June 2+3, 2018

A weekend with unwanted drama

Polar bear sorting through our kitchen waste.

The weekend began with much unwanted drama. Saturday morning, a polar bear was encountered in camp (see special diary entry), and of course, this encounter disturbed the normal working routine in camp. People had to process the incident, and naturally it influenced the mood in camp.
Although we had no choice, a beautiful animal had just been killed.
Also, everybody mentally went through “what if scenarios”, which needed processing. Lydia, our camp doctor and a resident of Tasiilaq, East Greenland, was a strong anchor point for quite a few to help the mental process. Core processing was cancelled and instead the team built a weatherport. Saturday evening dinner was prepared by Ilka, Jan and Lydia who made the main dish of gullash, cabbage and knödel, and Damiano treated us with tira-mi-su. The evening became a relatively quiet affair as many had been awake since 03.15 Saturday morning.

What we did Saturday and Sunday:

1. Saturday: Ice core drilling in two shifts. Status at 20.00: 14 m drilled in 5 runs. Drillers’ depth: 1005 m.
2. Sunday: Filtering borehole.
3. Grooming skiway.
4. Big balloon stowed and equipment packed. Big balloon cave finished.
5. Repairing and replacing skiway markers.
6. Improving tables in drill trench.
7. Built weatherport no. 6.
8. Analyzing polar bear incident. Writing reports.
9. Work on improving Doppler radar settings.
10. Ice core processing Sunday 13.75 m, bags 1064 - 1088 (584.65 m – 598.40 m).
11. Measurements in isotope laboratory.
12. Measurements in physical properties laboratory.
13. Water vapour sampling and measuring.
14. Surface snow sampling.

Weather Saturday: Fine. Temp. -16 ºC to -26 ºC. Wind: 10 kt to 15 kt from W and SW. Visibility: Unrestricted.
Weather Sunday: Fine. Temp. -18 ºC to -26 ºC. Wind: 3 kt to 10 kt from W and SW. Visibility: Unrestricted.

FL, J.P. Steffensen

Jens Jakob after a long digging job.