11 August 2008 Waiting to hear

Our morning meeting had a pretty full agenda of items that needed to be done before we leave tomorrow morning at 7AM. Megan, Kristen, and I stayed at the station to inventory all the supplies and equipment and to create piles for garage storage at the station and for UNIS. The task took the majority of the day since everything needed to be counted and repacked.

Emily, Maya, Anthony, and Dave went up to Lake Kongress to take care of the boat. The engine, running tank, and gas can all had to be brought back down to the Lake Linne, and the boat needed to be dragged up onto the beach where it will stay for the winter. This required using frame packs to carry the running tank and gas can, and a couple of pieces of wood to carry the engine. Everything went well, and they had their tasks completed by mid afternoon.

Mike, Antoine, and Steve had a huge laundry list of tasks to take care of around the south end of Lake Linne. Data needed to be collected from the weather stations and the thermistors in the stream, and at the mid stream location the snow tree needed to be reassembled. Plume cam pictures from the past few weeks needed to be downloaded and Steve needed to take a few more altimeter readings at a nearby cirque. Of course, it sounds like these are simple tasks all in the same vicinity, but remember that this is a big place and distances are very deceiving. Besides all these tasks they needed to drop one boat at the north end of the lake, deflate it, and pack it up for the season. We didn't see them back at the station until after 11PM!

While all the final tasks of the field season were placed into able hands, Al, Jesse, and Leo were left with an opportunity to devote the day to ice coring. Their plan was to finish coring all of Linne GlacierA mass of ice that persists for many years and notably deforms and flows under the influence of gravity. and then core a couple of ice core moraines surrounding the Linne GlacierA mass of ice that persists for many years and notably deforms and flows under the influence of gravity.. Back at the station we had no way to communicate with any of the three teams in the field. When the Lake Kongress team came back, they could not fill us in at all about the status of either of the other 2 teams except that Mike's team should be returning soon, which wasn't true. As time progressed through the evening, there was no word from Mike's team or Al's team. Eventually Mike, Steve, and Antoine arrived and we got the low-down. Coring was a success - so much so that they were contemplating staying another day to continue coring around the valley! We were all relieved at seeing Mike and his team and for getting such good news. Sometime after 1AM, Al, Jesse, and Leo arrived back at the station ready to hit the sack pretty hard after an exhausting but extremely satisfying day.

Question of the day: We are coming to a close in the expedition and it's almost time to submit your data on the polar bear models and CHS Cougars in the pictures. How many have you counted thus far? Watch for an announcement for the close of the contest.