21st/22nd June: The deepest ice core from small ice caps in Greenland.

2006-06-26T16:07:00.000+02:00

We have sunshine with rather warm temperatures with a short period during night with
Ice fog. The day passes uneventfully with drilling and processing. We beat our own daily production record by drilling 33.87 m to a depth of 346.61 m. During the day we celebrate that we have passed the depths of Renland drilling at 324 m and Hans Tausen drilling at 344 m. Today we saw several layers with iclusions of 2 mm particles in the ice core. We don’t know whether the particles are volcanic ash, dust or biological material. This will be very interesting to find out when we get the ice home for analysis.

In camp we have an exiting film project going. We will have a premier show on Saturday of ”Life on the Blink”, and we hope to put the film on the web at a later stage. A still shot from the movie can be seen below.

For supper we had pork roast with pasta (chefs: Sigfus and Trevor)
Weather: sunny, winds up to 5 m/s from N, temperatures -5 to -1 C.

Tuesday, 20th/21th June: 300 m depth passed.

2006-06-22T14:22:00.000+02:00

The ice core from 300m depth

Once again a warm, sunny day. In the 'morning' at 6 PM, when we begin our work in the drill tent, temperatures are just at the freezing point. When we cut the ice with the saw, we produce water instead of ice chips, and our samples stick to the processing table. After a couple of hours it gets cooler and for the rest of the day it is -2 to -3 C in the tent. When we end our working day in the 'evening'at 10 AM it's melting point temperatures again.

Tha cable spooling on our winch is now so bad that we have decided to cut away 250 m off the length. Steff and Sverir did so, and after dinner we started to drill again.

While the winch was being repaired Lars, Bo and Namcy went 1.3 km North of camp to perform a 2.8 m pit study. they took 5 cm profiles for chemistry and sotopes.

Dinner was paella prepared by Dorthe.

Weather. Fine, winds up to 2 m/s from N, temperatures -5 to -1 C.
Present drilling depth: 312.75 m

Monday, 19th/20th June: It gets a little too warm..

2006-06-21T13:10:00.000+02:00

A moment of rest in front of the kitchen tent.

Sunshine again however with somewhat too warm temperatures so we
have a few problems processing the ice cores. The day is normal with
everybody busy drilling and processing ice cores. The winch drum and
cable spooling is teasing us because the winch drum deforms, and we had to unwind and rewind the cable twice today.

Drilling depth: 289.11 m.

Weather: Fine, wind 2 m/s from S and temperatures -3 to -1 C.

Sunday, 18th/19th June. Nice and quiet Sunday.

2006-06-20T13:45:00.000+02:00

(editorial comment: Since a week ago camp has had the clock turned upside down. Their working day is during the arctic night with midnight sun, and they sleep and rest during day time.Thus their "Sunday" starts Sunday noon and ends Monday noon.)

We woke up to a sunny day with erverything covered by frost. Work started slowly and we drilled and processed 19.31 m ice core during the day. Sunday is always a quiet and rather uneventful day, so for today we have no stories to offer.

Weather: Fine, winds up to 3 m/s from S, temperatures: -7 to -5 C.

Saturday, 17th June. Not a day without incidents..

2006-06-19T11:41:00.000+02:00

The camp is still sitting in cloud. Frost is covering everything and we have little wind today. We have now filled all empty foamboxes in camp with ice cores, and we need 10-15 more foamboxes for the rest of the planned drilling. We spent some time today converting the pit excavated for science into a food freezer. All frozen food boxes were excavated, and the food placed on shelves in the pit. The pit has been covered with a tent since we are out of plywood in camp. We monitor the temperature in the pit.

The morning shift had a good start but after 3 hours the achor for the spring support of the drill tower broke as the tower was tilted to horizontal position. Parts flew 20 m out of the tent but luckily no one was hurt. Steff and Sverrir spent the rest of their shift repairing the damage. And they were successful! We managed to drill 8.37 m to 247.52m.

And then it was Saturday "night". Everybody got dressed for the occation. We put table cloth and candles on the table. We put blinds on the windows to create a nice warm and "red" evening atmosphere. The menu was composed by team2 (Steff, Sverrir, Thorsteinn, Dorthe and Bo) and it consisted of a tropical drink (lemonade with rum and snow), chilli shrimps, roast with fresh asparagus rolled up in bacon and ice cream with strawberries. We had a nice Saturday night with some dancing and games of dice called "Meyer".

Weather: Overcast with winds up to 5 m/s from S and temperatures -7 to -4 C.

Friday 16th June.: Tangled cable..

2006-06-17T15:31:00.000+02:00

To our great surprise we woke up to yet another sunny "day" with good cold temperatures. This was the day we would beat the record and drill and process even more than 30 m! It all went fine until after lunch when the cable on the winch became completely tangled up!
Our Hans Tausen drill setup is designed to carry 300-400 m cable, and the winch is not constructed for the 700 m cable we are carrying. The sides of the winch drum were being pushed apart and the cable began to tangle up on rewind. To fix it, we pulled the entire cable out on the surface with a snow mobile. Steff did a fantastic job fixing the drum, and the cable was rewound with a tension of 50-75 kg. And we had to make do with a daily production of only 21.3 m beautiful ice cores.

We had real tortillas with chilli beans for lunch (chef Trevor) and a pork roast with potatoes for supper with raspberry-paste for dessert (chef Bo).

Weather: Sun, no wind, -7 to -4 degrees C
We are now 209 m down into Flade Isblink.

Thursday, 15. June. We progress smoothly ....

2006-06-16T10:43:00.000+02:00

Another day with beautiful weather. After some further tests with the liquid in the newly drilled bore hole we started drilling.

It was a productive day where we drilled 22.34m of core.

We evaluate the drill liquid, and are sofar happy with it. We need the centrifuge 1-2 times pr. run, and the centrifuging takes 13 min. This is sofar the slowest part of the drill process.

We drill and process the core in two shifts from 18 pm to 10 am in order to take advantage of the colder nights. The workday usually ends with a cold beer in front of the weatherport when the sun begins to warm at 10.
We had chicken for lunch (chef Peter) and salmon with vegetables for dinner (chef Nancy). We have been in contact with Copenhagen in Kangerlussuaq.

Wednesday, 14th June: The first "wet" cores drilled.

2006-06-15T12:31:00.000+02:00

Another lovely sunny day. The camp is now in overall good shape, but still small tasks remain such as sorting rubbish into piles of metal, glass and combustibles while the drillers conduct tests with the new and environmetally friendly drilling fluid which we plan to use in future deep ice coring operations. The bulk of the fluid consists of a coconut oil derivative so both drillers and the drill have to get used to working with this rather lubricating substance.

We conducted pull and drop tests in the bore hole. Different zones in the hole with different diameters (126.6 mm and 134.0 mm) had been prepared, and the tests were done with both open and closed valves in the drill. The fluid is more viscouos than we are used to, but on the other hand the fluid does not smell and there are no environmental issues. During the tests, the inner core barrel detached itself and fell to the bottom of the hole. It was easily retrieved, and it demonstrated that the core barrel locking mechanism (which is meant to be able to unlock by remote control, and is part of the safety system of the drill) needs to be adjusted to compensate for the increased lubrication effect of the new fluid.

At the end of the day we were able to drill a few cores which came up long and perfect. Cleaning the cores for excess drill fluid turned out to be an easy operation, although the cores were a bit slippery at first. We have a commercial laundry machine for spinning the wet ice chips to separate the fluid from the chips in order to re-cycle the fluid. However the spin program of the laundry machine takes 13 minuttes, and as we produce two loads of chips per drill run, it takes time.
We stopped working after supper, and people in camp are very satisfied with the new fluid and the nice soft coconut oil treated hands obtained.

For lunch we had fried chicken with bean salad and mashed potatoes (chef Nancy) and for supper we had a special: Icelandic Lamb prepared by Sigfus and Thorsteinn.

During our "night" a U.S. C130 visited Station Nord, but a feared low altitude pass over camp did not occur.

Weather: Sun, little haze, no wind and -8 to -6 C.

Tuesday, 13. June. Filling drill liquid in the hole

2006-06-14T15:53:00.000+02:00

We woke up to an overcast. We have rime and it feels like being in the middle the cloud that sticks to Flade Isblink. We have no wind and good low temperatures. We undug all drill fluid and fuel drums from snow drift and we estimate that there is enough fuel left for the last weeks in camp.

We spent the day preparing the drill for drilling in liquid and set up facilities for collecting the liquid from the drill and clean the drill and the ice cores for drill liquid. The first 400 l of the new drill liquid were mixed and put into the bore hole. We now have to wait for the liquid to cool from the -5 deg at the surface to the -16 deg at 160 m depth in the bore hole. In front of the drill tent there is now located a centrifuge to be used for extracting drill liquid from collected ice chips in order to recycle the liquid.

In the morning we also labeled coulter beakers to sample three parallel profiles within a 3 m deep snow pit close to the bore hole. After lunch we dug out the pit and took the samples.

For lunch we had left over lasagne, for dinner we had a curry fish pot and blueberry cake with cognac cream (chef Dorthe) and after dinner we went to the movies to watch 'Ghostdog'.

Monday, 12. June. Reaming the bore hole

2006-06-13T09:18:00.000+02:00

We had a most fantastic Sunday with sunshine, no wind, and -10 degrees C. We had a clear view in all directions and could see the mountains in the horizon. We spent the day cleaning up in camp and adjusting the weatherport to make it horizontal again. There had been so much melting below the weatherport that it had started to sink in the middle. We expanded the area in front of the drill tent and started to prepare for the use of drilling liquid.

We spent all day reaming the remaining part of the bore hole. It went fine even if Steff and Sigfus had to take care that the reamer would not get stuck because the motor got warm and had water on it. A couple of hours after dinner we finished the reaming down to 148 m depth. We had decided to leave the deepest 15 m with the original diameter so that the viscosity of the new drilling liquid can be tested at both diameters. We got late breakfast with eggs and bacon (chef Nancy) and lasagne with bread fait a la maison (chef Bo).

Sunday, 11. June. Logging the bore hole temperature

2006-06-12T23:33:00.000+02:00

Despite of being Sunday, this is actually the Saturday dairy. We woke up to a windy and grey day. Weather was however good enough to allow for a trip down to Station Nord to give back the skidoo we had borrowed there. At Station Nord they were slightly surprised to see us arrive around midnight, but Lars and Sverrir were kindly offered a glass of wine in their own quarter. In camp the day was first spent logging the bore hole temperature. At 130 m depth the temperature is -16 degree C. Then the reaming of the hole started. The hole needs to be expanded by 3 mm in order to change from drilling in a dry hole to drilling in a liquid filled hole. The reamer (see pictures) cuts away from the side of the hole and Steff can remove 4 m at a time until the reception tank is full of ice chips. We reached a depth of 40 m before 4 am when our Saturday night could start.

Lars has birthday and we started at 4 with cake and champagne (that we got from Station Nord). We sang birthday song and Lars got presents: a small umbrella in case it will start raining on Isblink and a present from home with good CD's. We got marinated king prawns with avocado dip, fillet of beef with bacon, new potatoes and pepper sauce (chef Lars). We played Meyer and had a nice evening slightly marked by day and night being up side down.

Saturday, 10. June. Working at night

2006-06-12T22:14:00.000+02:00

Now the diary skips half a day because we've started working at night. We have changed to New Zealand time or 12 hours delayed as compared to Greenland east coast time.

We wake up and have breakfast at 5 pm. We start drilling and processing at 6 pm. Lunch is at 10 pm, dinner at 6 am and work ends at 9 am, whereafter we all go to bed. We have split in 2 drill teams and 2 processing teams and we succeeded in logging, measuring and packing 60 bags (33m ice core) today.

Logging depth is now 164.34 m
packing depth includes bag 296

The core quality is varying with thick layers of waffly ice (see picture). We can see that the melt layers are fine whereas the normal ice with air bobbles is waffly because the pressure in the bobbles makes the ice brittle.

Generator 2 has been repaired using the spare parts that were brought up to camp and we run on generator 2 when the drilling goes on.

The catering has been excellent as usual with pasta and meat balls in tomato sauce for lunch (chef Trevor) and chicken with rice and vegetables for dinner (chef Peter).

Thursday, 8. June. Back to the camp

2006-06-12T16:36:00.000+02:00

The GrÃ¸nlandsfly Twin Otter with Flemming and StÃ¥le as pilots fueled right after breakfast and the departing team took off at 9 am. Many hugs and kisses were exchanged before JÃ¸rgen Peder, Simon, Andreas, Bruce, Claus and Dennis started the impressive flight down the east coast. On this trip a stop-over was made at Danneborg with a delivery to the Danish sledge patrol in Northern Greenland, the Sirus Patruljen. A low camp overfly gave some nice photo opportunities. Thank you to Flemming and StÃ¥le for providing such nice weather!

The ten who will stay in camp to the end are: Dorthe, Sigfus, Steff, Sverrir, Lars, Nancy, Trevor, Bo, Peter, and Thorstein.

We spent some time at Nord to try to repair one of our skidoos that was broken, but it didn't work out. Instead it was possible to borrow one skidoo from Nord and we started the trip up to Flade Isblink. After two trips everybody were up in camp at 20 pm. The menu that evening consisted in fresh strawberries, Danishnish potatoes, asparagus, and roast beef. Mum.

We made a big decision to turn up side down day and night in order to sleep during the (too) warm hours in day time and work at night. From 10 pm to 1 am we drilled three cores that were logged measured and packed so that everybody could see how it is done. The cores look very nice and it is difficult to see that we are actually at 130 m depth. We guess that the melt layers and the warm temperatures together with a well-tuned drill that provide the beautiful cores with no breaks.

The plan now is to sleep as much as possible during Friday, have breakfast at 5 pm, and start drilling and processing at 6 pm in two shifts until 10 am Saturday morning.

Wednesday, 7. June. Reunion at Station Nord

2006-06-12T15:56:00.000+02:00

Finally, the big exchange day arrived. Team 2 flew from Kangerlussuaq to Station Nord and team 1 went by skidoo from Flade Isblink to Station Nord. Team 1 reports that the 40 km long skidoo trip is rather bumpy! In particular the last 20 km across the ice cap are bad. There is a rather strong 'sastrugi' pattern on the surface that provides a good shaking of the kidneys. The trip offers an exceptional view of Isblink down to the sea. It took two return trips to move everybody from the camp down to Nord and everybody were nicely cleaned before the Twin Otteren arrived! Team 2 had a beautiful flight. First 5 hours from Kangerlussuaq to Konstable Pynt and then 5 hours up along the Greenland east coast under a clear blue sky. Team 2 came to Station Nord at 8 pm and for the first and only time all the field participants were together. It became a nice evening at the bar where many camp stories were told. Clearly team 2 will have something to live up to. A super dinner was provided from Station Nord. We would like to thank the crew at Station Nord for warmly welcoming the 15 of us.

Tuesday, 6. June. Waiting for the take-over

2006-06-07T11:28:00.000+02:00

There was no exchange of personnel after all today. The plane to St Nord was cancelled because the weather was marginal. The forecast for tomorrow looks good though.
The first team was ready to leave in the morning, but then the trip was cancelled. It has been somewhat windy and colder. This also meant that we could start drilling at 13.00. We continued till 22.30, and the processing continued till after midnight. We have reached 128m depth, and the ice contains much fewer melt layers indicating that we are in a cold period. It could be the so-called "Little Ice Age" between 1600 and 1870 AD.
We had warmed-up leftovers for lunch. Claude prepared late-night food: Chinese egg-soup, rice, fried prawns and vegetables with nuts. The dessert was ice with strawberries (life is hard in the field :-)).

Monday, 5. June. Ready to change crew.

2006-06-06T10:29:00.000+02:00

Here in camp we are now preparing for the replacement of crew which is planned to take place on Tuesday/Wednesday - if the weather allows it. According to the plan 7 persons will fly from Kangerlussuaq tomorrow noon with a Twin Otter. After 5 hours they will land at Konstabel Pynt (Scoresundby airport) and after another 5 hours they will hopefully land at Station Nord, which will be at midnight, due to the time difference between Station Nord and Kangerlussuaq of 2 hours. We will start driving the 6 persons who shall leave the camp for Station Nord, when we have received a message that the airplane has taken off. At Station Nord everybody will meet before the airplane departures to Kangerlussuaq again. Following, the new crew will be driven to the camp.

Unfortunately, the weather forecast for tomorrow, Tuesday, says snow and wind at Station Nord (and therefore also here in camp) and if that happens, the flight will be postponed one day.
Here in camp we are getting used to the highly variable weather, and we have learnt to listen seriously to weather forecast. Therefore, despite the nice weather at the moment, we are taking precautions.
We have cleaned up in camp, removed all loose items and registered where everything is stored - and we have secured the tents.

It is still high temperatures. The sun is shining from a clear sky and there has been no wind. The temperature again raised to 0 degrees C and the snow was wet and heavy. Again, it was to hot to be drilling the ice core, but this evening we experienced a small breeze and the temperature immediately fell down to -5 C. The drilling started at 6 pm and the work will continue until 3 am in the morning. We have now drilled more than 103 m.

Apart from this we have spent the day on building a new toilet, checking and preparing the skidoos, cleaning up in camp, digging out some plywood from a depth of 70 cm and finally, we have been looking for a pair of skis that disappeared in the snowstorm 2 weeks ago. They were found by putting a probe down into the snow, just like when looking for people that has been lost in an avalanche. The skis were buried one meter down in the snow. The generator was checked and we changed the oil and amongst our food boxes we found a lemming that was alive! There are thousands of lemmings around Station Nord. It is a rodent that behaves very much like a mole - but in snow. It digs pathways in the snow and during the winter it can easily eat of the vegetation that is covered in snow. If it is frightened it stands up and starts yapping. The people at Station Nord tells that a lemming was so insulted by having its pathway system destroyed by a 10 tons heavy snow blower that it actually attacked the snow blower, and now we are talking about an animal that is as big as a mouse, but without a tail and ears.

The lemming has been the focus of a lot of discussions here. What is it doing here, on a 600 m thick glacier 20 km away from the margin? Some claims that it has run here, others think that it must have been a stowaway when Sverrir and Lars came back from Station Nord on Thursday.
The Kansas people has finished packing. They have made a back-up of their data, so they are ready to leave Flade Isblink.

We had re-heated leftovers for lunch. Simon cooked a night meal: Onion soup and beef with peas, sauce and mashed potatoes.

Sunday, 4. June. Summer is approaching

2006-06-05T23:46:00.000+02:00

It' s getting warm here. The sun shines from a clear sky and it heats. The air is completely quiet and at noon the temperature hit 0C. It is much too warm for the drilling. We decided to spend the day relaxing and doing minor chores in camp. A tent has been moved, as the floor began to sink because of the warmth. We don't want to drill at day time when it is so warm, so we decided to drill at night instead. We will probably have to move our "days" for some time in order to drill when it is cold (it is light all night anyway). At midnight the temperature was -4.5C and going down. The Kansas people finished their measurements today. They even managed to do an ekstra 12km line across the ridge so we can see whether there is a large accumulation difference on the north and south side. They are very happy to be finished two days before leaving. We installed another cooler in the drill tent, and we are making a new loo for the next team.
Bruce cooked dinner: Chicken with pasta and tomato sauce. JP made a nigth meal: onion soup with Andreas' good bread.

Saturday, 3. June. A nice saturday

2006-06-05T23:31:00.000+02:00

It has been a good day. We began to prepare for the exchange of staff next week. We put up another tent since the camp will host 10 people from next week on. Sverrir, Steffen and Lars will stay for the whole period. The drilling and analysis went fine today. We appreciate our cooling system for the drill tent. Cold air is blown into the tent through a channel in the snow, and the temperature and the tent can be kept at -6C.
We had a nice Saturday evening with Lars cooking mushroom soup, lamb, spinach with feta and stewed blackberries.
In the afternoon the Kansas people had an accident which got a lot of attention in camp. While driving with the radar they hit one of the poles that Lars had put up 2 weeks ago. Lars has put up 8 poles on 36 km2, which is 1 pole pr 4.5 mill. m2, so the chance of hitting a pole should be extremely small (although they are measuring on a network based on Lars' poles).
During the first 20 days on Flade Isblink we have had 11.5 days with nice weather and 8.5 days with blizzard. Quite changeable!
On nice days like today everybody opens the tents doors in order to dry everything. The sun is shining and it is beautiful. Everybody is working outdoors and enjoying it. Hard to imagine the blizzards when it is hard to see what is up and down, although we know for certain theiy exist.

Friday, 2. June. A beautiful and productive day.

2006-06-03T16:14:00.000+02:00

It has been a lovely day with a lot of activity in camp. Four men are working continuously in the drill tent. Two are drilling and two are working with the ice core. The two Kansas people has now mounted a new type of radar. This radar does not see the bottom, but focuses on layer structures close to the surface. These radar data might give us a picture of the annual precipitation variability across the glacier.

Three men were digging out our food from the snowdrifts. All the boxes had disappeared in the snow. Fortunately the rows were marked with bamboo sticks, so we knew where the boxes were. All the boxes were pulled up. We checked all the food and re-packed the boxes. As we have eaten some of the food, we could empty some of the boxes, which will be used for packing the ice cores. We then immediately buried all the boxes with frozen food in the snow again. We also cleaned up a bit around the kitchen tent. Here we had a lovely mess of boxes, plywood and snowdrifts. Now it is nice and tidy again.

It has been a very beautiful day. We could see the mountains far away. We had small sparrows and one northern fulmar flying around our camp. As long as the fauna does not manifest it self through something bigger, like a polar bear or so, it is really nice to see some animals.

Today we have been in touch with VECO over the Iridium phone.

Thursday, 1. June. Stumbling over snowdrifts.

2006-06-02T09:42:00.000+02:00

This was the day with snow and wind from the opposite direction. There are snowdrifts on spots that we are not used to. We stumble over snow that is not laying where it usually does. Our nice toilet where the door is usually at the leeside all of the sudden had snow blowing in through the entrance. This had two consequences: 1) When we had to go we had to leave well in advance to dig out the door first and 2) We had to do our business very quickly in order to avoid getting too much snow in the face.

We could not do very much outdoor work today, but in fact that was not needed. The drilling of the ice core is performed in a tent, so we could easily go on with this. We have now reached the depth of 49 m and the core consists of more and more refrozen wet snow. Was it warmer here in the past? Right now we can only guess, until we get some analysis done, but we believe that the Flade Isblink core contains quite a few answers.

In the evening Sverrir and Lars came back from Station Nord. GPS is a fantastic instrument here in the middle of nowhere. The Kansas people were unable to do any work due to the bad weather.

We have been in touch with Copenhagen, VECO and Station Nord over the Iridium phone today.

Wednesday, 31. May. Change to southerly wind

2006-06-01T10:28:00.000+02:00

The day started off very nice, but we new the weather might change. We have had weather forecast from the Canadian Met Office emailed from Copenhagen, and they have proven rather reliable. For today and tomorrow they however announced wind above 10 m/s from south-southeast. Difficult to believe since we for 17 days only (except for one 3 hour period) experienced northerly wind. But we did have southerly wind this morning and by evening it had increased to a strong breeze. We (very unscientifically) agreed on two things in camp: 1) It has been blowing north so long that nothing can be left, and 2) Since east and west don't exist when your at the pole the wind also only blows from north or south. These should of course not be taken as official scientific statements :-)
The wind only increased in the evening amd thus didn't hinder a very productive day. Tonight it seems like the snow that passed a few days ago comes back.

Claude and Dennis finished their radar measurements of the ice thickness in the area. Lars and Sverrir left to St Nord by snow scooter. It took two and a half hours. They will pick up gasoline, some spares and wash clothes. They return tomorrow if weather permits.

We drilled down to 36m and the cores are a mixture of refrozen water and compressed snow. The analysis work fine, but they are a lot of work. At 30m depth the temperature in the hole was -13C.
We have been in contact with Copenhagen, VECO and St Nord over the Iridium phone.

Tuesday, 30. May. A beautiful summerday.

2006-05-31T09:25:00.000+02:00

The weather has been fantastic today and we have done a lot. We have even had time to enjoy an outdoor lunch. Lars have put up the last measurement points for the surface motion of the glacier. Dennis and Claude have measured quite a few radar profiles. They only lack a few hours of measurements until they have completed this part of their work. The drillers Steffen and Sverrir have worked in the drill tent in order to keep Andreas, Bruce and Jørgen Peder busy with the ice core processing and analysis. Simon made food and cleaned up in camp.

Today it was sunshine and clear skies. We could see the mountains in the far southwest, and towards southeast we could see the sea in the Fram Strait (the sea between Svalbard and Greenland). There was no wind and the temperature at 13.00 was 0 degrees C and at 21.00 -4.3 C.

In total we have drilled more than 22 m of ice. The core is alternating between light (white) layers with compressed snow that never has been melted and dark (clear) layers of refrozen wet snow. The layers of refrozen wet snow varies a lot. Some are only a few cm thick and others are several meters thick. It seems like Flade Isblink experiences very different weather conditions during the summer. Some years the melting is so strong that the whole glacier becomes wet during summer, other years the glacier is as cold as the Greenland ice sheet itself, which is 200 km to the southwest. Here at Flade Isblink the contrasts meet, which we have experienced ourselves during the last weeks' dramatic weather changes.

We have been in touch with Copenhagen and VECO over the Iridium phone today.

Monday, 29. May, The snow is back

2006-05-30T09:27:00.000+02:00

Last night we had another dramatic night with strong winds. A couple of us did not get very much sleep because we faired that our tents would be "punctured" by the wind, just like last week. The winds were at the strongest at 4 am (20m/s). Today we laid by, due to enormous snow drift. This evening the weather has improved again. The weather change is reflected in the observations:
14.00: -3,7 C, 15 m/s from 325 true, 933.8 mb, no surface contrast, no horizon, visibility 50 m, overcast, snow, strong drift.
24.00: -3.2 C, 7 m/s from 265 true, 936,7 mb, surface contrast good, horizon good, visibility to horizon, 3/8 overcast towards south.

During the day everybody has been hanging out in the kitchen telt. Once every hour we had to go out to check the generator so that it was not covered in drifting snow. We also had to check that the tents were not destroyed by the strong winds. Furthermore there was a huge pile of drifting snow in front of the kitchendoor (which is opened outwards). Therefore we had to dig the snow away every half hour in order to be able to open the door. However, we managed to get some work done, too, like kitchen duties. Steffen made gullash and mashed potatoes for lunch and he even mad dinner as well: Beef with green peas and rice. In the drill tent we finally got started with some measurements. We measured yesterday's production. Tomorrow we will start early in the morning to take advantage of the good weather. The Kansas group has analyzed their data and it seems like some of their profiles has to be remeasured, if there is time.
Today we have been in contact with Copenhagen, Station Nord and VECO over the Iridium phone.

Sunday, 28. May. Surprises in the core

2006-05-29T09:11:00.000+02:00

1130: -5,5 C, 5 m/s from 320 true, 931.2 mb , surface contrast good, horizon good, visibility to the horizon, 3/8 high clouds.

2100: -5.7 C, 11 m/s from 300 true, 931.0 mb, surface contrast poor, visibility 2 km, thin discontinuous cloud cover, snow. The weather is deteriorating. The wind is picking up and the forecast says that the wind will continue tomorrow.

After a really nice Saturday evening we started up slowly Sunday morning. The drilling is underway, but we still need some adjustments of the area where the cores are registered, measured and packed. Sverrir repaired some minor damages to the two skidoos and the Kansas team worked with their data.

The Flade Isblink ice core contains a number of surprises. Until now we have at a depth of 2.6 m met a layer of snow/ice which definitely is marked by having been very wet from meltwater. This layer stops again at 6.8 m. There are indications that it has been quite wet here last year or within the last several years? Inside the refrozen core sections, we see structure, as if some stratigraphy is preserved. The refrozen cores contain lots of large bubbles. We will know more once we determine the annual snow fall.

The coring started at 2.80 m below the floor of the drill tent, which was the surface on 15th May 2006. Thus logging began 5 cm from top in Bag 6. Density of bag 7: 850 kg/m3.

Claude cooked rice with vegetables and salmon for dinner.

We have talked to Copenhagen over the Iridium phone.

Saturday, 27. May. The first core

2006-05-28T21:12:00.000+02:00

More pictures

1300: -5,5 C, 3-4 m/s from 265 true, surface contrast fair, horizon fair, visibility to horizon, overcast, snow.

1900: -5.1 C, 3 m/s from 275 true, 929,2 mb, surface contrast good, horizon good, visibility to horizon, 6/8 high clouds, snow.

After careful fine tuning of the position of the drill tower, we assmbled the drill and prepared for the first drilling. It is important to get started properly. The drill must start as vertically as possible thereby optimizing the hole and the core. At the same time, we prepared the ECM equipment and the measurement drill. We managed to drill one core late Saturday afternoon. With this feeling of having gotten off to a good start we celebrated Saturday evening with a "neck-tie dinner" of fried prawns, tenderloin beef and pudding with fruit.

The Kansas team did not make it out today since the starter on the skidoo was broken. It is being fixed. Lars and Andreas rode 6 km north from camp and dug a 4.5 m deep hole in the snow. They took samples of the wall in the hole. Unlike in camp where we have ice from 2.4 m and down, Lars and Andreas found no significant melt layer even at a depth of 4.5 m. We will need to think this over.

The melt layer that started at 2.4 m under the floor of the drill
tent continues in the core drilled. The core is 95 % refrozen wet snow. Thin
white firn layers are seen in the core. Although the ice looks like one large melt feature, the ice contains many large bubbles of gas. In the pit, 6 km to the north, no melt layers were encountered down to 4.5 m depth.

We have been in contact with Copenhagen and VECO in Søndre Strømfjord over the Iridium phone.

Friday, 26. May. A massive melt layer...

2006-05-27T02:31:00.000+02:00

9.00: -10,8 C, 5-6 m/s from 330 true, 924,9 mb, surface contrast good, horizon good, visibility to horizon, clear sky. 21.00: -12,6 C, 3-4 m/s from 295 true, 925,4 mb, surface contrast good, horizon good, visibility to horizon, clear sky.

Today the drill trench was dug out. The trench is directly in front of the drill tower. When the drill is flipped from horizontal to vertical, the lower part flips into the trench. The digging turned out to be harder than expected. The trench was to be 2.8 m deep, but at 2.4 m we hit a massive layer of refrozen meltwater. The layer is at least 60 cm thick. Is the rest of the ice cap like this or is it just a very thick layer? We will see when the drilling starts. This seems to be last summer's layer. In that case, the annual precipitation is enormous. The skate section and the motor were mounted on the drill. We made a dinner table for the kitchen instead of the plywood sheet on cardboard boxes. The Kansas team completed 5 profiles today. During the last trip Dennis fell off his seat on the Nansen sled and since he is sitting behind the tall radar box, Claude did not notice he was missing. Claude continued to the end of the profile and when he turned around, he realized that Dennis was missing. Dennis was just a tiny dot 5 km away. Sverrir has advised Dennis to use a safety belt from now on!! Lars has set up the inner 1 km strain net and measured positions with GPS. Andreas made lunch with home baked bread and J.P. cooked breaded cutlets with boiled vegetables in white sauce for dinner.

We have been in contact with Copenhagen and VECO in Søndrestrøm over the Iridiumm phone.

Thursday, 25. May. Fun in the snow

2006-05-27T02:05:00.000+02:00

Last night we got about 4 cm of fresh snow which fell mainly as ice crystals from a clear sky. The phenomenon is called "diamond dust" and is very beautiful. The ice crystals are created in the air while you watch it and against the sun the air shines like fireworks. The fresh snow covered everything as a soft blanket and erased all sharp edges from last week's storm. The weather events from the weekend seem almost unreal now.

14.00: -8,2 C, 3 m/s from 300 true, 924,8 mb, surface contrast good, horizon good, visibility to horizon, clear sky. 17.00, 3 m/s from 120 true (an uncommon direction) but at around 20.00 the wind calmed. 22.00: -9.2 C, calm, 923.8 mb, surface contrast poor, no horizon, visibility 100 m, clear sky and fog.

A new day of activity. We made a line of national flags: Denmark, Greenland, Iceland, USA and Sweden (Andreas is Swedish). Steffen and Sverrir organized the drill tent and assembled the drill tower. J.P., Bruce and Andreas had fun digging a 15 m snow tunnel. You dig a deep trench and cover it with blocks of snow. Snow is a fantastic building material. The tunnel ends in the floor of the drill tent. When it gets warmer, a fan will suck cold air from the tunnel into the drill tent to cool it off. Simon added electrical installations to the drill tent and cooked dinner: Spaghetti and meat sauce. Andreas made lunch: Huge burgers with home baked buns. Lars processed GPS data and Claude and Dennis rode out with the Kansas radar and completed 5 partial profiles. The bottom under the drill site is very flat. The ice thickness is quite constant at 600 m. We also had time to fill out the last holes in the cargo line.

We have been in contact with Copenhagen and FIC in Søndrestrøm over the Iridium phone.

Wednesday, 24. May. Digging out the camp

2006-05-25T13:15:00.000+02:00

The weather is really good and we are ready to get started. 12.30: -7.1 C, 3 m/s from 310 true, 933.2 mb, surface contrast good-fair, horizon good, visibility to horizon, high thin clouds.

21.00: -8.4 C, calm, 930.5 mb, surface contrast fair, horizon fair-poor, visibility 5 km, overcast with thin clouds, snow.

As the weather report indicates, the conditions for outside work have been really good. We have gotten a lot of things done. We dug out all the long boxes from the snow masses, i.e., the drill, the drill tower and the ECM equipment. Inside the drill tent the ice core drill is done including the belt saw and everything. We have carried the 180 kg drill cable drum inside the drill tent. We moved the generator from its temporary spot to the place where the camp's cables come out from. A large part of the temporary cables have been removed. We dug out the two wrecked tents. The small Keron tunnel tent is dead. The poles can be used as spares for the others. The large red North Face tent stood up once we removed the snow. Despite the dramatic appearance, astonishingly little damage has been done. The top canvas is dead, but the tent is fine. We just need to repair one small bit of tube for a pole. The poles can be repaired with the spares we have here. It is simply amazing! A skidoo has been repaired. The broken poles on two other North Face tents have been changed.

Lars has measured the altitude of the drill site: 725 m geoid height, or 695 m over msl. The Kansas team has mounted their bottom radar and it is working. The ice thickness is about 600 m here.

Bruce cooked a really delicious dinner: Onion soup, asian inspired wok with rice and blackberry pie with ice cream.

We have talked to VECO in Kangerlussuaq, Copenhagen and Alborg over the Iridium phone.

Tuesday, 23. May. The sun is back :-)

2006-05-24T08:56:00.000+02:00

Further pictures

During the day the weather improved:
13.00: -9.2C, 7 m/s from 360 true, 938.7 mb, surface contrast good, horizon fair, visibility 5 km, 5/8 high clouds.
22.30: -13.1C, 4 m/s from 355 true, 936.6 mb, surface good, horizon good, infinite visibility, a bit of ice fog.

The Honda generator is alive again, after spending the night in the kitchen. The speed regulator had been frozen, so now we're back to two generators! The dynamo for the other Hatz was taken apart, and we saw that a wire in the coil had loosened, probably because of ice. The wire had broken and damaged the outer part of the coil. We tried to repair it by gluing and soldering, but it didn't work, and we ordered a new one. The second Hatz engine works fine now after using a tip from the distributor in Aalborg. It was not a a matter of dirt in the fuel intake, but a loose magnet. Status: We have two working generators and a spare engine.
When the weather improved the activity level in camp exploded. We dug and dug, and the snow was beeing thrown around. Almost everything had disappeared. The cargo line was lifted 1-1.5m, and Sverrirs carpenter table was lifted by 1.65m. It was in the middle of a drift. The two snow covered skidoos and the Nansen sledges were excavated and a working again. Our loo was lifted 1m. We started to lift the third of the floor for the drill tent that we had put up one week earlier. There were no drifts at the drill site, the surface was in level with the rest of the ice cap which means that we received 65 cm of snow corresponding to 20 cm of ice over the last week ( which is the annual accumulation in Central Greenland)! If such a storm should hit every second week the ice cap would receive 16m of snow (5m ice) every year. We thus assume that the storm was exceptional. We continued to dig and put up the remaining floor and drill tent. We were finished by 22.30.
We have talked to VECO in Kangerlussuaq today.

Monday, 22. May. Better, but still waiting

2006-05-23T09:04:00.000+02:00

Sunday evening the wind came down and the blizzard was only "normal". Everybody in camp was relieved and a bit ecstatic. We sorted a bottle of whisky, turned on the music, talked, and all in all had a postponed Saturday evening.
The wind returned shortly during night, but no harm was done. Many slept till after noon. Today the wind has been decreasing all day, maybe we can work outside tomorrow ... By midnight Monday/Tuesday the sun and the whole camp was actually visible and the wind below 8 m/s. At 21.30 Sverrir and Steffen checked the working generator, it seems like our modifications are OK, and there is no further icing.
Weather during the evening: -12C, 8m/s from 335 true, 937 mb, no horizon, no contrast, visibility 100m, overcast, snow and drift.
Our world has become somewhat enlargened, but outdoor work is still impossible for more than 15min at a time. Dennis prepared pancakes for brunch, and Lars made a great lamb-curry-stew for dinner.
The strong wind saturday/sunday costed us a dome tent and a camp bed. When evacuating the tent the wind got hold of the bed and blew it away before Andreas could grab it. Other tents have broken some rods, but we have spares, and will exchange them as soon as weather permits. The tents have been secured with wires. From Copenhagen we received a weatherchart promising better weather for the coming days. We hope so!
We are quite sure that we can hardly recognize camp once it becomes visible again. The snow drifts are enorm both in height and width.
This evening Andreas slid into the depression with our loo and squashed the tent, but he and Sverrir removed the snow, and the tent recovered. Impressive for a cheap camping tent! We will probably have to move the tent to the new surface tomorrow, by now it's inside a whole after all the blowing snow. If we hare had done like we did for the Hans Tausen project, where the drill tent was erected in 1994 for the drilling in 1995 we could probably hardly find the camp anymore. Even Sverrir is impressed by the weather! We are quite sure the polar bears don't come here, they're too smart. We talked to VECO in Kangerlussuaq and Copenhagen on the phone. Apart from that we waited.

Sunday, 21. May, can it still get worse?

2006-05-22T09:34:00.000+02:00

The wind got even worse during night. Most of sunday we had wind speeds of 16-20 m/s, which was hard on the tents. Visibility was down to 20m because of blowing snow, we had what is called "white-out". No contours can be seen, there is no difference between the sky and the snow. Everything seems to be floating, because there are no reference points, and you intuitively lean against the wind. You can walk right into a 2m high wall of snow without knowing. The drama started when JP's dome tent inflated like a soccer ball at 4 am. At 10 in the morning two other tents had inflated, and when people crawled to the kitchen tent they found JP, who had been shut up for hours during to a 2m high drift in front of the door. When we dug out the Honda and started it it produced no electricity. That was a bad situation! Three sick generators inside the kitchen tent, no electricity for our tools and cooking. The wind was still very strong. Around noon we arrived at lighting up two primus' to warm up the tent. In polar areas it's very problematic to be in non-heated tents, it becomes incredibly humid. The clothes can't dry, and all electric communication can break down due to condense water. Once the primus' started to spread heat the mood improved. We decided to "cannibalize" the two generators and to connect the good engine with the good dynamo. The Hatz distributor in Aalborg advised Steffen over the Iridium phone. He was very helpful, and the generator worked again at 17.30. for the first time in two days we had a "normal" meal. Everybody is tired but happy, both those who repaired the generator and those who fight to save the remaining tents. It should be OK now, and we just hope that the weather improves soon. At the moment traversing camp is hard work in slow-motion. Now at 21.00 we're back to "normal" snowstorm. Lars and JP are happy they brought the big kitchen weatherport! During the day we have been in Iridium contact with: VECO in Kangerlussuaq, St. Nord, Aalborg and Copenhagen.
Typical weather: -12 C, 16-20 m/s winds from 340 true. 928,53 mb, horizon:
nil, surfacecontrast: nil. visibility 20 m. Blizzard. The air so full of
blowing snow that sun was not seen.
At 2200 visibility increased to 50 m and winds dropped to 11 m/s (the
usual blizzard).

Saturday, 20. May, chaotic Saturday

2006-05-22T09:23:00.000+02:00

Saturday evening in the field is usually an "evening out" wearing nice clothes, eating good food and relaxing, but this day was completely different:
The snowstorm continues and it's Saturday. Then at 16.00 what we all feared happened, our diesel generator suddenly stopped to produce electricity. The dynamo gave up because it was full of ice. We had to start our faithful Honda petrol generator, and the kitchen was once again transferred into a generator workshop. It was simply impossible to work outside. Now we were in the odd situation to have two generators, one where the engine worked and one where the dynamo worked. We tried to attach a long ventilator tube to the dynamo to avoid icing, but we couldn't decouple engines and generators! Saturday evening passed with repairs and JP served spaghetti Carbonara at 23.00 in the middle of chaos. What a Saturday! During dinner we talked about our situation. The camp was running on the petrol generator which is not good since we didn't bring too much petrol (mostly diesel) and the Kansas people have to drive skidoos for their measurements.
Weather:-13 C, 12-16 m/s winds from 340 true, 936.1 mb, horizon: nil, Surface contrast: nil, visibility 50 m. Overcast, blowing snow.

Friday, 19. May, The snow only gets worse

2006-05-21T10:08:00.000+02:00

Again it's been storming all night and the whole Friday. Visobility dminished further. A typical weather report for Friday:
Temperature -13C, 15 m/s, wind from 345 true, no horizon, np contrast, visibility down to 20 m. Snow and strong drift. In the afternoon visibility became so bad that people were advised only to go to the tents two at a time. In the evening visibility improved, and we could see the closest tents, Steffens definition of visibility:" It's unchanged as far as I can see!"
The camp has been quiet all day. People only leave the nice and warm kitchen tent for 5-10 min at a time. The drifts some time go up to our necks - and we almost have to swim through. We had to give up the first loo, it was to difficult to reach. We watched movie in the afternoon and evening again, Sverrir cooked lunch, and Claude american steaks for dinner. We have talked to VECO in Kangerlussuaq on the Iridium phone. In the afternoon we inspected the generator and picked up two diesel drums from the drifts. We know the sun shines somewhere above, but we would really like to see it now. When we came to Nord last Thursday the sun was shinning over Flade Isblink all day, so we know it's possible. We are all well, but bored. We have had the STD-C telex on all day, it's connected to the Atlantic Ocean East satelite. We have sendt telex to the internet today, although sofar it's cheaper to use the Kansas internet.

A picture of Simon on his way back from the generators. They are behind the shields to the left. To the right is the loo. The distance is about 15 m.

A picture of the kitchen, our cosy spot at the moment.

Thursday, 18. May, snow, snow, snow

2006-05-19T14:36:00.000+02:00

It keeps snowing, and actually the weather forecast predicts continuing snowfall over the coming days. Here is the daily report from the ice:

It was quiet for 4 hours. At 22.00 Wednesday evening the snowstorm returned, and it continued all night and all day Thursday. A typical weather report Thursday: -7C, 15m/s wind from 320 true, no horizon, no contrast, visibility 50 m. Snow and strong drifting.

The camp has been waiting all day. People went out for 5-10 min and came back in. Otherwise everybody stayed in the kitchen tent, which is nice and warm, thanks to the diesel generator which worked fine. Luckily we managed to repair it yesterday. The cargoline has disappeared under the snow, but it is well-marked. The snow drifts reach chest height, and we can hardly walk in the snow. What do you do on a day like this? We watched movies afternoon and evening, some read, and others profited from the internet connection. Andreas prepaired lunch and Simon dinner. Vi have been in contact with VECO in Kangerlussuaq, St. Nord and Copenhagen through the Iridium phone. We can borrow two drums of gasoline from Nord, which we can pick up once the weather is better. In the evening Simon noted that the generator was completely icy, and covered in snow. If the air intake gets shut off the generator becomes too warm. We hopefully solved the problem. Tonight the wind has changed 35 degrees, and the pressure is going up, maybe conditions improve?

This report sounds a bit dramatic, but everybody is fine, we're just bored, waiting. After all we were supposed to drill. Our telex has been on all day, but we have good connections over the Iridium phone and internet. Our VHF is tuned to 8093 kHz, but unfortuntely VECO doesn't go through clearly and we can't hear Summit. When the storm is over we will tune the antenna to 4050 kHz so we can talk to Nord.

Thursday, 18. May, video clips

2006-05-18T16:24:00.000+02:00

The snowstorm continues and the crew has sent home small videoclips from camp.

Wednesday, 17. May, snowstorm

2006-05-18T09:58:00.000+02:00

There was a snowstorm all night, and when we woke up everything was covered in snow drifts which we couldn't even see, because of the storm. Walking through camp we suddenly sank into knee-high snowdrifts, and the door to the kitchen tent was covered up to the door-knob. Fortunately all cargo had been arranged in long rows, and we could see the top of the boxes. The storm continued until 16.00, and outdoor work was almost impossible. Bruce and Andreas managed to install an alarm around camp, which will make a horn go off in the kitchen tent if a polar bear should walk into it. The horn can be heard all over camp.

The kitchen was re-aaranged so we could work on the generators inside the only warm tent. We started with the Hatz generator no. 2, and took apart the motor, until we saw that the cylinder head gasket was not tight. It had simply not been thoroughly enough fastened at the factory. Efter 3 hours of repair we tried to re-start the generator, but it still wouldn't start, this time probably because of dirt in the fuel intake. The motor did not have any fuel filters, which we corrected. We then turned to the Hatz no.1, which had the same problems, and we finished within 1½ hours this time. The Hatz no. 1 went on in the first try, and we are back on diesel again. Two full days using gasoline have reduced our supplies considerably, and we will have to make an inventory tomorrow to see whether this will affect the radar and GPS measurements which involve some skidoo driving.

Tonight the weather (and the spirit in camp) improved, and everybody thanked Steffen and Sverrir for their work. A bottle of whiskey came out, and we enjoyed Steffens spaghetti meal. Claude and Dennis worked with the radar until they got tired of the blowing snow. Lars made some GPS measurements without disappearing in the snow.

Weather tonight: -5.5C, 5 m/s from 265 true, cloudy with thin clouds and visibility to the horizon. We saw the sun this evening!

Tuesday 16. May, building up camp

2006-05-17T09:49:00.000+02:00

The first picture from camp, the Flade Isblink Field Party (5/16/06)
(From left to right)
Back row: Sverrir Hilmarsson (Iceland), Simon Sheldon (U. Copenhagen), Andreas Lemark (U. Copenhagen), Bruce Vaughn (U. Colorado), Lars Berg Larsen (U. Copenhagen), and Steffen Bo Hansen (U. Copenhagen)
Front row: Dennis Sundermeyer (U. Kansas), J.P. Steffensen (U. Copenhagen), Claude Laird (U. Kansas)

It's been windy and snowing all night and it continued during the day. In the morning we had 40cm drifting snow between the boxes. Around 15.00 the Twin Otter flew over the camp and we could talk to Jonas over the VHF radio. Jonas could talk to Nord and us, but unfortunately we can't talk directly to Nord on VHF. The snow stopped around noon, for the first time since we arrived. The weather at 15.00: -9.2C, 4 m/s from 295 true, visibility: infinite, overcast with high thin clouds.
The Kansas people have installed their internet café og Claude commented loudly when he downloaded his emails. You just can't get away from them :-)
Vi have finished arranging the cargo-line, with all our cargo line up, so we can find it in the snow. Sverrir and Steffen started on the floor for the drill tent. Meanwhile the Hatz generator no.1 stopped. Probably a problem with the fuel intake ... The problem was found and repaired. At the moment we use the Honda generator. Lunch was Currystew and champignon soup. Bruce brought a bear-alarm fence, and we put it up around the camp. The kitchen is getting organized and cosy. Tomorrow both generators will have a look-over in the kitchen tent.

Monday, 15. may, first day in camp

2006-05-16T22:08:00.000+02:00

Flade Isblink camp is established now and the irridium telephone is open and placed in the kitchen tent. All in camp are in a good mood.

The day has been used to establish camp. The weatherport, the sleeping tents and a "shitter"-tent is up. The generator is running and electrical cables have been pulled to the kitchen tent and the site for the drill/science dome. In the act of preparing the shitter a 1.5 m deep hole has been dug. No melt layers were found. Is the accumulation very high - or has there been no melt last summer?
Tomorrow the drill/science tent will be established.

It's has been -14 - -10 deg C with wind 8-10 m/s. Ice fog all day.

Sunday 14. may, Flade Isblink!

2006-05-16T21:51:00.000+02:00

The weather was OK and the put-in to Flade Isblink began at 11 am local time. All cargo was moved to the camp in 8 twin Otter missions. Lars and Sverrir drove the skidoos and sledges to the camp using the route north of St. Nord. This route goes over a wide snow covered area which will probably not persist through the June 7th missions, when the next team takes over on Flade Isblink. When we have time we will establish a route south of St. Nord. At 19.00 all flights were completed, and a few hours later ice fog rolled over the camp.
The temperature was -11C and there was some windso we hurried to put up the weatherports and tents. After a few hours the most important tents had been erected, and the generator and iridium phone had been installed. We could then call Copenhagen, where people had been eagerly waiting for news.

Saturday 13. May, waiting

2006-05-16T21:50:00.000+02:00

It's been completely overcast all day. Jonas had us on stand-by until noon, but then we cancelled all flights. We thus had the opportunity to participate in a fantastic Saturday evening dinner at Nord. The tables were set with tablecloths and candlelights, and everybody wore ties. After dinner the party continued to the bar that had been transformed to an internet-café by the Kanses people.

Our freezer works, and after going down to -25C we pulled the plug. It's ready. Our Hatz diesel generator was tested, and we also tested Nord's barometers against our pressure standard.

Friday 12. May, the project has started!

2006-05-16T09:31:00.000+02:00

After breakfast at 9.00 am we continued finding and sorting cargo. The temporary freezer for ice core storage was erected outside one of St. Nord's garages. It was built within 3 hours, but then the weather was getting marginal, and by the time the Twin Otter arrived from Alert christmas snow was falling. The temperature was -3C and there was almost no wind. We have talkedt to Jonas and Stråle and Rene Forsberg have taken the geodetic equipment out of the plane. Sverrir repaired Naja Mikkelsens skidoo, and the skidoo she borrowed from St. Nord, so she and Yngve are ready to leave.
Svend, the head of St. Nord, checked all our papers and reported to the Greenland Command that project Flade Isblink has started. Lars and JP checked the pack-list. If weather permits we will try to get to Flade Isblink tomorrow. Jonas thinks that we can do it in one day.

Thursday 11. may, St. Nord

2006-05-16T09:29:00.000+02:00

Departure for Station Nord at 08:00 local. After two and a half hours of flight we arrive at Bord at 13:30 local time. There is 3 hours time difference between Thule and Nord. Station Nord has UTC (Zulu) time. The C130 was totally full and the 109ht called the C130 ‘the Vaseline plane’ because the load needed oil on all sides in order to fit into the C130. Weather was exellent. We flew over Flade Isblink and noted that the route to the south looked most promising. We got quartered in Building 19. The snow reaches the roof of Building 19, but the door was free. After lunch and a group picture with Jim Grubb, the 109^th returned. A great THANKS to Jim Grubb on his last mission to Greenland. We hope to meet you again in the future. The rest of the day and evening was used for sorting out cargo.

Starting up, 8.-10. May

2006-05-16T08:38:00.000+02:00

Monday, May 8th

During the week the team has gathered in Kangerlussuaq and the team departed for Thule Air Base at 12:30 local. The US C130 was stuffed with scientific equipment and scientists and we would like to thank the mission commander Jim Grubb from US National Airport for outstanding support. The team was greeted by the DLO (Danish Liason Officer), Tommy Toft in Thule. The air guard and Lars immediately started regrouping the pallets. A pleasant evening was spend in the Club and many old histories where told.

The team: Dennis, Claude, Bruce, Jørgen Peder (JP), Lars, Sverrir, Steff, Simon, Andreas

Tuesday, May 9th

Early morning the team started rebuilding pallets. The cargo staged in Thule in March was found behind a door that could not open. This was fixed during the day. Visits at the police for weapon permissions and at the DLO about the summer plans were successful. US C130 used the day for a mission to Alert while our team prepared the pallet for Station Nord.

Wednesday, May 10th

The cargo was ready Tuesday afternoon. We would like to thank the Thule Air Base personal for fantastic support. The 109^th came back from Alert Tuesday at 16.00 local time and Jim Grubb could inform that a radar on the C130 had mechanical problems so there would be no mission today, Wednesday. While the 109^th returned to Kangerlussuaq for exchange of C130, we used Wednesday sigh seeing. We were so fortunate that we could use a car and had a good day with good weather. In the afternoon the Thule Air Base personal loaded the Flade Isblink cargo in the exchanged C130 with a K60 loader.