Journal

Hi Everyone,

I'm now home in Maine and have had a great first few days back in the classroom. I'm not at school tomorrow, however, as I am taking a group of 8th graders on a backpacking trip in the New Hampshire White Mountains for the weekend. It's going to be quite warm....in the 80s. My wife made a great comment earlier tonight...that I have had more than a 100 Degree F shift in temperature between now and the coldest night on the acclimatization climb.

Seth was finally able to send some pictures from the Mount Hunter Ice DivideAn ice divide is analogous to a watershed divide. An ice sheet divide separates opposing flow directions of ice on an ice sheet. that show a little bit about the drilling operation, and yes, there are some shots of the core. It sounds like the work is going well and my guess is that they might be done one 750 foot core and will now work for another one. I hope they don't run out of Oreos. Enjoy the pictures. Ken

Mike at work in the drill tent
Brad spoke a little bit about the cable apparatus in a previous journal. This is Mike, the Driller, in the big drill tent working his magic and monitoring progress. I wonder what music is playing in the background? Photo Credit: Brad Markle

A real live Ice Core
It's a little hard to see, but the core is in the foreground of the picture. It has come out of the drill and is resting on a tray or cradle type of structure. The team works quickly to get it to the next step. Photo Credit: Dom Winski

Ice Core Packaging
The cores are packaged and stored in insulated boxes which will get buried at the divide and shipped when all of the logistics come together. They get helicoptered to Denali Base Camp, flown by Talkeetna Air Taxi to Talkeetna and then trucked to a national ice core lab in Colorado....Amazing work by a dedicated team. Photo Credit: Brad Markle

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