Journal Entry

Starting to Pack

Well, it's that time. I leave in less the three days and the packing has begun. Part of the packing process is triage - which items stay, which get to go. My kids are great at this as every time we go anywhere they go through the triage process with regards to which stuff animals are coming along. (For our spring break desert trip the allowance turned out to be too large - they had a veritable zoo along on that one.)

Here's a video showing how I chose my sunglasses.

I don't think I'll have time to scientifically examine every piece of clothing and equipment I may take. So I'll just go with my gut instinct (and the PolarTREC packing list) for the rest.

Getting close!

Question of the day: Which airline allows more baggage, Air Greenland (20 kg checked) or Delta (50 lbs. checked)?

Comments

Thu, 04/03/2014 - 18:44

Sarah Crowley

if they had their pick - which stuffed animals would go to greenland? I bet your kids are reading this blog so, I'd love to hear from them!! Did they have you pack a stuffed animal??

Fri, 04/04/2014 - 03:45

Tina Ciarametaro

Russell, I am attending the NSTA Conference in Boston this weekend. Yesterday, one of the exhibitors was featuring Operation IceBridge and people could write to the team onboard. They had the route of the plane projected on a huge screen as well. Immediately thought of you! Best of luck - Ipswich, MA will be following you!

Fri, 04/04/2014 - 17:09

Guest

Hello Mr.Hood This is Angelina.D from Los Coches Creek Middle School.I have a question how cold do you think its gonna be up there and what exactly are you going to be doing when you are up there? Thank you.

Fri, 04/04/2014 - 17:09

Guest

Hello Mr.Hood This is Angelina.D from Los Coches Creek Middle School.I have a question how cold do you think its gonna be up there and what exactly are you going to be doing when you are up there? Thank you.

Sat, 04/05/2014 - 23:29

Russell Hood

Angelina-
Sorry for my delay in responding. I am currently in Paris awaiting my
next flight so I have a chance to quickly write back. The temps in
Kangerlussuaq can be all over the place this time of year (i.e. they can
have either winter weather or nearly summer weather). In degrees F the
highs have recently been just above 0 with overnight lows in the minus
teens. But the short term forecast is calling for a warming trend with
highs near 30F and lows around 10F in a few days. This could easily
revert to minus temps while I'm there. Stay tuned...

While there I will be flying with the Operation Ice Bridge team from
NASA - they have a website if you want more information about that. We
will be flying low over Greenland mapping the ice sheets, in short.
This is a multi-year project that hopes to establish baselines and then
compare year-to-year changes in the ice mass. My job is that of science
journalist as I will be communicating all sorts of various science back
to the you folks in the US via my journal and at least one PolarConnect
live web event.

Thanks for the query.

-Russell

Sun, 04/06/2014 - 01:33

Lisa Seff

Hey Russell, you made it! and Paris! Nice layover stop. Love your sunglass video, might have to borrow that idea. Looks like you and your stylist worked it all out so your eyes were protected and you were stylin at the same time! I'm sure your students got a kick out of it too.
Looking forward to following your trip and continued safe travels!
take care-Lisa