PolarTREC teacher Steve Kirsche after arriving at Summit Station Greenland.
We made it to the Arctic!! Four days after leaving Jacksonville, we were able to fly on the LC-130 aircraft from Kangerlussuaq to Summit Station in Greenland. It was a fairly short flight of only about two hours. The coolest part was that up here in Summit Station, we landed on a skiway instead of a runway. Summit Station sits on top of two miles of glacial ice which means that you can only land on top of the ice. The skiway is a groomed portion of the ice that is a little over three miles in length (the longest skiway in the world).
When landing here, the LC-130 retracts its wheels so that it can land using the skis. I expected it to be bumpy landing and taxiing, but it was amazingly smooth. In fact, it was even smoother than when we landed on a regular runway a few days ago.
Welcome to the Station
Shortly after arriving, we had lunch and then got an orientation to the station. There are lots of special procedures that we need to know about and follow. We then got a station tour and got our sleeping spots. I will be sleeping in a tent while I am up here (I'll have more about this in a future journal).
The people here have been great! They've been very welcoming and friendly. I feel very fortunate to be here with such a nice group of people and look forward to getting to know many of them over the next few weeks.
Acclimating
Today and tomorrow will be slow days for the team. We just went from being at sea level to being at 10,530 feet above sea level in one jump. This is not an advisable way to get to high altitude. It doesn't allow the body time to adjust. The air at this altitude is thinner, meaning that you need to breathe faster. As a result, the chemistry in your blood changes slightly. It can take up to four days for your body to adjust to this.
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