May 4+5, 2019

Fine and balmy weather continues and camp opening is progressing really fast

An unusual sight. After only three days in camp, main street is almost complete with all weatherports built.

This has been an eventful weekend. All the time, new features have been added to camp, which step by step changed camp life from primitive frontier existence to a civilized place. What only three days ago was open snow is now EGRIP mainstreet with little “houses” on both sides. We now have central heating, running water, dish washer and a warm main dome. Vehicles and snowmobiles are on a hot line for easy start. We have gained access to all our underground caves: the cooks freezer with a lot of good food, the storage cave with sleds, ice core boxes, tents, outdoor furniture and ice core drills and the drill and science trenches. We celebrated a “mini” Saturday evening, and people were allowed to sleep in Sunday morning.

What we did Saturday:

1. Built Weatherports no. 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7.
2. Polar bear radar installed and active.
3. Main generator on line.
4. Cooks snow melter and main snow melter on line and main dome has central heating.
5. Installation of satellite dish in progress.
6. Excavating ramp to underground storage cave.
7. Small Saturday evening with steaks, potatoes and mushrooms.

What we did Sunday:

1. Fuel tank pulled into position in camp.
2. Started both Flexmobils and removed them from winter parking.
3. Opened storage cave.
4. First inspection of drill trench and science trench.
5. Finished outfitting WP 9, 8, 3 and 4. These weatherports are now heated and ready.
6. Finished pointing satellite dish successfully.
7. Testing Picarros in main dome.
8. Installing hotline for snow mobiles in front of main dome.
9. Main dome now has running water and a dish washer.
10. Sarah and Frederik made homemade pizzas for dinner.

Ad.3: We had to use the Caterpillar with bucket to dig through the final meters of very hard snow to reveal the plywood doorway.
Ad.4: The roof in the trenches has settled as expected; but no cabins or equipment has been damaged. The ceiling needs trimming in several spots, particularly over the logging cabin. Winch and drill tower are working, and tower could be tilted to vertical. Due to uneven movement of the floor, the drill tower is not completely vertical. It will be straightened in the coming days.

Weather Saturday: Mostly sky clear with some scattered clouds. A little snow drift in the morning; but this stopped as the wind eased off in the afternoon. Temp. -12°C to -19°C. Wind: 18 kt to 9 kt from SW. Visibility: Unrestricted.

Weather Sunday: Mostly Sky clear with occasional broken cloud cover. A little snow drift in the morning; but wind eased off in the afternoon. Temp. -11°C to -19°C. Wind 18 kt to 9 kt from W. Visibility mostly unrestricted.

FL, J.P. Steffensen