June 17, 2019

The drill is on surface and CFA has measured all 2018 ice

The drill is on surface and CFA has measured all 2018 ice

Hurrah! This morning the drill came free again. After yesterday’s lack of success for the fishing operation, the hook was taken to surface and rotated 180 deg before being lowered into the hole again. Not that it by any means is possible to control the orientation of the hook on its 1.9 km long journey down the hole, but somehow it made the trick. In the fifth fishing attempt, a hard pull was necessary get the hook off the bottom, meaning that it had attached itself to the drill. After a careful winding up of the cable, the fishing tool came to surface with the drill hanging below and an ice core in the core barrel! Troubles were not over, though, because with the fishing tool attached to it, the drill was too long to get out of the borehole and to have the drill tower turned to horizontal. Furthermore, there was a bottom core sticking out of the drill, making it necessary to lift the drill even further. So only after another couple of hours of excitement, the drill was finally secured and in horizontal position at around 4 pm.
Complements go to the drill team that handled the stuck drill situation very professionally and with a very good team spirit. Talking of complements, at 5 pm we all went to celebrate in the water isotope CFA laboratory, because they have finished analysing all of the ice that overwintered from 2018. A huge task that has been carried out steady and patiently over the last month. It is now time to welcome people to the science trench and start producing more samples for the CFA lab. Chris has spent all day on the skiway trying to harden some of the loose snow that has arrived over the last days. It has been snowing with thick overcast, there is absolutely no contrast, making it very difficult to prepare the skiway. It appears to clear up from west, though, so we allow ourselves to stick to the luck and happy mood that has permeated camp today. For dinner, Sarah cooked an amazing sauce containing three bottles of port wine. Maybe that added to the high spirits during the evening quiz prepared by Sonja and Nico. Truly an eventful day!

What we did today:

1. Applying fishing tool to recover drill and ice core.
2. Ice core logging 1936.3 – 1939.1 m (2.8 m)
3. Station for atmospheric moisture sampling and isotopic measurement is active.
4. The isotope CFA laboratory bag 3183 to bag 3199 (length 8.80 m). THE END (for now).
5. PP measurements now in operation. All instruments working well.
6. Grooming the skiway all day and night, preparing for skier later this week.

EGRIP population is 24.

Weather: Overcast and snowing. Clearing up during the evening. Temp. -13 °C to -8 °C. Wind: 2 kt to 10 kt from NW.

FL, Anders Svensson

Celebration of the CFA team. The heroes are Valerie, Richard, Kevin and Giulia in the front.