Location: Still WAIS Divide, though it may look a little different.
WOW! After almost three days of being stuck inside, snow, wind, and blowing snow, the storm has given way to blue skies! You wouldn’t believe how the climate of the camp has changed in the last 12 hours! We’re also supposed to get our first flight in tomorrow after four days! Think of how you feel when you finally see the sun after almost of week of cloudy, rainy skies, and then multiply that by a lot!
The winds are still howling, though they have calmed quite a bit. You can see more than 50 feet in front of you now. The time has come to shovel/plow out! Camp staff that has been here since late August has commented that "this has been the worst storm of the season, so far.” The last journal posted had some photos of the storm in progress, today we’re going to post a few of the aftermath pictures!
A drift near the recreation building.
A drift nearly as all as the rec building on camp.
Blocked Door
This is the main entrance to the galley. Needless to say, we needed to find an alternate door.*
Another Blocked Door
This is an inside shot of the main entrance to the science building.*
We were able to get a little work done yesterday, though not much. After spending 45 minutes or so outside gathering materials, we headed out to ‘the arch’ to begin construction on the Conestoga sled, yes, sled! It is exactly like a Conestoga wagon, just on a sled, being pulled by a ski-doo. This is the structure where electronics and computers will be housed while measurements from the explosions are being taken. There is no heater inside, and few windows. "It’s not a pleasant ride, despite how neat it might look,” said Huw.
Construction
Construction on the Conestoga sled!*
Almost finished!
The Conestoga sled almost complete. Notice the curved canvas roof!*
After the sled was finished being built, we got a tour of the arch facility where the WAIS Divide Ice Core Project is taking place. Over the next three years they will be drilling to a depth of nearly 3,400 meters! This is not the deepest core ever drilled, though it will be the most complete and detailed core ever done. It will also have the best record of greenhouse gases to date! We hope to have more details on this project at a later date. If you are interested, you might try to Google the project as well.
The Pit
A ladder leading down 30 feet below the surface. At the bottom is where the bore hole is for the ice coring.*
OK, time to play catch up. The plan is to start drilling a few holes for the explosives today, maybe detonate a couple! We’ll keep you posted! Stay warm back home and don’t forget to tune into the next Live from IPY event on December 18, 2007! You’ll hear specific details about our project and hear from some of the team members!