May 27+28, 2017

A good weekend on the ice

Valerie is showing camp aerial dancing.

This weekend was enjoyable for all in camp. The weather continues to be nice, and Saturday afternoon people prepared for the Saturday evening dinner, a Danish youth dinner, prepared by Jens Christian, Anne Katrine, Rasmus and Iben. It became a very nice evening where people enjoyed the company of each other. One event made the evening spectacular, as Valerie demonstrated her professional skills as aerial dancer in front of all just before dinner. It was a breath taking experience. There is progress in all fields, and we are soon entering true ice core production mode. From Monday morning, the drillers and loggers enter a two shift system, and core production should increase. As the science trench is almost ready, it will soon be “all hands on deck” in the snow caves.

What we did Saturday and Sunday:

1. Pulled heavy cable from main generator to drill trench under the dome and through the new tunnel.
2. Drilling. Plan to go to 2 shift drilling Monday.
3. Logging ice cores. Logging depth Saturday: 157.23 m. Logging depth Sunday: 167.87 m. Plan to go to 2 shift logging Monday.
4. Working on infrastructure in science trench.
5. Warm laboratories almost ready.
6. Ventilation system in drill trench under construction.
7. With new cable in play, the science trench is being re-wired.
8. New freezer unit maintains -30°C in core extraction room.
9. Excavation for new cook’s freezer cave is complete.
10. German snow sampling.
11. Japanese aerosol sampling and snow experiments.
12. Water vapour sampling, methane sampling, boundary layer and meteorology station working.

Ad. 2: Drilllers report: A stable mode of drilling has been established using an HT pressure tube, coupled to the RECAP drill (2 meter core barrel) with ca. 2 mm pitch step cutters. Over the weekend cores of excellent core quality between 1.8 and 2.0 meters became the norm. Chips recovery and core quality has improved with increasing the drill head RPM. Core breaks are consistently between 300 and 500 kg. Fluid recovery using the melter system has been slow to establish a routine, due to freezing at valves and hoses, despite heating. Improvements are being made daily, and despite frustration, the separation of Estisol240-Coasol from the melted chips seems to be effective for recycling recovered drill fluid. Meanwhile, JC continues to coordinate troubleshooting the new borehole electronics.
Ad. 4: All tables are setup. All equipment is setup. Now, we only need a final mounting of the two HEMA saws.

Weather Saturday: Sunshine. Temp. -11°C to -22°C. Wind: 5 - 10 kt from WSW and SW. Visibility: To horizon.
Weather Sunday: Sunshine. Temp. -13°C to -24°C. Wind: 10 kt from SW. Visibility: To horizon.

FL, J.P. Steffensen

J.P. is excavating the new cook’s freezer.