June 18, 2019

Preparing for increasing camp population

The 24 EGRIP inhabitants from over the last two weeks: Maggan, Matthias, Chris, Valerie, Richard, Sarah, Søren, Lydia, Kevin, Francois, Anne-Katrine, Nicholas, Silje, Clint, Giulia, Kate, Mori, Maaike, Lucas, Karl-Emil, Anders, Nico, Sonja, and Alexios.

Two Skiers arrived this evening to Kangerlussuaq from New York State, and tomorrow afternoon we are expecting a Skier to EGRIP bringing 27 people to camp together with food, cargo and fuel. For this reason, the skiway has been prepared, camp has been tidied up, fuel tanks have been prepared to receive fuel, room has been made in the cook’s storage, and a housing plan has been prepared for the increasing population. In the coming days, the camp population will increase to 40, so it is necessary to squeeze more people together in the tents. One reason for the increased camp population is that the science trench will ‘open’, meaning that the ice stored in the ice core buffer from last year, and the ice drilled this year will be processed (sampled and analysed) in the coming weeks. We are still quite relieved because of yesterday’s happy outcome of the deep hole fishing exercise, but drilling will not continue immediately. Over the last weeks, the drill cable has not been winding well up on the winch, and since the cable is now anyway detached from the drill, the opportunity is taken to unwind the cable completely and rewind it in good order. This task is likely to take a day or two.

What we did today:

1. 1. Preparing to un-spool and re-spool cable on winch.
2. No ice core logging.
3. Station for atmospheric moisture sampling and isotopic measurement is active.
4. Data processing in CFA laboratory. No more samples.
5. PP measurements ongoing in science trench.
6. Grooming last night. Skiway is in very good condition.
7. Swapping fuel tanks and preparing pallets.
8. Setting up ECM in science trench.
9. Cooking lunch for 50 people in preparation for crew exchange and visitors.
10. MAGPIE picked up 2 stations (NW50 and NW100).

EGRIP population is 24.

Weather: We are back to blue sky and excellent conditions for flying.
Temp. -18 °C to -10 °C. Wind: 2 kt to 10 kt from NW -> W -> SW.

FL, Anders Svensson