June 14, 2018

A Norwegian visit

There is nothing as eggs and bacon when you have just traversed the entire Greenland ice sheet on skies.

Early in the morning three kites showed up in the horizon, and shortly after we had three Norwegian kite-skiers in camp. Vegard Ulvang, Ronny Finsås, and Harald Dag Jølle are kite-skiing across Greenland from west to east and from north to south in the memory of polar explorer Eivind Astrup (https://sites.npolar.no/astrup2018/). Our visitors have been reporting about their exciting travel, and in exchange they have been given a tour of camp. Work-wise, it has been a productive day all over camp. Besides working, we have been following the situation at the Summit station 350 km to the SW of camp, where a polar bear showed up yesterday morning. Everybody is safe and the bear had to be shot today, but it is remarkable that we now have had two polar bear encounters in camps on the ice sheet this year. Summit station is located in the middle of the ice sheet and has existed for 30 years without ever have been visited by a polar bear, so something is different this year.

What we did today:

1. Deep drilling 14.37 m. Drillers’ depth 1102.38 m
2. Firn gas drilling sampling to depth 18.0 m
3. Ice core processing bags 1487 – 1525, final depth: 838.75 m
4. Measurements in isotope laboratory, final depth: 594.55 m
5. Measurements in physical properties laboratory, final depth 740.30 m
6. Logging and cutting of this years’ brittle ice 923.70-940.90 m
7. Water vapour sampling and measuring.
8. Hosting Norwegian kite-skiers

Weather: Partly overcast, partly low broken clouds. A few light snow showers. Temp. -14 °C to -18 °C. Wind: 2-12 kt from NW. Visibility: Mostly good, but varying.

FL, Anders Svensson