SummerAtSummit

Yes, that’s what my advisor is thinking (though not about this site).  Spending some of that hard-earned gvmt handout green over the next few days, so this likely won’t get wrapped up for another week.  I see that there are only a few who are still checking the site…I’m in no hurry, but would like to wrap this up.  Look for a conclusion by this time next week!  -Jeff

Made it back down to Kanger this past Thursday, after a slightly adventurous flight (see last time). Spent a little time online after we landed, since there was no hurry to go to lunch (missed it) and dinner was a ways away. There wasn’t a whole lot to do afterwards, since people were tired from the night before and the day’s journey. (then again, there usually isn’t much to do). That left me making a call to walk out to Lake Ferguson with a couple fellow Summiters deciding to join me.

Right to the north and east of town is one of the glacial rivers that drains the ice sheet. Apparently some 30 years ago an adventurer decided to try and navigate the waterway, but was unsuccessful. (the sarcastic side of me wondered if he passed away just after launching, but it’d be tasteless to speculate here so I’ll just show a couple photos):

Here’s Jacques down by the lake. It was late, so no one else was around and the rowing club was silent:

There wasn’t any flora or fauna at the top, aside from a doomed wayward bird, but down at the coast there were flowers in bloom. Not spectacular, but still a treat for my eyes:

Going to catch a bus now, but be sure to check back over the next few days and I’ll take you out to the edge of the ice!!

Will be up in about 3 hours for the final push to get everything wrapped up and myself/my possessions on the plane back to Scotia.  There is supposed to be breakfast around 4a, which means about 3.5 hours of sleep tonight.  Hopefully my roommate won’t mind the 340a alarm.

It was a pretty round day, what with the tumble while mountain biking and some other issues, but I’m happy to say I’ll be back in NH in less than 24 hours.  I have much to share, but don’t figure to get it out for a couple more days so be sure to check in one more time.  In the meantime, thanks for following along and I hope that you found this to be useful.  (if not the words, then the pictures).  Until then, the edge of the Greenlandic ice sheet and I bid you good night.  Take care-  Jeff

Have A LOT to show from the past day, but I’m ready to do some hiking now that we’ve landed in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. The flight down was interesting, as it was delayed about 3.5 hours. I thought just from fog, but after we landed I heard that there were some mechanical issues too. I didn’t find this hard to believe, because about 30 minutes out the crew scrambled around under seats and dislodged a couple passengers. Then, 7 cans of fluid were passed along like a bucket brigade…turns out it was hydrolic fluid and there was an unexplained loss. No leak was found and it fixed the problem, but still an interesting sight to behold. (tried to take a pic when the crew member wasn’t doing something that required concentration)

I’ll leave with a little something in a window of the cockpit that was pointed out to me while we were boarding. It brought a smile to my face and Craig too my picture (which I’ll have to get later), but here’s a shot after deplaning in Kanger:

Almost back to the US, then I’ll begin my Greenlandic goodwill tour! Best- Jeff

As promised, here are some pictures from the parade yesterday. It was a cool 14F with light snow at start time (4:30p), but there was a 15-20 mph wind that made it quite uncomfortable to stand around outside. There were some creative entries, but those of us who are sciencing at Summit didn’t quite have the resources to compete with the staff and construction personnel in terms of extravagance. The route was around one of the buildings, past the judge’s “stand”, and then a 180 back to the starting point. After an opening of the cook serving as the drum corps and a few flag bearers the floats rolled.

There were some non-US citizens who (according to what I was told) referenced a Monty Python skit and were wondering what the Romans ever did for them. The two Brits and one Canuck earned many kudos for shirking traditional Summit garb(i.e. something warm)  Most of the people in my group dressed up as pirates/mermaids/shark. You read that correctly…a shark:

Here’s a chance for you to play a little Where’s Waldo…feel free to share how long it took you to find me:

To answer a couple questions from viewers:

It’s been around 40F in my tent at night, but noticeably warmer when I wake up.  The first couple weeks water in a bottle I keep inside the tent would occasionally be freezing or frozen, but I don’t have a thermometer so I can’t be any more precise.  Here’s the view from my front door…not too far away, but enough distance to make me not roll right out of my sleeping bag:

Getting ready to start packing tomorrow evening but I’ll try to add a couple more posts before I return  to the states.   Until next time  -Jeff

Things have been relatively calm the past couple days, meaning that there has been a lot of work for me to do and no major malfunctions have occurred. Since it’s down to 1 week now, I’m finally comfortable with what I’ve accomplished up to this point and not worried about having everything running it to the very end. Pretty liberating, actually, so I expect to be in a good mood for the rest of the experience.

Hopefully you had an enjoyable holiday/3-day weekend.  I got most of my business taken care of on Friday so I can enjoy the festivities planned for Saturday. There will be a parade including floats and some sports afterwards. Not sure what else will be happening, but I can assure you that there will be pictures. In the meantime, here are a few more photos (hole in the clouds/tapered sliver of clearing at the horizon/”V” of blue in the sky/frozen wave breaking into Sat camp/some guy behind the drift…for scale):

Heading out to work for a while so that’s it for now.  -Jeff

<<Post started Tuesday night, but slow upload time and fatigue made me stop writing shortly after midnight>>

Well staying up until 4a and digging a big hole 4 hours later apparently is not a good idea. As one might guess, throwing a couple cubic yards of snow over one’s head on little rest makes for a looooong day. I dozed off for a couple hours and missed dinner, which is bad since I can’t eat again until morning. Haha, just kidding. There was plenty left over and I even got a slice of cake for Canada Day. (strange chocolate 2-layer deal with vanilla icing and blueberries in between the layers) The festivities included some other stuff during dinner that I missed and a movie this evening. The instigator was a student from U Toronto who is helping me with sampling and doing a little data work for the last 2.5 weeks I’m here. Tara was kind enough to do some of the digging and seemingly excited to pull the samples:

Here’s a shot from the inside of snow blowing over the top:

and a couple of Tara at work once we got the whole thing cleaned up; one from the side and one looming over the top:

Took a nice panorama, but that will have to wait since load time is kinda long. In the meantime, here’s my drift wall (we have to sample downwind all the time because people are sources of some of the ions we’re looking for, so this was to help minimize the snow blowing in one’s face), me up to my eyeballs in the pit with drift flying around, and the hole after filling:

No, that wasn’t it. Of course I had to fill it in all the way. To paraphrase Groudskeeper Willie from The Simpsons, “She was a bonnie hole”.

<<Continued Wednesday around noon>>

I’ll wrap up quickly by showing the panoramic view (excuse the fact that it isn’t level…too bright to see the view screen; if you can download the image, click on it…much better than looking at the thumbnail)

Lastly, there is a bit of work going on around the Big House. They are in the process of digging out the bottom so it can be raised higher. Not easy work, but the people cutting blocks and clearing it out are doing a great job. -Jeff

Going to be over 50 people in camp tonight, so I’m guessing the internet is not going to be much of an option for the next couple days…so I will dump one more pic out here and probably won’t post anything until this weekend. Got up a little early again and was able to catch a few wave clouds just to the left of the Swiss Tower, which was a nice way for me to start the day. -Jeff