June 23, 2022

Reaching the top

EGRIP radar ultra-wide band train nicely lined up.


In the drill trench there was good news today, as the tedious work of cutting ice blocks above the tower was completed. More blocks still need to be cut in other places in the trench, but at least the remaining part of the excavation doesn’t have to take place high above the trench floor. Furthermore, the drillers will soon be able to start the process of slowly tilting the tower and thus find out exactly where the inclined trench needs to be trimmed.
The experiment with inflating the green balloon in the ramp to avoid drifting also seems to be a success, as the ramp was mostly ready for use after the balloon was deflated. Hence, the ice block removal from the trench by all available hands could continue today at the normal times an hour before lunch and dinner.
The improved weather also allowed surface programmes to resume with an ApRES trip to verify the smooth running of the nearest instrumentation.
The drone team also managed to perform a low-level flight. Debugging and testing of the Greenland Exploration Rover continued and the EGRIP radar system is now in an almost completely assembled state with skidoo, polypod and radar all nicely lined up. The shallow drilling next to camp also resumed.

What we did today:

  1. Cleaning snowdrifts in ramps and around camp.
  2. Excavation of drill trench by all available hands in camp.
  3. Extracting snow-blocks by Flexmobile-driven sledge up the new ramp.
  4. Grooming of skiway.
  5. Shallow coring of the EGRIP S8 core using the AWI drill system south of camp, depth 82 m.
  6. Greenland Exploration Rover tests and troubleshooting.
  7. Inspection of ApRES station nearest to camp.
  8. Assembly of the EGRIP radar system.
  9. A low-level drone flight and snow sampling.

Weather today: Cloudy with brief sunny spells before lunch and dinner. Temp. -21°C to -14°C. Wind: 3-9 kt from NE most of the day, calm in the late evening. Visibility: Poor to moderate during most of the day, but moderate to good during sunny spells.

FL, Bo M. Vinther

Julien and Grant after reaching the planned height above the tower in the drill trench.