April 6, 2007
Latitude 47-39.35N
Longitude 122-19.00W
Wind 16.6 mph
Air temperature -12.5 C 9.5 F
Wind Chill -8.6 F
Breakfast is fairly quiet. We have oatmeal, sausage, eggs and pancakes or French toast to start the day. Generally the morning conversation is on what work needs to get done, who is going to do what and what equipment we need to gather up. After breakfast the thirty-six people break into different groups, gather their equipment together and then head off to get their work done.
Breakfast
Yesterday I was up for breakfast and then at 8:00 I set out to set up a new transect line with Nick, Katherine and Adrian. The line went in fairly quickly and we had a kilometer line finished by 10:30. We returned to camp, had a cup of coffee and then set off down line 3 to do snow sampling. We followed the stations out to the lead. The perpendicular lead had slammed shut and there was a small pressure ridge where it had once been. We walked back into camp from the 650 m mark on line 3 for lunch. After lunch we walked out line five doing snow sampling as we went. When we reached the 1 km mark at the end of line 5 we walked to the end of line 6 and started sampling as we worked our way into camp. What was the distance we walked from the end of line 5 to the end of line 6? While the temperature wasn¹t too bad, the combination of wind, cold and walking wore us out. We stopped sampling and walked into camp at 6:30 to put our equipment away. Estimate how long we were out in the cold. How far did we walk? Can you estimate how many calories we burned? This is the fifth day that I had been physically active outside and working hard.
Today I was given the task of radio duty. It was my responsibility to sign out the snowmobiles, make sure the field sampling parties had radios, check where the parties were headed, and when they thought they would return. The rest of the day I answered radio calls as the field parties finished their sampling and moved from one place to another, I would write it down. I talked with the helicopter as they flew scientists from one place to another. I also talked with the supply plane and gave them information.
At dinner the thirty-six people involved with the ice camp were happily talking away with each other about their day and their work. There was some good natured kidding. In general people were happy, they had worked hard and their equipment was working and getting them the data that they needed. There were many different accents, and an excited air in camp. The ice is dynamic and changing with some leads opening up and others closing forming pressure ridges. This is just like the scientists predicted and hoped when they put in their funding proposals