Location: We’re pretty sure we’re at WAIS Divide though we could be wrong. WE CAN’T SEE ANYTHING!
Disclaimer: This is an attempt to recount the situation we have found ourselves in for the last 36 hours. Remember, this is just an attempt. Actual events may be described in better detail in person. Pictures do not do justice! Oh, there are none of those right now. They will be posted later, but they still won't do this storm justice!
After our last storm over the weekend, many camp staff had made note that this was the worst storm of the season. After this storm, this has moved to the worst storm of the 3-year history of this field camp. All started late Tuesday night after a C-130 brought in ten new residents. There was supposed to be another flight in that evening but it was later canceled due to below average visibilities, flat light and some light snow. If I haven’t mentioned yet, flat light is where there are few if any shadows to show relief in the snow. This means that you can’t see if you’re going to walk over a drift and fall five feet until it’s over. One camp staff member rolled skidoo yesterday afternoon because of this. Moving on . . .
Conditions began to deteriorate from Tuesday night through late last night and even into the early morning hours of today, Thursday. Little work was being performed outside because of the rapidly diminishing visibilities and after lunch things really slowed to a halt. It was another lounge day of reading books, listening to music and watching movies. After dinner reality struck. We weren’t going anywhere for a long, long while! Notes were being posted throughout the galley that certain exits were closed, we weren’t allowed to leave the building without a buddy and no one, NO ONE, was going back to tent city to sleep! There was a group of eight that had wanted to go back to their tents to sleep and then to bring back one of the other camp staff that had gone to bed earlier in the evening. They followed the flag line to tent city, and then couldn’t see any tents! They turned around and we were informed that no one was leaving for the evening. Winds were clocked at 45 knots before the anemometer shut down. Best estimates thus far have 50+ knot sustained winds for a few hours, possibly more. We may never know. The best example I can give for the intensity of this storm is a Kansas supercell with 45+ mph gusts that may last a few minutes to a half hour. This has been going on for 18 hours! Think of a hurricane with snow instead of rain, lasting about the same amount of time, and in most cases, longer!
We sat around playing cards for a while, reading books and socializing. Every so often we had to check out the windows to see what the weather was doing. You couldn’t see boxes five feet from the building! "Yup, still white!” In the vestibule, a little entry way into most buildings, we placed large tin cans to use and pee collectors. We weren’t even allowed to use the outhouses! These of course had to periodically be dumped out so as to not overflow! I know this isn’t probably the best mental image, but this is how it went down! Around midnight or a little after people started falling asleep, on the floor, under tables, on top of tables, pushing chairs together, etc. Pictures to follow!
It was truly amazing to see a camp of 49 people come together and work together to make sure that people were all in heated structures and had what they needed. No one was assigned jobs, they just did it! Neither words, nor pictures can really explain how it all ended, but we are all warm and safe, working on very little sleep. I apologize for no pictures, the camera is in the other building and I can’t go back to get it right now. I promise ASAP that you will have pictures!
For the third journal in a row I will leave you with "it’s a harsh continent!” This couldn’t be more true after last night!