May 25, 2018

First 2018 ice core drilled and processing is gaining speed

First 2018 ice core. Left: Trevor and Steff are emptying the chip chamber. Right: Bottom of the core visible inside the drill head.

Today, the drillers made the first test run with the long version of the drill. All essential functions: Surface computer controls, tower, winch, motor control in drill, drill head, chips chamber are all operational.
They even produced an ice core in this first run. The ice core processing team almost tripled their production and there is still room for further increase in production as the routine of the crew grows. The first preparations for a 35m long and 5m diameter snow cave has been made. Although this snow cave is a test, it will be used as a concert hall later this season, and at the end of the season, we intend to park several vehicles in the cave and seal it of for the winter.

What we did today:

1. First test run with long version of drill.
2. Adjusted drill tower position.
3. Mounted snowblower on Pistenbully and excavated 1st section of large balloon cave.
4. Ice core processing 23.10 m, bags 659 - 700 (361.90 m – 385.00 m).
5. Measurements of isotopes in isotope laboratory.
6. Measurements of physical properties in physical properties laboratory.
7. Repairing snowmobiles.
8. Water vapour sampling and measuring.
9. Few short missions with drone for water vapour sampling.
10. Surface snow sampling.

Ad.1: The drillers made a first test run with the long version of the drill. Everything works, and they produced 1.3 m ice core using a moderate drill motor current of 6.3 A. Some tuning on the drill head and some refining of drill trench equipment remains to be done.  The core was kept short as the ice is brittle.

Weather: Fine all day. Temp. -17°C to -28°C. Wind: 8 kt to 10 kt from SW. Visibility: Unrestricted.

FL, J.P. Steffensen