Location: WAIS Divide, GPS to follow
Welcome to WAIS
Arrival at WAIS Divide, the sign outside the galley.*
Welcome to WAIS Divide, a truly amazing place. We already know what you're going to say when you hear the description, "how is that exciting?" And let us just say, if you were never at peace in the world, then WAIS is the place to be! We had heard that this is a big white nothing out here and they were right! There is nothing out here, AMAZING! No mountains, no sounds! When you look off in the distance, you see nothing! Nothing but a sea of ice and the horizon! BEAUTIFUL! There literally are no words to describe the feeling of being out here. At first, the feeling was a little weird, but it didn't take long to really fall into place!
Ocean of Ice
A true ocean of ice with a scott tent in the foreground.*
This is a field camp that at present has somewhere around 40 people, significantly smalled than the nearly 1,100 at McMurdo. It is also quite a bit colder, today was -19 C. The main tasks for today were to learn our way around camp and get our 'homes' set up for the next 10 days.
Home!
Brandon trying out his new home for the next 10 days!*
We started going through cargo and then had some dinner. We have a Galley (photos to come) and some darn good food! After dinner we went out to wait on the second plane to WAIS today where our explosives were due to arrive! And arrive they did!
Master Blaster!
Leo the 'Master Blaster' secures the newly arrived explosives before transit to 3km from camp.*
You'll hear more about the explosives later in the trip since that is a large part of the science we're doing. The rest of the evening consisted of staying warm and drinking warm drinks, hot cocoa, spiced cider and tea. The temperature as I am finishing writing this has dropped to -27 C!
**Tomorrow: **GPS location information, and more on the science we're doing here at WAIS and what the team will be doing on Thwaites Glacier, maybe another bio too.