Journal

Seth sent me some news yesterday. They will be dismantling the core camp on Mount Hunter in the next day or so and are now waiting for good helicopter weather to move the cores to base camp. I have asked Seth to keep sending any pictures he can, but we need to understand that this a crucial time for the team. The stress of drilling is over, but the stress of getting the cores safely to Colorado has just begun. With big transitions afoot for everyone it looks like it was time for some spiffing up.

Tim Before
Tim Before

Tim After
Yes there was a face in there after all. Photo Credit: Tim

Team Shave
Pretty sporty looks for Tim, Seth, Brad and Dom. I guess Dave wasn't that hairy as he is not in the shot. Photo Credit: Seth

Almost there! 185 meters on core # 2! The team is HOPING for one more day of drilling to reach bedrock on the second ice core. Dave and I collected a whopping 8 km of radar data today including transects nearly to the central summit of Hunter across the ice divide to look at ice depth and thickness variations of the layers. Dave and I are tired and are likely going to bed early! We also set up and collected a couple km of low frequency radar data which we used to see stratigraphy nearly to the bedrock. We used the system to collect data in cross sections next to the drill site where we could see nice layering as expected.

Tim had some final details to finish up with the MET station today. Namely, duct taping/zip tying all the wires that connect to each sensor to the metal frame of the station. This will keep them from flapping in the wind over the winter which risks pulling out the wires from the sensors or data logger. For dinner, we had some leftover meat from a BBQ outside in the hot sun yesterday evening. We do eat well up here but living at 13000 feet for a month wears on the body a bit, especially with the physical activity, so the food is very welcome. I am the pancake cook and chocolate chip pancakes or cinnamon pancakes are a morning treat once or twice a week as well as the meat and frozen vegetables.

Well, not a very exciting BLOG today but Im exhausted so bed time for me. Dave and Tim are supposed to leave tomorrow so it will be an early day of helping them pack up their personal gear and making a couple sling loads of gear they will need to install a second MET station down at base camp. Goodnight!

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