I learned a little bit about what Jackie and Jen know. I learned more about myself. I learned that I still have a lot to learn. I learned how to delegate better, channel myself into positive efforts, and most importantly how to let go of situations beyond my control.
We are very lucky. The weather was very accommodating, the location was spectacular, and we have so many people to thank for all their effort and support. I learned on this trip that it takes roughly 100 people to put one person like me on a remote site like this and keep the basics functioning.
Most of all, I've learned to listen to the strength of others, ask important questions, keep my hands busy, my attitude positive, and my mind at peace. With these fundamental elements, I feel in balance with my life and the existence of others around me.
25 April 2007
April 13 – Last full day at Camp
Today is the last full day at camp. The morning was spent packing up all the big equipment, loading it into cargo containers, and getting it out to the runway. It was the usual bustle of trying to find all those little things you had brought with you. Each item had met its maximum entropy and was scattered somewhere within the camp. The only loss of equipment I suffered was my little red shovel which I was quite fond of, but I am sure that it was one of those early snow mobile rides that caused its demise and so I have accepted it as a sacrifice to the Arctic terrain – not a bad way for a Norwegian field shovel to spend it remaining days.
Following the packing, Robert and I also took some time to go around to each building and mark the north corners of each with a GPS position and record the size and relative location of each to get a lay of the camp. We also took a series of stereo photographs around the perimeter as a means of reconstructing the camp layout. We hope to use these and maybe an aerial shot to make a 3D fly-through of the camp at Chandra’s lab. We had a quiet lunch with only a third of the scientists left.
After lunch we walked down the end of Line #6 one last time to check out the developing ridges, especially ridge number 6.1. The snow mobile tracks were so set at this point that they have become stable trails for one to walk comfortably along without worrying about burying one’s leg up to one’s knee in soft drift. We could feel that it was our last day especially after the gear was packed. We only had cameras at this point so we did some stereo photography of 6.0B, JR1, and 6.1. Then Robert and I took a relaxing walk back. It was actually so warm and sunny we had our coats completely open and were still sweating like crazy. We stopped by the ice mass balance buoy and Andrew’s meteorological station and took stereo photos of them as well. At 3pm we felt the need to return to get some water because we were soaking with sweat.
We returned, drank tons of water, and started to download the data when Jen came in and asked if someone would like to take a walk to go see the Pablo ridge one last time. The last time I walked that way was a week ago so I did want to see it one last time. I dressed lightly as it was still hot (30F) and went with Katharine and Jen. At about 400m along Line #4, Jackie and Bruce were standing there watching a ridge form. We all watched for about 20 minutes while the ridge flooded, creaked, groaned, slide, heaved, you name it. I had a camera with me so I tried to get as much video as I could. Then we walked the rest of the way to the end of Line #4. The 2 liters of water I drank after the early afternoon walk had caught up with me so I actually had to (for the first time) find a ridge to relieve myself. It was an interesting experience trying to find a suitable place. Sort of like being on an unstable rocky sea shore and needing to go. But, I suppose it was bound to happen. Besides this is one of those questions that everyone seems to ask, so ... yes, you do have to improvise when out in the middle of nowhere and make do with whatever is available at the time.
It was a good walk and a good chance to spend time with the core folks on the team to walk one last time together and watch the ice deform and marvel at the incredible structures. We were like little kids all over again, watching the way the ice behaved, it was just wonderful.
Dinner was great and we ended off with a toast to the success of the field work. Tomorrow morning I need to wake up, eat breakfast, pack, and get on a plane possibly by 9:30 am. I have to go over shipping issues with Bruce to be sure the hazmat stuff stays separate from the other shipping. Once that is all taken care of, we have to head over to the Prudhoe airport and find out about standby on the return flight to Fairbanks. Once in Fairbanks, we still have about 3-4 days of wrap up and continued packing but it works out well that way. In this setup, I should have 3 days of high speed internet at ARCUS and IARC to sort out e-mail and the next round of science planning before I head back to my family. I will spend the rest of the week at home to help out there and then it will be back to work on Monday in full swing to my usual job.
I think I will need those 4 special days with my family to get reconnected with them and to shift gears back from this vast open wilderness. The project was great, but it is also very nice to get back home again.
Following the packing, Robert and I also took some time to go around to each building and mark the north corners of each with a GPS position and record the size and relative location of each to get a lay of the camp. We also took a series of stereo photographs around the perimeter as a means of reconstructing the camp layout. We hope to use these and maybe an aerial shot to make a 3D fly-through of the camp at Chandra’s lab. We had a quiet lunch with only a third of the scientists left.
After lunch we walked down the end of Line #6 one last time to check out the developing ridges, especially ridge number 6.1. The snow mobile tracks were so set at this point that they have become stable trails for one to walk comfortably along without worrying about burying one’s leg up to one’s knee in soft drift. We could feel that it was our last day especially after the gear was packed. We only had cameras at this point so we did some stereo photography of 6.0B, JR1, and 6.1. Then Robert and I took a relaxing walk back. It was actually so warm and sunny we had our coats completely open and were still sweating like crazy. We stopped by the ice mass balance buoy and Andrew’s meteorological station and took stereo photos of them as well. At 3pm we felt the need to return to get some water because we were soaking with sweat.
We returned, drank tons of water, and started to download the data when Jen came in and asked if someone would like to take a walk to go see the Pablo ridge one last time. The last time I walked that way was a week ago so I did want to see it one last time. I dressed lightly as it was still hot (30F) and went with Katharine and Jen. At about 400m along Line #4, Jackie and Bruce were standing there watching a ridge form. We all watched for about 20 minutes while the ridge flooded, creaked, groaned, slide, heaved, you name it. I had a camera with me so I tried to get as much video as I could. Then we walked the rest of the way to the end of Line #4. The 2 liters of water I drank after the early afternoon walk had caught up with me so I actually had to (for the first time) find a ridge to relieve myself. It was an interesting experience trying to find a suitable place. Sort of like being on an unstable rocky sea shore and needing to go. But, I suppose it was bound to happen. Besides this is one of those questions that everyone seems to ask, so ... yes, you do have to improvise when out in the middle of nowhere and make do with whatever is available at the time.
It was a good walk and a good chance to spend time with the core folks on the team to walk one last time together and watch the ice deform and marvel at the incredible structures. We were like little kids all over again, watching the way the ice behaved, it was just wonderful.
Dinner was great and we ended off with a toast to the success of the field work. Tomorrow morning I need to wake up, eat breakfast, pack, and get on a plane possibly by 9:30 am. I have to go over shipping issues with Bruce to be sure the hazmat stuff stays separate from the other shipping. Once that is all taken care of, we have to head over to the Prudhoe airport and find out about standby on the return flight to Fairbanks. Once in Fairbanks, we still have about 3-4 days of wrap up and continued packing but it works out well that way. In this setup, I should have 3 days of high speed internet at ARCUS and IARC to sort out e-mail and the next round of science planning before I head back to my family. I will spend the rest of the week at home to help out there and then it will be back to work on Monday in full swing to my usual job.
I think I will need those 4 special days with my family to get reconnected with them and to shift gears back from this vast open wilderness. The project was great, but it is also very nice to get back home again.
April 12 – Last Full Science Day
Tomorrow we start shipping gear back so this is the last day of full blown science. It started out very nice with Robert and I preparing for the “live from IPY” webinar arranged by the incredible folks at ARCUS. They sent us two pages of PDF using the figures Robert had been transmitting. They had selected a series of these and put them into a powerpoint presentation that they would beam out to the classrooms around the world that wished to participate. We went carefully through them spending a solid hour prepping for the event. We had no idea how many people would be listening so we had to get our minds set for an unspecified number of participants and student questions. At 09:25 we phoned in to get set up for the event.
For the next hour we were there, hooked in with folks from all over who wanted to know how things were going at our ice camp. It was so weird because we have been in isolation for almost two weeks so being plugged into this conference call for one hour in the middle of nowhere was strange and cool at the same time. I felt like one of those folks in the animated section of Disney’s Epscot Center where they have the mom located at 500m below sea level in an aqua habitat hut calling her family and chatting with them from her computer and seeing their faces. This is as close to that futuristic display as I could imagine. My incredibly dedicated husband was one of the participants and that just made the whole event special. I got the typical sets of questions about what is happening up on the ice and what sources are causing the changes, and how is life on the camp, etc. But from here, with all the events still around me, it was so tangible to relate my experience to the outside world. Since we have had media with us nearly the whole time, and time with my students, I was getting used to the idea of relaying complex science issues into everyday lingo and I find that I am starting to get the hang of it. It takes quite some thinking to boil down some of the more complicated issues to the fundamentals that everyone can understand. But, when I do that, I find that I am able to grasp those topics for myself. It was great to get a question from someone in Luxemburg and we are waiting for the e-mail from ARCUS to find out how many actually participated. Several of the PolarTREC teachers participated. The support of the other PolarTREC teachers was definitely felt so one could see already the huge impact the 4-day training through ARCUS was having on all the PolarTREC teachers.
Robert was a little frustrated that no one from his school district hooked up so we are sensing some form of communication break down there. It just means that we will have to make those post-field presentations that much more exciting to ensure that another such event can get more local coverage. But I know from previous experiences like this that there are only a few souls in the world who can extract themselves from the everyday grind (especially grown ups) to engage in that sense of wonder to carve out time to listen to an adventure. It is probably for this one big reason that I find this trip so enjoyable, because I am able to be with others like myself who have been at the edges of this world and can relate to the wonder of watching a ridge grow (like yesterday’s incredible event) or marvel at how a lead formed over night followed by a big ridge only 200m from the helicopter. We all have a sense of understanding about where we are so no one is worried but by the same token, we can see that our research area and the time of our stay are both slowly heading in the same direction - departure into the spring break up (camp and ice). After lunch, I had an opportunity to finally get my first half day to work directly with Jen the chief scientist as colleagues and it went well. We finished up the drill holes in the ridge.
There was a good deal of ridge activity between yesterday and today, but the light was very flat and therefore quite difficult for taking pictures. If we can get one more good day for photography, Robert and I will try to revisit the stereo sites to retake those shots with the changes in the ridge development. That would be a bonus for Scott to work on.
Tomorrow we move into packing mode and the final wrap up of all data. Time to download the last of the pictures and get stuff ready for close out.
For the next hour we were there, hooked in with folks from all over who wanted to know how things were going at our ice camp. It was so weird because we have been in isolation for almost two weeks so being plugged into this conference call for one hour in the middle of nowhere was strange and cool at the same time. I felt like one of those folks in the animated section of Disney’s Epscot Center where they have the mom located at 500m below sea level in an aqua habitat hut calling her family and chatting with them from her computer and seeing their faces. This is as close to that futuristic display as I could imagine. My incredibly dedicated husband was one of the participants and that just made the whole event special. I got the typical sets of questions about what is happening up on the ice and what sources are causing the changes, and how is life on the camp, etc. But from here, with all the events still around me, it was so tangible to relate my experience to the outside world. Since we have had media with us nearly the whole time, and time with my students, I was getting used to the idea of relaying complex science issues into everyday lingo and I find that I am starting to get the hang of it. It takes quite some thinking to boil down some of the more complicated issues to the fundamentals that everyone can understand. But, when I do that, I find that I am able to grasp those topics for myself. It was great to get a question from someone in Luxemburg and we are waiting for the e-mail from ARCUS to find out how many actually participated. Several of the PolarTREC teachers participated. The support of the other PolarTREC teachers was definitely felt so one could see already the huge impact the 4-day training through ARCUS was having on all the PolarTREC teachers.
Robert was a little frustrated that no one from his school district hooked up so we are sensing some form of communication break down there. It just means that we will have to make those post-field presentations that much more exciting to ensure that another such event can get more local coverage. But I know from previous experiences like this that there are only a few souls in the world who can extract themselves from the everyday grind (especially grown ups) to engage in that sense of wonder to carve out time to listen to an adventure. It is probably for this one big reason that I find this trip so enjoyable, because I am able to be with others like myself who have been at the edges of this world and can relate to the wonder of watching a ridge grow (like yesterday’s incredible event) or marvel at how a lead formed over night followed by a big ridge only 200m from the helicopter. We all have a sense of understanding about where we are so no one is worried but by the same token, we can see that our research area and the time of our stay are both slowly heading in the same direction - departure into the spring break up (camp and ice). After lunch, I had an opportunity to finally get my first half day to work directly with Jen the chief scientist as colleagues and it went well. We finished up the drill holes in the ridge.
There was a good deal of ridge activity between yesterday and today, but the light was very flat and therefore quite difficult for taking pictures. If we can get one more good day for photography, Robert and I will try to revisit the stereo sites to retake those shots with the changes in the ridge development. That would be a bonus for Scott to work on.
Tomorrow we move into packing mode and the final wrap up of all data. Time to download the last of the pictures and get stuff ready for close out.
April 11 – Stereo Photography
It was a quiet mild morning with some light ice fog in the air. After breakfast, I headed out with Robert to get the stereo survey done between Lines #4 and #1 in a clockwise direction (essentially hitting the same highlights Jackie had shown on her tour the day before). It was a quiet calm and enjoyable trip. Robert has been an absolute trooper and a really good grounding for my personality. He says the same for me so we are really glad to be buddies on this trip. I think it really helps to know that we have such wonderful spouses tending the home front. I would definitely say that Robert and I have become good colleagues and friends as a result of all the trials and tribulations of this camp.
We worked through lunch to get the stereo imaging of Jen’s ridge. We got in 36 points (see trip report). When we were half way through the Discovery guys did a spot on me explaining how ridges, leads, cracks, dynamics, and thermodynamics work. It was an interesting experience and since I had just finished a good hard morning of work with lots of success, I was feeling very calm and satisfied so the take felt like it went well. My patience was high so I managed to last, missing yet another meal, so these guys could retake and retake me doing the same thing again and again and again.
I got settled in for an afternoon of radio work at the command and control hut to write up all my stuff and spent the last hours of the afternoon catching up on paperwork. We set up the T-shirt sales and they went like hotcakes.
Just after 17:00, Jackie called on the radio to tell Jen that there was a new ridge forming. I tagged along with Andrew and experienced my first ridge building. I drove out with Andrew on the snow machine just in time to see it grinding and crunching away. It was just great. It sounds like a combination of Styrofoam and fingernails on a blackboard. The momentum was the most impressive. It wasn’t moving very fast, but there was this large flat plate that was moving with absolute confidence, like the vessel the Queen Mary heading slowly into port but determined to take out a pier. The speed was slow but the power and the feeling that there is no way to stop this thing was something one was definitely aware of.
Upon returning, I repaired Jen’s serial port with a careful soldering job of the battery connector so she could download the data from her 3 buoys that were recovered from the helicopter yesterday. It meant missing yet another meal, but the recovery of those data from the units that for a while I believed were lost, was worth it.
Tomorrow I’d like to check out the change of events between Lines #1 to Line #4 by way of Lines #2 and #3.
We worked through lunch to get the stereo imaging of Jen’s ridge. We got in 36 points (see trip report). When we were half way through the Discovery guys did a spot on me explaining how ridges, leads, cracks, dynamics, and thermodynamics work. It was an interesting experience and since I had just finished a good hard morning of work with lots of success, I was feeling very calm and satisfied so the take felt like it went well. My patience was high so I managed to last, missing yet another meal, so these guys could retake and retake me doing the same thing again and again and again.
I got settled in for an afternoon of radio work at the command and control hut to write up all my stuff and spent the last hours of the afternoon catching up on paperwork. We set up the T-shirt sales and they went like hotcakes.
Just after 17:00, Jackie called on the radio to tell Jen that there was a new ridge forming. I tagged along with Andrew and experienced my first ridge building. I drove out with Andrew on the snow machine just in time to see it grinding and crunching away. It was just great. It sounds like a combination of Styrofoam and fingernails on a blackboard. The momentum was the most impressive. It wasn’t moving very fast, but there was this large flat plate that was moving with absolute confidence, like the vessel the Queen Mary heading slowly into port but determined to take out a pier. The speed was slow but the power and the feeling that there is no way to stop this thing was something one was definitely aware of.
Upon returning, I repaired Jen’s serial port with a careful soldering job of the battery connector so she could download the data from her 3 buoys that were recovered from the helicopter yesterday. It meant missing yet another meal, but the recovery of those data from the units that for a while I believed were lost, was worth it.
Tomorrow I’d like to check out the change of events between Lines #1 to Line #4 by way of Lines #2 and #3.
April 10 – UD Student Visit Continues
We were told this morning that the flight back for the boys was around 3pm so we agreed that Jackie’s tour starting at 08:30 around the perimeter would be a good way to get an overview of the spots to get good stereo shots. We loaded up a whole bunch of us on the wooden pallets that are pulled behind the big camp Alpine ski doos and also two small ski doos. (Katharine, Adrian, Mani, Scott, myself, Bruce, Jackie, Dan). It felt like a real sleigh ride. We started down the runway to the first feature which was near the 500m mark on Line #4 where a narrow lead had been working. The frost flowers have been incredible lately so the whole idea of a tour in such fine weather with little wind was just a super idea. We had Art (from Polar Palooza) with us to get Jackie’s tour lecture on film and that was just great. It really was a full scale educational tour with Jackie providing us with 20 years of insight in the field with all the features she has ever seen in the Arctic right here within a 3 km box.
We traveled around and saw the following things in the following order:
• (as above) Line #4 near 500m refrozen lead
• Big block of multiyear heaved up which had a refrozen melt pond (absolutely crystal clear with no salinity at all). Within the ice layers, the refrozen melt pond is a brilliant clear blue but a small piece nearby that had broken out was absolutely translucent clear with chandelier air bubbles inside.
• Shear ridge with no ice blocks at all, just these amorphous jumbles of crushed ice as a result of shearing, grinding action by lateral motion of the floes next to each other. Jackie and Bruce have named it the cauliflower ridge.
• The next few (part of the perimeter survey) were a collection of ridges at different stages of development from just a few humps that looked like the ice was punched from below, to small linear features, and then larger ones as we moved around about 1.5 km from camp in a clockwise direction from Line #4 to Line #1. At this point, Jackie commented that this collection of features was a rarity given the presence of so many dynamic features in close proximity based on 20 years of field experience.
• At about Line #6 the features were larger (north edge of the walking limits) so Jackie found a good spot to explain a feature called a Rubble Field which looks like something you would never want to traverse with anything involving a sled or a snow machine. It just looked like brutal topography to traverse. Someone had commented that such a rubble is the one that prevented Nansen from reaching the North Pole as his ship had come around to the Russian side which is noted for its rubble field icescape.
• We approached the end of our tour by coming around to Jen’s main ridge site then onward to two more very big ridge sites between Line #1 and Line #2.
The tour went later than expected and we were all cold when we returned but it was absolutely worth it. While we warmed up in the mess hut with cocoa, tea, coffee, and cookies, we asked about an update on our flight and found out it had been moved up an hour and a half. So we pounded down some cookies and chocolates and set off at 11am to get to work on the stereo stuff. We went straight for Jen’s ridge because that was the highest priority. We were fortunate that the diver hold plugs were lying about as these were great geometric cylinders lying on their side with a center hole (see stereo report). We measured one of them extensively and took both still and video takes around it. Then we proceeded to work on the ridge. We got about half way through the ridge when we were called up again and informed that we had to return at 12:45 because the plane was leaving promptly at 1pm (yet another schedule move up). So Mani, Scott, and I made yet another backup plan and decided on a strategy for me to take over their effort by repeating Jackie’s survey the following morning and getting the data to them upon my return. So we hurried back to the camp (bags were already packed). Mani and Scott unloaded their 2 HP cameras and the tripod and we confirmed all the camera settings. We decided to confine the sensitivity study to the cylinder we had already photographed. We were a bit bummed that we had our time cut so short yet again, but that is life in the Arctic. Despite the constantly compressing schedule, my UD team worked with its usual wonderful efficiency and we had a wonderful experience. We didn’t get to the cricket match, Mani and Scott missed a meal, but we had an incredible time with very good weather for the short period of time they were allowed to participate.
In the back of my mind as I waved goodbye and wished them well back to Fairbanks, I was already formulating the next level of requirements for bringing my students with me the next time such an opportunity arises. I have an outstanding team and I am so very proud of both Mani and Scott for making it here. We all wished that Chandra could have joined us and in the next experiment (should opportunity arise), I will make sure that he does with a bold requirement that my students get to be on the ice as much as possible.
I went to the mess to work out some IceSat orbits after that whirlwind and at about 16:30 (local time) the helo came back with Stefan and Torge several minutes still left on their flight. They burst into the mess tent to tell me that they had found the missing buoys. The person on radio duty told me I was clear to go after a refuel. Feeling that I might be able to make up for the failed buoy recovery yesterday, I went ahead and tried to retrieve the buoys. Sure enough there they were 7 km out (5 km more than anticipated). So we have a strange array but it is finally collected. When I landed I came back to camp absolutely psyched about the accomplishment. The joy was dashed into a state of bittersweet when I went to check back in at the command hut. The radio person informed me that he had not called Jenny so I was in hot water for taking an unauthorized flight that I thought had been cleared. He took the heat and we both went into quiet mode the rest of the night. I finished up the rest of my work for the day and then headed to bed in hopes of a better day tomorrow.
We traveled around and saw the following things in the following order:
• (as above) Line #4 near 500m refrozen lead
• Big block of multiyear heaved up which had a refrozen melt pond (absolutely crystal clear with no salinity at all). Within the ice layers, the refrozen melt pond is a brilliant clear blue but a small piece nearby that had broken out was absolutely translucent clear with chandelier air bubbles inside.
• Shear ridge with no ice blocks at all, just these amorphous jumbles of crushed ice as a result of shearing, grinding action by lateral motion of the floes next to each other. Jackie and Bruce have named it the cauliflower ridge.
• The next few (part of the perimeter survey) were a collection of ridges at different stages of development from just a few humps that looked like the ice was punched from below, to small linear features, and then larger ones as we moved around about 1.5 km from camp in a clockwise direction from Line #4 to Line #1. At this point, Jackie commented that this collection of features was a rarity given the presence of so many dynamic features in close proximity based on 20 years of field experience.
• At about Line #6 the features were larger (north edge of the walking limits) so Jackie found a good spot to explain a feature called a Rubble Field which looks like something you would never want to traverse with anything involving a sled or a snow machine. It just looked like brutal topography to traverse. Someone had commented that such a rubble is the one that prevented Nansen from reaching the North Pole as his ship had come around to the Russian side which is noted for its rubble field icescape.
• We approached the end of our tour by coming around to Jen’s main ridge site then onward to two more very big ridge sites between Line #1 and Line #2.
The tour went later than expected and we were all cold when we returned but it was absolutely worth it. While we warmed up in the mess hut with cocoa, tea, coffee, and cookies, we asked about an update on our flight and found out it had been moved up an hour and a half. So we pounded down some cookies and chocolates and set off at 11am to get to work on the stereo stuff. We went straight for Jen’s ridge because that was the highest priority. We were fortunate that the diver hold plugs were lying about as these were great geometric cylinders lying on their side with a center hole (see stereo report). We measured one of them extensively and took both still and video takes around it. Then we proceeded to work on the ridge. We got about half way through the ridge when we were called up again and informed that we had to return at 12:45 because the plane was leaving promptly at 1pm (yet another schedule move up). So Mani, Scott, and I made yet another backup plan and decided on a strategy for me to take over their effort by repeating Jackie’s survey the following morning and getting the data to them upon my return. So we hurried back to the camp (bags were already packed). Mani and Scott unloaded their 2 HP cameras and the tripod and we confirmed all the camera settings. We decided to confine the sensitivity study to the cylinder we had already photographed. We were a bit bummed that we had our time cut so short yet again, but that is life in the Arctic. Despite the constantly compressing schedule, my UD team worked with its usual wonderful efficiency and we had a wonderful experience. We didn’t get to the cricket match, Mani and Scott missed a meal, but we had an incredible time with very good weather for the short period of time they were allowed to participate.
In the back of my mind as I waved goodbye and wished them well back to Fairbanks, I was already formulating the next level of requirements for bringing my students with me the next time such an opportunity arises. I have an outstanding team and I am so very proud of both Mani and Scott for making it here. We all wished that Chandra could have joined us and in the next experiment (should opportunity arise), I will make sure that he does with a bold requirement that my students get to be on the ice as much as possible.
I went to the mess to work out some IceSat orbits after that whirlwind and at about 16:30 (local time) the helo came back with Stefan and Torge several minutes still left on their flight. They burst into the mess tent to tell me that they had found the missing buoys. The person on radio duty told me I was clear to go after a refuel. Feeling that I might be able to make up for the failed buoy recovery yesterday, I went ahead and tried to retrieve the buoys. Sure enough there they were 7 km out (5 km more than anticipated). So we have a strange array but it is finally collected. When I landed I came back to camp absolutely psyched about the accomplishment. The joy was dashed into a state of bittersweet when I went to check back in at the command hut. The radio person informed me that he had not called Jenny so I was in hot water for taking an unauthorized flight that I thought had been cleared. He took the heat and we both went into quiet mode the rest of the night. I finished up the rest of my work for the day and then headed to bed in hopes of a better day tomorrow.
April 9 – Buoy Recovery Day and Student Arrival
The morning was spent on the snow mobile recovering 4 of the 7 buoys that were located on this side of the active ridging area. These are the short deployment buoys without any telemetry. We did a pretty good triangulation and I was warned by Jackie that I might not be able to reach buoy #7 because it was on the far side of a large lead.
We needed to drive to the middle of line #5, jump a lead, and then go to the end of line #5 and start scanning. Jumping the lead part was the tricky part. Robert and I looked for about 15 minutes for a safe place to cross. We both found elements we thought would be safe and then found a spot that met safety criteria we both felt comfortable with. We looked for a spot that had some thick plastic ridging with only a narrow section of slush (50 cm wide) and the snow depth was lower on the other side. Robert took the radio and the ice pick and I drove the snow mobile in preparation for the crossing. I gave myself a good long straight shot and then rev’ed it right up and went across (see photo). It was the scariest thing I’ve done since coming here. I was grateful for Robert’s willingness and patience because we both thought very carefully about these sorts of situations and we were both willing to listen to each others ideas and come up with a safe and comfortable solution.
We headed out the end of Line #5 and saw our first 30 gallon bag full of snow and headed toward it. It was on the other side of another lead that was much wider but had quite some aggressive ridging (too much for the snow machine). So we took the long sled and the ice pick and hand picked our way over this new ridge/lead section. We reached the buoy and found it was #5. We saw in the distance to the left the next buoy and figured that was #7 and headed toward that an additional 0.5 km away from the snow machine. We retrieved that, took a bearing from there to the camp (see notebook) and headed back the kilometer it took to get to the snow machine. We then headed northward in the direction of the remaining two coolers.
After some time we found one (buoy #1) but realized we had overshot one (buoy #6), so we started a search pattern for it. We went way out into the deformation zone with the snow machine and carefully picked our way taking care not to be stationary for any length of time. We tried to find higher vantage points by standing on the seat of the snow machine and climbing to the top of some of the ridges but no success. After an hour of searching for the last buoy we decided to give up and head back to camp for lunch (it was about 11:30 at this point). We had radioed in that we had given up and were driving back to camp when right in front of us what did we see but the last buoy straight in front of us. We collected it, laughed about the bizarre finding, took a bearing, and headed back to camp. When I plotted up the locations I realized that #6 was twisted significantly out of alignment from the others so there had been quite some floe rotation as seen by this buoy in particular (either that or a different placement of this buoys by Jen and Jackie relative to the others).
After lunch I prepared for the arrival of my students on the 3pm flight and also prepared for the helo flight to collect the buoys in the afternoon. I went through all the information I knew based on what Jen and Jackie had told me and the sketch that Jackie had made. The students arrived and we were quickly told to get on board the helicopter to get those buoys as a high priority. Mani and Scott were still trying to get used to the place so it was a shock to them to already get ready for a helicopter ride. We got in and they were just amazed that they were able to do this. We went looking for the buoys with myself, the pilot and co-pilot feeling quite comfortable with the location and planning we had done for retrieval. We had a good sense of the previous bearing and a good idea of how the ice looked when we deployed the buoys. But this was to be a big learning experience for me. We looked for a good solid hour for those buoys. The ridges had grown into a huge size (found one taller than the helicopter) and the field had twisted and changed in structure. The helicopter guys even felt that the field had changed enormously since we had set the buoys out only a week ago. The end result was an empty cargo return and I was feeling like I had really let the team down. I learned later from Jackie that I must always take a position, range, and bearing on any buoy I deploy. It is also wise to have some form of telemetry so I was learning from this experience about how to properly deploy buoys in the event I’d be able to do this as an experiment myself someday. In my mind, I was already mapping out the design of my first buoy system based on what I learned from helping out with these buoys.
From about 4pm when we returned until just before dinner at 7pm, Mani and I went through every ounce of imagery we could to try and sort out where the buoys may have moved to. We got a good sense of how the field was moving dynamically and thought up some strategies of how to retrieve these things. During dinner after much discussion with fellow colleagues we finally decided that the best strategy was to inform the pilot and the Helo-EM bird team to keep a look out for our 3 remaining buoys during their remaining 4 flying days. If they spot anything in the next few days, they will take a GPS way point and record it and get that information back to us. I am quite glad that we started the retrieval process this early because it looks like we may need the remaining time to hopefully recover those buoys. Jen says she doesn’t know how to integrate a radio frequency responder into her short range buoy system so maybe I can help with the buoy development by checking with some of the CRREL technical guys when I get back to figure out how to do that. At least I got back all 6 CRREL units which I am responsible for. Two of them had difficulty working during the deployment, one of which I will need to replace so I will need to talk to their owner when I get back to figure out the best way to either repair or replace those two units.
After dinner, Mani, Scott, and I took a walk down to the lead in the middle of Line #4. I spent time with them on the basic physics and safety issues of leads, thin ice, and ridges. Scott made a test run with his video camera of the lead to get some panned images to see how well the camera worked in the cold. It seemed to do just fine. Jackie is giving folks a guided tour of the ridge surveys around the perimeter of the camp tomorrow and several of us have asked to come including Mani and Scott. We will see how tomorrow goes with that. The boys have to do that in the morning, return for lunch and then pack to head home already on the 3pm flight to catch the 5:45 out of Prudhoe to get back home. I wished I could have gotten them more time on the camp but that is all that was allowed due to constraints beyond my control.
Looking forward to a good day with them tomorrow. Even though they only get one day with one overnight, I still think it is a fantastic experience for them. I am hoping that it opens their eyes to the vastness of the world and keeps them in science. At the very least, Mani is really enjoying this and fully appreciates what is going on. Hopefully Scott will form some impressions as well. He only started this last fall and is still getting used to the UD Ph.D. program.
Time for bed. There is a cold running around camp and I need my sleep to keep from getting it.
We needed to drive to the middle of line #5, jump a lead, and then go to the end of line #5 and start scanning. Jumping the lead part was the tricky part. Robert and I looked for about 15 minutes for a safe place to cross. We both found elements we thought would be safe and then found a spot that met safety criteria we both felt comfortable with. We looked for a spot that had some thick plastic ridging with only a narrow section of slush (50 cm wide) and the snow depth was lower on the other side. Robert took the radio and the ice pick and I drove the snow mobile in preparation for the crossing. I gave myself a good long straight shot and then rev’ed it right up and went across (see photo). It was the scariest thing I’ve done since coming here. I was grateful for Robert’s willingness and patience because we both thought very carefully about these sorts of situations and we were both willing to listen to each others ideas and come up with a safe and comfortable solution.
We headed out the end of Line #5 and saw our first 30 gallon bag full of snow and headed toward it. It was on the other side of another lead that was much wider but had quite some aggressive ridging (too much for the snow machine). So we took the long sled and the ice pick and hand picked our way over this new ridge/lead section. We reached the buoy and found it was #5. We saw in the distance to the left the next buoy and figured that was #7 and headed toward that an additional 0.5 km away from the snow machine. We retrieved that, took a bearing from there to the camp (see notebook) and headed back the kilometer it took to get to the snow machine. We then headed northward in the direction of the remaining two coolers.
After some time we found one (buoy #1) but realized we had overshot one (buoy #6), so we started a search pattern for it. We went way out into the deformation zone with the snow machine and carefully picked our way taking care not to be stationary for any length of time. We tried to find higher vantage points by standing on the seat of the snow machine and climbing to the top of some of the ridges but no success. After an hour of searching for the last buoy we decided to give up and head back to camp for lunch (it was about 11:30 at this point). We had radioed in that we had given up and were driving back to camp when right in front of us what did we see but the last buoy straight in front of us. We collected it, laughed about the bizarre finding, took a bearing, and headed back to camp. When I plotted up the locations I realized that #6 was twisted significantly out of alignment from the others so there had been quite some floe rotation as seen by this buoy in particular (either that or a different placement of this buoys by Jen and Jackie relative to the others).
After lunch I prepared for the arrival of my students on the 3pm flight and also prepared for the helo flight to collect the buoys in the afternoon. I went through all the information I knew based on what Jen and Jackie had told me and the sketch that Jackie had made. The students arrived and we were quickly told to get on board the helicopter to get those buoys as a high priority. Mani and Scott were still trying to get used to the place so it was a shock to them to already get ready for a helicopter ride. We got in and they were just amazed that they were able to do this. We went looking for the buoys with myself, the pilot and co-pilot feeling quite comfortable with the location and planning we had done for retrieval. We had a good sense of the previous bearing and a good idea of how the ice looked when we deployed the buoys. But this was to be a big learning experience for me. We looked for a good solid hour for those buoys. The ridges had grown into a huge size (found one taller than the helicopter) and the field had twisted and changed in structure. The helicopter guys even felt that the field had changed enormously since we had set the buoys out only a week ago. The end result was an empty cargo return and I was feeling like I had really let the team down. I learned later from Jackie that I must always take a position, range, and bearing on any buoy I deploy. It is also wise to have some form of telemetry so I was learning from this experience about how to properly deploy buoys in the event I’d be able to do this as an experiment myself someday. In my mind, I was already mapping out the design of my first buoy system based on what I learned from helping out with these buoys.
From about 4pm when we returned until just before dinner at 7pm, Mani and I went through every ounce of imagery we could to try and sort out where the buoys may have moved to. We got a good sense of how the field was moving dynamically and thought up some strategies of how to retrieve these things. During dinner after much discussion with fellow colleagues we finally decided that the best strategy was to inform the pilot and the Helo-EM bird team to keep a look out for our 3 remaining buoys during their remaining 4 flying days. If they spot anything in the next few days, they will take a GPS way point and record it and get that information back to us. I am quite glad that we started the retrieval process this early because it looks like we may need the remaining time to hopefully recover those buoys. Jen says she doesn’t know how to integrate a radio frequency responder into her short range buoy system so maybe I can help with the buoy development by checking with some of the CRREL technical guys when I get back to figure out how to do that. At least I got back all 6 CRREL units which I am responsible for. Two of them had difficulty working during the deployment, one of which I will need to replace so I will need to talk to their owner when I get back to figure out the best way to either repair or replace those two units.
After dinner, Mani, Scott, and I took a walk down to the lead in the middle of Line #4. I spent time with them on the basic physics and safety issues of leads, thin ice, and ridges. Scott made a test run with his video camera of the lead to get some panned images to see how well the camera worked in the cold. It seemed to do just fine. Jackie is giving folks a guided tour of the ridge surveys around the perimeter of the camp tomorrow and several of us have asked to come including Mani and Scott. We will see how tomorrow goes with that. The boys have to do that in the morning, return for lunch and then pack to head home already on the 3pm flight to catch the 5:45 out of Prudhoe to get back home. I wished I could have gotten them more time on the camp but that is all that was allowed due to constraints beyond my control.
Looking forward to a good day with them tomorrow. Even though they only get one day with one overnight, I still think it is a fantastic experience for them. I am hoping that it opens their eyes to the vastness of the world and keeps them in science. At the very least, Mani is really enjoying this and fully appreciates what is going on. Hopefully Scott will form some impressions as well. He only started this last fall and is still getting used to the UD Ph.D. program.
Time for bed. There is a cold running around camp and I need my sleep to keep from getting it.
April 8 – Easter Sunday
Jackie and I got up at 3am to hide Easter eggs around the mess hall, command and control hut, and the latrines (nicely on top of the stored toilet paper). It was great!
Next morning everyone in some form or another did some little thing to celebrate Easter. The head of logistics had sewn his white felt boot liners together and put them on his head to look like bunny ears (funky bunny ears). The cooks had boiled and colored Easter eggs for breakfast and laid out Easter grass with little stuffed animals at all the eating tables. Everyone was in good spirits. It was a good day!
I took a walk to the ridge study at Jen’s suggestion but she and Alice were working together quite well so I stayed out of their way and just worked on photographing some depth hoar samples. I found a beautiful pit with big samples 1-1.5 cm in diameter. They looked like diamonds. After lunch I took a walk with Adrian and Katharine to check out the newly formed lead that had formed and now separated us from the later half of lines #4 and #5. It was a very good thing that we had finished the survey when we did because our lines are starting to be cut off. Jackie had called this our playpen and up until yesterday, our playpen extended to about 1.5 km in all directions before a lead had cut us off. Now there were several leads and we are limited to 500m excursions on lines #3, #4, & #5. Line #2 had a lead in front of the ridge about 500m beyond the end. Lines #1 and #6 still have big ridges at the end which are still approachable. The spring is coming and the ice is starting to break up but it has been gentle with leads spanning no more than 5 m – just enough to stop the survey of those regions but still possible to cross when needed. We have been really lucky with the timing and the weather for getting our work done.
Tomorrow Mani and Scott arrive and I will be very busy working with them for the next two days to get the 7 GPS buoys and collect stereo imaging of the ridges. Hopefully I can go with Andrew to survey these ridge areas with Mani, Scott and their stereo equipment. Hopefully the weather is nice tomorrow so their work days are effective ones. Hopefully we can get the helicopter time and snow mobile requests to get to where we need to go. A lot depends on many, many factors working out just right. Time for bed, I have a busy day tomorrow.
Next morning everyone in some form or another did some little thing to celebrate Easter. The head of logistics had sewn his white felt boot liners together and put them on his head to look like bunny ears (funky bunny ears). The cooks had boiled and colored Easter eggs for breakfast and laid out Easter grass with little stuffed animals at all the eating tables. Everyone was in good spirits. It was a good day!
I took a walk to the ridge study at Jen’s suggestion but she and Alice were working together quite well so I stayed out of their way and just worked on photographing some depth hoar samples. I found a beautiful pit with big samples 1-1.5 cm in diameter. They looked like diamonds. After lunch I took a walk with Adrian and Katharine to check out the newly formed lead that had formed and now separated us from the later half of lines #4 and #5. It was a very good thing that we had finished the survey when we did because our lines are starting to be cut off. Jackie had called this our playpen and up until yesterday, our playpen extended to about 1.5 km in all directions before a lead had cut us off. Now there were several leads and we are limited to 500m excursions on lines #3, #4, & #5. Line #2 had a lead in front of the ridge about 500m beyond the end. Lines #1 and #6 still have big ridges at the end which are still approachable. The spring is coming and the ice is starting to break up but it has been gentle with leads spanning no more than 5 m – just enough to stop the survey of those regions but still possible to cross when needed. We have been really lucky with the timing and the weather for getting our work done.
Tomorrow Mani and Scott arrive and I will be very busy working with them for the next two days to get the 7 GPS buoys and collect stereo imaging of the ridges. Hopefully I can go with Andrew to survey these ridge areas with Mani, Scott and their stereo equipment. Hopefully the weather is nice tomorrow so their work days are effective ones. Hopefully we can get the helicopter time and snow mobile requests to get to where we need to go. A lot depends on many, many factors working out just right. Time for bed, I have a busy day tomorrow.
April 7 – Wrap up of Level Ice Study
The morning was spent getting the last of the soot samples for Tom Grenfell. Then after lunch I was assigned to man the radios. It was a nice break as we were just wrapping up the last of the level ice study surveys, so I set about making a draft report of the simple stuff like a table of what we collected, how many data points of each time, and some sample pictures of each instrument and the array. I also started to get Tom Grenfell’s data sheet. We collected a total of 19 samples for Tom thanks to some wonderful help from the snow chemistry guys (Bill and Dan). It was a slow wrap up sort of day with the main part of the activity centered around the first dive beneath Jen’s ridge. The Discovery Channel guys were joined by their presenter and they scurried off immediately to the dive site leaving me to just enjoy the day and catch up on reporting.
It was tough day weather wise because the light was flat such that you couldn’t tell horizon from snow or the texture of the snow you were walking on. During our morning walk collecting snow samples, Robert fell a couple of dozen times and once up to his hips. I told him to take little half boot shuffles and look ahead with his eyes and feel ahead with his feet. On a day like this you have to walk like you do with slippers in the dark and focus more of your senses on the bottom of your feet. We saw a lot of deformation activity going on along line #2 with a bowed raised refrozen lead where it was perfectly flat earlier. At the end of the line there was a ridge with a crack that was now joined by a lead along the ridge and the crack ended at the ridge. The crack had run right through an old hummock multiyear section and stopped at the lead (see photos). We noticed a lot of 10 cm wide cracks in that region that cracked open the snow. When we first walked this line, there wasn’t as much snow and the ice and block sizes were easy to see and scramble over. But we have been experiencing snow showers each time the weather warms up. You can really see where a new ridge forms because the newly formed blue blocks don’t have any snow between their cracks. The blue color really stood out against the blank white landscape each time they formed.
It is Saturday and I have been here a whole week. It is also the day before Easter so I thought it was fitting to have a go at the shower. I had been melting ice all day in my hooch in a pan over the stove and storing it in a 20 gallon cooler jug. The shower consists of a warm heated plywood room with some holes in the floor and what looks like a bug sprayer. It is a new bug sprayer and it has only seen water in it with a hose and kitchen sprayer attached at the end. It does an amazingly effective job and the warm wood with the heater gives it a sauna effect. I could also take a good long shower this way with time to spare scrubbing a week’s worth of hard work off my body.
I came back into my hut and Jackie appeared with three bags full of empty colorful plastic eggs and bags of small chocolates and asked me if I’d like to help. We filled them and she set her alarm clock for 3am. We will wake up tonight and put them around the mess tent in the snow for folks to find tomorrow morning. Jackie is just way too cool about things like this.
So in wrap up, it was a good day. We are at the end of week 1 out of 2 and the first half of the intended science is done and we are starting to write things up. The next week will focus on ridges and dynamic features. Also my students will arrive on Monday and we will attempt to retrieve the GPS coolers with them. They are also bringing some video cameras to do some stereo work so we are hoping to take shots of the ridge for stereo rendering. We will try to visit some of the more interesting sites if the weather is good. Hopefully there will be enough light contrast while they are here so they can get some good shots. But at the very least, I am hoping to get them in a helicopter ride and give them the chance to pick up the buoys that we deployed. I am hoping that we can find all 7 of them. That is always the hardest part.
It was tough day weather wise because the light was flat such that you couldn’t tell horizon from snow or the texture of the snow you were walking on. During our morning walk collecting snow samples, Robert fell a couple of dozen times and once up to his hips. I told him to take little half boot shuffles and look ahead with his eyes and feel ahead with his feet. On a day like this you have to walk like you do with slippers in the dark and focus more of your senses on the bottom of your feet. We saw a lot of deformation activity going on along line #2 with a bowed raised refrozen lead where it was perfectly flat earlier. At the end of the line there was a ridge with a crack that was now joined by a lead along the ridge and the crack ended at the ridge. The crack had run right through an old hummock multiyear section and stopped at the lead (see photos). We noticed a lot of 10 cm wide cracks in that region that cracked open the snow. When we first walked this line, there wasn’t as much snow and the ice and block sizes were easy to see and scramble over. But we have been experiencing snow showers each time the weather warms up. You can really see where a new ridge forms because the newly formed blue blocks don’t have any snow between their cracks. The blue color really stood out against the blank white landscape each time they formed.
It is Saturday and I have been here a whole week. It is also the day before Easter so I thought it was fitting to have a go at the shower. I had been melting ice all day in my hooch in a pan over the stove and storing it in a 20 gallon cooler jug. The shower consists of a warm heated plywood room with some holes in the floor and what looks like a bug sprayer. It is a new bug sprayer and it has only seen water in it with a hose and kitchen sprayer attached at the end. It does an amazingly effective job and the warm wood with the heater gives it a sauna effect. I could also take a good long shower this way with time to spare scrubbing a week’s worth of hard work off my body.
I came back into my hut and Jackie appeared with three bags full of empty colorful plastic eggs and bags of small chocolates and asked me if I’d like to help. We filled them and she set her alarm clock for 3am. We will wake up tonight and put them around the mess tent in the snow for folks to find tomorrow morning. Jackie is just way too cool about things like this.
So in wrap up, it was a good day. We are at the end of week 1 out of 2 and the first half of the intended science is done and we are starting to write things up. The next week will focus on ridges and dynamic features. Also my students will arrive on Monday and we will attempt to retrieve the GPS coolers with them. They are also bringing some video cameras to do some stereo work so we are hoping to take shots of the ridge for stereo rendering. We will try to visit some of the more interesting sites if the weather is good. Hopefully there will be enough light contrast while they are here so they can get some good shots. But at the very least, I am hoping to get them in a helicopter ride and give them the chance to pick up the buoys that we deployed. I am hoping that we can find all 7 of them. That is always the hardest part.
14 April 2007
April 6 – Wrap up of Snow Survey
After breakfast, my snow team was ready to head out but Jenny caught me and asked me to prepare with Andrew to go out and survey the perimeter of leads and ridges within 2 km of the camp. We spent about an hour finding gear and prepping and then set off down Line #1 to the end. A few meters past the end of the line is the detailed ridge study ridge so we used that as a good starting point. We set a point just a few centimeters from a crack between the level ice and the ridge. We took Jen’s fantastic drill and used that to make a hole and then lowered down on a tape measure with a special brass fitting attached at the end which would snap close in the middle after measuring. We lowered it down and then brought it back up again until it just touched the bottom of the ice. We recorded ice thickness and freeboard with this reference. Then we gently tugged on the line and the brass fitting folded like a pocket knife into itself so we could pull it up the hole. We then measured 10m away from the hole perpendicular to the ridge along the line #1 bearing and took a picture from there. We also measured the width of the ridge and I used the tape measure at a distance to get a sense of the aspect ratio between block lengths and heights. Andrew was wonderful at teaching me how to use an ice chisel to test the snow covered ice over the rubbles of the ridge so that I could put my feet in the right places. Basically you put the ice chisel where you want to walk and then if it feels firm that is where you put your boot and proceed. We did 3 more sites like this before lunch (station 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3) and then headed back for lunch. It was enough to get a flavor of how to characterize and survey ridges and learn a bit about the detailed dynamics of how ridges form.
In many ways this ice camp is turning into an intense learning program. As one of the PI’s (Principal Investigators) I have to be able to make everything work or ask someone who knows how. I am finding that I am spending most of my time doing process engineering. I have to operate most of the instruments and usually prep a system, train up a team, get them up to speed, and then let them on their own while I prep up the next system. I found this to be the most useful contribution I could make at the PI level since I have engineering experience but this is my first ice camp. I also get to learn how to do things I’ve never done before from practical experts who understand the common sense parts of the science. It has been a great learning experience not just for me but for everyone. We all tried to benefit from each others talents and then we tried to support each other when we faced new challenges. The positive attitudes, the jokes, and the comebacks from the “Arctic stupid” moments were only possible because everyone was there to constantly support everyone. We all quickly accepted ourselves as fallible human beings and started from that common reference point. This is probably the key to our success because we didn’t have too many instances of hot head overrides.
After lunch, it was time to teach the two UK post-docs how to operate the GPR (ground-penetrating radar). The hook up was really straightforward but it took about a half hour to figure out how to get a signal because you have to hook up the antenna to the data recorder first and then plug in the battery to the machine so that (like a computer) it can boot up, check for peripheral connections and then the signal starts to flow. We did some tests down the runway and took much of the afternoon to get enough of a feel for it to be ready to use it by tomorrow. The two UK post-docs (Katharine and Adrian) will make runs with it tomorrow.
At about 4pm, I was asked to make a “FedEx” run out to the end of Line #1. Jen had run out of whip it flags so I found the stash from Bruce’s bins and carried them out. It was the first walk I have taken alone and I really enjoyed it (with radio and flare gun). The temperatures and wind were mild (-5F with little wind) and the sun was shining with a few wispy cirrus clouds overhead. It gave me a chance to just walk and think about what I really need to focus on next.
Got back, sorted out the day’s issues and spent the evening learning how to use some software to view our imagery. A bit of a slow day exercise wise but a good day to think and transition to more science and field prep issues.
Time for dinner and a chance to think some more.
In many ways this ice camp is turning into an intense learning program. As one of the PI’s (Principal Investigators) I have to be able to make everything work or ask someone who knows how. I am finding that I am spending most of my time doing process engineering. I have to operate most of the instruments and usually prep a system, train up a team, get them up to speed, and then let them on their own while I prep up the next system. I found this to be the most useful contribution I could make at the PI level since I have engineering experience but this is my first ice camp. I also get to learn how to do things I’ve never done before from practical experts who understand the common sense parts of the science. It has been a great learning experience not just for me but for everyone. We all tried to benefit from each others talents and then we tried to support each other when we faced new challenges. The positive attitudes, the jokes, and the comebacks from the “Arctic stupid” moments were only possible because everyone was there to constantly support everyone. We all quickly accepted ourselves as fallible human beings and started from that common reference point. This is probably the key to our success because we didn’t have too many instances of hot head overrides.
After lunch, it was time to teach the two UK post-docs how to operate the GPR (ground-penetrating radar). The hook up was really straightforward but it took about a half hour to figure out how to get a signal because you have to hook up the antenna to the data recorder first and then plug in the battery to the machine so that (like a computer) it can boot up, check for peripheral connections and then the signal starts to flow. We did some tests down the runway and took much of the afternoon to get enough of a feel for it to be ready to use it by tomorrow. The two UK post-docs (Katharine and Adrian) will make runs with it tomorrow.
At about 4pm, I was asked to make a “FedEx” run out to the end of Line #1. Jen had run out of whip it flags so I found the stash from Bruce’s bins and carried them out. It was the first walk I have taken alone and I really enjoyed it (with radio and flare gun). The temperatures and wind were mild (-5F with little wind) and the sun was shining with a few wispy cirrus clouds overhead. It gave me a chance to just walk and think about what I really need to focus on next.
Got back, sorted out the day’s issues and spent the evening learning how to use some software to view our imagery. A bit of a slow day exercise wise but a good day to think and transition to more science and field prep issues.
Time for dinner and a chance to think some more.
11 April 2007
April 5 – Good data collecting day
The day started out with the intention to do nothing but snow surveys (get the remaining 3 1km-long transects done) and then at 5pm go with Jen to look at finger rafting and check on Mani’s GPS buoy array. Of course things never go as planned but it was a good science day regardless. Peter Wadhams requested the use of my wonderful survey team to get an “APLIS North” line surveyed relative to the command hut as that had been the key location from which he did all his submarine transects. This was vital to the data integration of the project so we delayed the start of the next snow lines until this was done. It took a couple of hours with several folks to help so I stayed behind and did some prepping to learn how to take soot samples for Tom Grenfell as part of the snow measurements. Just before lunch the snow team set out and we finished the first 500m of line #3 following behind Jackie and Bruce in less than an hour with a full snow pit at 500m and a first attempt to take a soot sample. The procedure was slow because I tried to just do the whole thing right out of his box for this first effort and so it took me about 20 minutes. To collect snow samples for soot analysis the directions said to put on these fleece gloves that were very bulky with food-handler plastic gloves over them that were tight around the gloves and also my fingers. With these cumbersome things I was to open one sterile ziplock, insert another into it, and then facing into the wind (-15F with 10-20mph winds) get a clean sample with a clean spoon and load up a gallon zip lock with snow from a clean location. Opening and especially closing the ziplock bags was very difficult with those gloves. Since the bags are used for soot collection they can’t be the nifty freezer version, rather the simple perfectly clear ones which are not easy to handle in the cold and therefore even more difficult to handle if you have bulky tight fleece with slippery plastic gloves over. I was kneeling into the wind like that for about 20 minutes trying to get all the baggies to work and keep the sample as clean as possible. The snow pit crew finished and headed back to lunch while I continued to struggle. Robert waited in his usual incredibly patient way and then we walked back for lunch.
While walking back I thought about how to do this more effectively and by the time we started up again for Line #5, I had modified my technique to take a sample in about 5 minutes thanks to Bill Simpson’s expertise. He recommended I use my own liner gloves and then put on two layers of the plastic gloves over those since they fit my hand better and they were thinner for easier hand maneuvering. Additionally, while everyone was digesting lunch for a half hour, I prepared the next round of samples by already setting up the double bags with a labeled number inside. I tried this out at the end point of Line #3 at the 700m mark and managed to cut out the most time consuming parts experienced the first time. During that snow pit, we checked out the state of the lead (see photos) that had opened earlier and sure enough it had compressed since yesterday but was still too wide to get across safely with sampling gear so we officially declared line #3 to be a 700m line with a lead at the end (same lead at the end of Line #4).
Also Bill suggested that we take some samples at the center stake near the runway and then also a few extras to see what the camp contamination is. So we took soot samples also at 200m as well as 500m and 1000m on line #5. I showed Robert how to take soot samples because I had to leave a little after 4pm to prepare for a trip with Jen out to the active ridging area. As I did not know what to expect, I took a large sleeping bag and a harness with rope in case someone fell in as this was a very active area with potential danger that someone could fall in.
I had to do a “hurry up and wait” patiently for Jen to return from preparing the site for the ridge survey with dive hut. She came in right on time at 5pm but was hungry and tired after drilling in a ridge all day so I took a short trip with Pablo to see his buoy at the end of Line #4 (see photos).
After that Jen was charged up again so I buddied up with Pablo and Jen buddied with Pat and we proceeded on two snow machines to the active ridge area. We arrived at one of the GPS units I had brought and I proceeded to download the data onto my laptop. This was possible in the end but I experienced yet another learning moment. At -20F in bright sunlight it is very hard to see your screen (put a plastic bag over my head). Additionally, the mouse pad didn’t respond well. I found that I needed to keep my palm over the mouse pad to warm it up enough for the mouse to show so I could move the cursor to transfer the data. In the end it all worked out but it took 8 minutes to do a simple data dump from one folder. I now know to bring a parka for my laptop and put it over my head to make warm tent to work with it. We walked around after that and found a freshly formed ridge about 2 meters high (see photos) that wasn’t there yesterday when Jen had visited. We also came across some slushy spots which consisted of fresh snow on the top, then this mushy/slushy layer, then hard ice on the bottom. The mushy/slushy layer was about 10 cm thick with 5 cm of snow on top of it and some pretty thick ice below it (more than Jen’s knife blade (4”) – see photos). I took out my compass and found the camp to be due east of our position. As we walked back to our snow machines, Pat found this great curved crack (see photos). We then went a ways on snow machines, found another really cool radial crack and had to back up to find a better way over the newly formed ridges. It took a bit but we made it back in time for dinner.
Another long hard day! Just finishing up the download of these pictures and this journal entry. I transferred the latest files to Robert for upload e-mails to Hans and for PolarTREC. A message came in from Hans with some incredible news. Katya’s first tooth (which had been loose just after I left) just came out today. I was feeling both the joy of this first event and the sadness of not being there but I returned a message and now have Colleen’s (my sister’s) phone number so I can call her house tomorrow and wish everyone a happy Easter. I don’t feel too horrible about missing it because we celebrated Easter as a family the weekend before I left, but I do feel sad that I missed the first tooth coming out. I am so glad I am taking the rest of the week off when I get home as I will need that time to reconnect with my family and recount with them the many adventures they have had (snow day for Katya at school today and her first tooth (lower left center) just came out). It seems early because she is not even 5 ½ years old yet, but I guess this is when all those wonderful things start to happen.
I need to get some sleep now. It’s 11pm and we are up at 6am with a full packed scheduled every day.
While walking back I thought about how to do this more effectively and by the time we started up again for Line #5, I had modified my technique to take a sample in about 5 minutes thanks to Bill Simpson’s expertise. He recommended I use my own liner gloves and then put on two layers of the plastic gloves over those since they fit my hand better and they were thinner for easier hand maneuvering. Additionally, while everyone was digesting lunch for a half hour, I prepared the next round of samples by already setting up the double bags with a labeled number inside. I tried this out at the end point of Line #3 at the 700m mark and managed to cut out the most time consuming parts experienced the first time. During that snow pit, we checked out the state of the lead (see photos) that had opened earlier and sure enough it had compressed since yesterday but was still too wide to get across safely with sampling gear so we officially declared line #3 to be a 700m line with a lead at the end (same lead at the end of Line #4).
Also Bill suggested that we take some samples at the center stake near the runway and then also a few extras to see what the camp contamination is. So we took soot samples also at 200m as well as 500m and 1000m on line #5. I showed Robert how to take soot samples because I had to leave a little after 4pm to prepare for a trip with Jen out to the active ridging area. As I did not know what to expect, I took a large sleeping bag and a harness with rope in case someone fell in as this was a very active area with potential danger that someone could fall in.
I had to do a “hurry up and wait” patiently for Jen to return from preparing the site for the ridge survey with dive hut. She came in right on time at 5pm but was hungry and tired after drilling in a ridge all day so I took a short trip with Pablo to see his buoy at the end of Line #4 (see photos).
After that Jen was charged up again so I buddied up with Pablo and Jen buddied with Pat and we proceeded on two snow machines to the active ridge area. We arrived at one of the GPS units I had brought and I proceeded to download the data onto my laptop. This was possible in the end but I experienced yet another learning moment. At -20F in bright sunlight it is very hard to see your screen (put a plastic bag over my head). Additionally, the mouse pad didn’t respond well. I found that I needed to keep my palm over the mouse pad to warm it up enough for the mouse to show so I could move the cursor to transfer the data. In the end it all worked out but it took 8 minutes to do a simple data dump from one folder. I now know to bring a parka for my laptop and put it over my head to make warm tent to work with it. We walked around after that and found a freshly formed ridge about 2 meters high (see photos) that wasn’t there yesterday when Jen had visited. We also came across some slushy spots which consisted of fresh snow on the top, then this mushy/slushy layer, then hard ice on the bottom. The mushy/slushy layer was about 10 cm thick with 5 cm of snow on top of it and some pretty thick ice below it (more than Jen’s knife blade (4”) – see photos). I took out my compass and found the camp to be due east of our position. As we walked back to our snow machines, Pat found this great curved crack (see photos). We then went a ways on snow machines, found another really cool radial crack and had to back up to find a better way over the newly formed ridges. It took a bit but we made it back in time for dinner.
Another long hard day! Just finishing up the download of these pictures and this journal entry. I transferred the latest files to Robert for upload e-mails to Hans and for PolarTREC. A message came in from Hans with some incredible news. Katya’s first tooth (which had been loose just after I left) just came out today. I was feeling both the joy of this first event and the sadness of not being there but I returned a message and now have Colleen’s (my sister’s) phone number so I can call her house tomorrow and wish everyone a happy Easter. I don’t feel too horrible about missing it because we celebrated Easter as a family the weekend before I left, but I do feel sad that I missed the first tooth coming out. I am so glad I am taking the rest of the week off when I get home as I will need that time to reconnect with my family and recount with them the many adventures they have had (snow day for Katya at school today and her first tooth (lower left center) just came out). It seems early because she is not even 5 ½ years old yet, but I guess this is when all those wonderful things start to happen.
I need to get some sleep now. It’s 11pm and we are up at 6am with a full packed scheduled every day.
06 April 2007
Snow Lines - 4 April
Today we had the snow gear in better shape. We took two sleds (one for personal gear to stay warm and one for science gear). This worked out well because the sleds weren’t heavy and things were accessibly laid out. We went down line #4 with Jackie and Bruce coming behind us and then passing us. As we were learning, we found out that it was necessary to cover up the snow hole once completed to minimize topographic changes especially to prevent the build up of too much sastrugi along our line. We also discovered that it was best to follow behind Bruce and Jackie as they had less invasive instruments. The magnaprobe that Jackie was working left a small 1 cm hole that we could find at the stake. Since that measured snow depth, it was ideal to make the bulk density right on top of that hole as a cross calibration. We had improved in technique since the day before and were now moving at double speed. At the 400m line we called to command to let Bill Simpson know we were just about to do a snow pit. He came out with a binocular microscope that Matthew Sturm had loaned him and it was just super to see the ice crystals with this little portable microscope. The depth hoar was just lovely with big pyramid looking crystals as large as 1 cm that literally looked like diamonds. He also showed us the mid-layer which looked like storm trooper space ships with bullet crystals lined up in columns with capped ends. We entered a full stratigraphy including crystallography citing Bill’s expertise as the resource for that classification.
At the end of line #4 we finished the survey and looked at the lead which had formed at the very end of it. Pablo had put a buoy in there so we had a few minutes to look and enjoy. Katharine felt this was an appropriate time to make snow angels so we celebrated the end of the line doing that. Stephanie the cook arrived shortly thereafter and so we chatted with her. We wrapped up the equipment and all 4 of us walked back to camp for lunch. We transferred all the data from the note book to an excel sheet, weighed all the samples, and checked the data. It looked good. After lunch we set out again this time behind Bruce and Jackie and did Line #2. We finished and came back to camp by 5pm with time to spare for data logging and snow weights. We had our system down and hope to get the remaining legs done by tomorrow’s end.
The components for the ground penetrating radar arrived today, so as soon as the snow analysis is wrapped up, that is my next job. At a 5pm meeting of the PIs, Jen and I decided to plan a field trip for tomorrow out to the active region at the end of line #5. We will check the status of the buoys to ensure they are recording properly and then take a compass and tape measure to look at some finger rafting.
Things have slowly begun settling into a real science pace with one experiment following the other. Because we only get 2-3 days for each item, I have found it important to spend about a half day prepping that cargo we need to haul and then another half day doing one leg to get the procedure down. By the 3rd day we have it down but then it is over and time to plan the layout of the next experiment.
Never a dull moment.
At the end of line #4 we finished the survey and looked at the lead which had formed at the very end of it. Pablo had put a buoy in there so we had a few minutes to look and enjoy. Katharine felt this was an appropriate time to make snow angels so we celebrated the end of the line doing that. Stephanie the cook arrived shortly thereafter and so we chatted with her. We wrapped up the equipment and all 4 of us walked back to camp for lunch. We transferred all the data from the note book to an excel sheet, weighed all the samples, and checked the data. It looked good. After lunch we set out again this time behind Bruce and Jackie and did Line #2. We finished and came back to camp by 5pm with time to spare for data logging and snow weights. We had our system down and hope to get the remaining legs done by tomorrow’s end.
The components for the ground penetrating radar arrived today, so as soon as the snow analysis is wrapped up, that is my next job. At a 5pm meeting of the PIs, Jen and I decided to plan a field trip for tomorrow out to the active region at the end of line #5. We will check the status of the buoys to ensure they are recording properly and then take a compass and tape measure to look at some finger rafting.
Things have slowly begun settling into a real science pace with one experiment following the other. Because we only get 2-3 days for each item, I have found it important to spend about a half day prepping that cargo we need to haul and then another half day doing one leg to get the procedure down. By the 3rd day we have it down but then it is over and time to plan the layout of the next experiment.
Never a dull moment.
Start of Science Day - 3 April
Woke up this morning planning on getting a helo ride to the far side of a lead to deploy the last three of my GPS buoys. The horizon was flat (couldn’t tell ice from sky) so the chopper pilot had us wait, and wait, and wait, and wait. Two hours later he came into the command hut and said it was a scrubbed until after lunch. I had already sent out my survey team so I started prepping two sleds for snow pit density measurements. I got about 2/3 of the way done before lunch. After lunch Robert said he wanted the afternoon off from field work to catch up with journaling and since he had done every single survey line with me (and even the last one as lead) he really deserved some down time.
After lunch just as I was about to go out with my snow team, the helo pilot came in to ask if we wanted to try again in 15 minutes so Jackie and I scrambled to get buoys together and be ready at the helicopter. The two cooks came with us and we started to load up two buoys, garbage bag to mark the site, a shovel to fill the bags with snow for marking, and a compass to figure out heading, etc. Just as we were finishing up the helo safety briefing, one of the Tigress fellows (documentary folks) came over and asked to join. The pilot said we were leaving in one minute so the fellow (Richard) ran back, grabbed his camera and showed up. The rest of us were already in our seats and the pilot was getting ready to take off. Richard did this so quickly that the pilots had to radio the command that an additional passenger just came onboard. We were already quite tightly packed in, so it felt very uncomfortable. Jackie and I worked with the helo team to figure out where the first 5 buoys were deployed. We needed to pick up one of the buoys to make a parallelogram and we only had 7 buoys left because two got fried and two were being used for a compass as the floe we are on has been turning in this very dynamic region. So the helo landed near the farthest one out and Jackie hopped out to go get it. We went across the refrozen lead (about 1 km) to look for suitable sites. We put the first buoy in and then did a retrack back to the camp side buoys and aligned our trajectory relative to the first buoy, the deployed buoys, and the camp to triangulate the remaining buoys. At each landing we hopped off, grabbed our cooler buoy, carried it to a good location, connected to power, closed the box and loaded up the garbage bag with snow as a marker to find the buoys. We did this 3 times with the Tigress guy sweating to try and keep up with us. He said it felt like a commando raid science style.
When we got back from that exhausting effort, I had to get something quick and warm and then head out in the mid afternoon (about 3pm) to start the snow density survey. Adrian and Katharine came with me. Like with every new effort things start slow so I planned on just trying to complete Line #1 before dinner (4 hours). We started at the center stake so that we could do a dry run to see what equipment we might be missing. We were missing a couple of things so I walked back for them. At the 300m mark I realized that I had also forgotten the radio and the rifle so I walked all the way back for those. The measurements were laid out such that we did bulk density every 100m and then a snow pit every 500m. This gives us a total of 12 snow pits and 60 bulk densities. Bruce and Jackie were running the EM and the Magnaprobe, with the Magnaprobe recording snow thickness every 5 m which works out to 200 measurements a line or 1200 thicknesses for the array. It was slow going for the first line but by the end we figured out some improvements for the next day. When we got back we worked up the data, weighed our snow samples and modified our gear for the next day.
It was a warm day with temperatures in the 20’s F by mid-day. Thank goodness for layers because we were stripping them off. At dinner we experienced ice rime which feels like fog but is apparently somewhat different.
After lunch just as I was about to go out with my snow team, the helo pilot came in to ask if we wanted to try again in 15 minutes so Jackie and I scrambled to get buoys together and be ready at the helicopter. The two cooks came with us and we started to load up two buoys, garbage bag to mark the site, a shovel to fill the bags with snow for marking, and a compass to figure out heading, etc. Just as we were finishing up the helo safety briefing, one of the Tigress fellows (documentary folks) came over and asked to join. The pilot said we were leaving in one minute so the fellow (Richard) ran back, grabbed his camera and showed up. The rest of us were already in our seats and the pilot was getting ready to take off. Richard did this so quickly that the pilots had to radio the command that an additional passenger just came onboard. We were already quite tightly packed in, so it felt very uncomfortable. Jackie and I worked with the helo team to figure out where the first 5 buoys were deployed. We needed to pick up one of the buoys to make a parallelogram and we only had 7 buoys left because two got fried and two were being used for a compass as the floe we are on has been turning in this very dynamic region. So the helo landed near the farthest one out and Jackie hopped out to go get it. We went across the refrozen lead (about 1 km) to look for suitable sites. We put the first buoy in and then did a retrack back to the camp side buoys and aligned our trajectory relative to the first buoy, the deployed buoys, and the camp to triangulate the remaining buoys. At each landing we hopped off, grabbed our cooler buoy, carried it to a good location, connected to power, closed the box and loaded up the garbage bag with snow as a marker to find the buoys. We did this 3 times with the Tigress guy sweating to try and keep up with us. He said it felt like a commando raid science style.
When we got back from that exhausting effort, I had to get something quick and warm and then head out in the mid afternoon (about 3pm) to start the snow density survey. Adrian and Katharine came with me. Like with every new effort things start slow so I planned on just trying to complete Line #1 before dinner (4 hours). We started at the center stake so that we could do a dry run to see what equipment we might be missing. We were missing a couple of things so I walked back for them. At the 300m mark I realized that I had also forgotten the radio and the rifle so I walked all the way back for those. The measurements were laid out such that we did bulk density every 100m and then a snow pit every 500m. This gives us a total of 12 snow pits and 60 bulk densities. Bruce and Jackie were running the EM and the Magnaprobe, with the Magnaprobe recording snow thickness every 5 m which works out to 200 measurements a line or 1200 thicknesses for the array. It was slow going for the first line but by the end we figured out some improvements for the next day. When we got back we worked up the data, weighed our snow samples and modified our gear for the next day.
It was a warm day with temperatures in the 20’s F by mid-day. Thank goodness for layers because we were stripping them off. At dinner we experienced ice rime which feels like fog but is apparently somewhat different.
Good day for surveying - 2 April
Today was heavenly compared to yesterday. The temperatures were only around 0F and there was only the slightest breeze with no blowing snow. We had breakfast, checked our gear, put in a few more supplies, and headed out to start Line #2. There were no clouds in the sky and the sun felt warm. We started at the 100m mark and within about 15 minutes we were at the 200m mark. It was like night and day comparing to the day before. Without the wind, I could walk with 25m of tape measure behind me following me on the ground to the next station. Robert and I were in awe at how simple it had all become without that blowing wind. At about the 300m mark Nick Hughes came out to help and that made things go really fast. Near the 500 m mark we started to cross our first ridge (see Robert’s camera photos). 
With three of us, we were able to get over it pretty well so we were able to actually take a few minutes to get a good look at the ice at the ridge including the block sizes and the snow. On the other side was a wide smooth spot with frost flowers surrounded with their own little sastrugi snow drift (10cm scale). We tried to reach the bottom of the ice with our 3 foot length auger but never got there. The ice chippings were damp but we never hit water which felt odd because usually frost flower grow on top of thin black ice formed by a new lead but this was early spring so the ice was at its maximum. We crossed the second ridge on the other side and realized that this must be a lead that opened but then there was shearing so ridges formed on either side of the lead. On the other side the terrain smoothed out again and we were at the 900m mark when our two German colleagues joined us to help. At the end we put the 1000m mark and two red bags to mark it as Line #2. We then headed back to the center pole to start Line #3. Within an hour we had that surveyed out to the 500m pole thanks to all the help and headed back for lunch. So basically we managed 1500m of survey in the time it took us to do 500m the day before. Weather and the amount help made a huge difference.
At lunch (and the meals here by the way are just outstanding – see Robert’s journal), Jackie had mentioned that they saw lots of lead activity while in the helicopter, so our team should keep an eye out for any opening leads. It was like a premonition because we found one while preparing the 600 m mark. I had taken the snow mobile around to the right of the transect in search of a way to get around the ridge. I saw an opening but as I got closer I realized why. A lead had just opened up. It must have been because there was this crystal clear blue water about 1m wide in these 0F temperatures. With no wind, after three days of hard blowing, the ice started to move with all the momentum and stress it had built up. This was only my second day ever on a snow mobile so I decided to get the other two fellows on my team (Nick and Robert – the two German fellows had some duties back in Prudhoe to tend to their EM bird so they did not join us after lunch). As I drove the snow mobile back, I crossed another crack that was just starting to open (about 10 cm wide). I felt confident enough to cross that but I was wondering how far these things would open so I was glad to be on the camp side of this activity. I got Nick and Robert and we walked back to the two leads. When we reached the big one, we saw that it already had a few centimeters of ice (and hence my initial guess that I must have come across it just as it was forming). We radioed the location and they said thanks and we proceeded. I went around the ridge from the left and carefully kept an eye on the direction and activity of the lead. We surveyed up to 700m but the next mark was on the other side. We decided to call in again and this time I made the call and chatted with Jackie. She recommended (as Robert had also suggested) to stop the line there for today and head back tomorrow to check activity and assess at that point. Nick jumped across the lead and we put in the 725 flag and then we marked two additional flags on either side of the lead with measurements. The flags were placed at 715 and 717 m with a measure of 80cm opening. Tomorrow we’ll go back and measure that length again and look at the ice conditions. If they have stabilized, we will find a narrow spot to cross the lead and finish the line.
We called it in and told base camp we were returning to start up on the next line. We went back to get some more stakes and headed out to survey Line #6. It took about 2 hours to get that line done across the camp’s multi-year floe. The longest work was getting the 1000m pole and marking the end with the bags. We had run out of red bags so Nick took the snow mobile back to get two more while Robert and I finished filling bags. We finished the end marks, took some pictures and headed back about 16:30 calling it a successful day with almost 3km (or half the thickness array) surveyed and all but one line (and the little bit of Line #3) completed. We knew it was quitting time because between the 700m and 900m of Line #6 each of us had tripped walking backwards so we knew we were getting tired. We headed back, stored the auger in the generator hut, sorted out the sled and started to log things in for the day. We debriefed and chatted about strategy for the next day with Jackie, Jenny, and Bruce.
With three of us, we were able to get over it pretty well so we were able to actually take a few minutes to get a good look at the ice at the ridge including the block sizes and the snow. On the other side was a wide smooth spot with frost flowers surrounded with their own little sastrugi snow drift (10cm scale). We tried to reach the bottom of the ice with our 3 foot length auger but never got there. The ice chippings were damp but we never hit water which felt odd because usually frost flower grow on top of thin black ice formed by a new lead but this was early spring so the ice was at its maximum. We crossed the second ridge on the other side and realized that this must be a lead that opened but then there was shearing so ridges formed on either side of the lead. On the other side the terrain smoothed out again and we were at the 900m mark when our two German colleagues joined us to help. At the end we put the 1000m mark and two red bags to mark it as Line #2. We then headed back to the center pole to start Line #3. Within an hour we had that surveyed out to the 500m pole thanks to all the help and headed back for lunch. So basically we managed 1500m of survey in the time it took us to do 500m the day before. Weather and the amount help made a huge difference.At lunch (and the meals here by the way are just outstanding – see Robert’s journal), Jackie had mentioned that they saw lots of lead activity while in the helicopter, so our team should keep an eye out for any opening leads. It was like a premonition because we found one while preparing the 600 m mark. I had taken the snow mobile around to the right of the transect in search of a way to get around the ridge. I saw an opening but as I got closer I realized why. A lead had just opened up. It must have been because there was this crystal clear blue water about 1m wide in these 0F temperatures. With no wind, after three days of hard blowing, the ice started to move with all the momentum and stress it had built up. This was only my second day ever on a snow mobile so I decided to get the other two fellows on my team (Nick and Robert – the two German fellows had some duties back in Prudhoe to tend to their EM bird so they did not join us after lunch). As I drove the snow mobile back, I crossed another crack that was just starting to open (about 10 cm wide). I felt confident enough to cross that but I was wondering how far these things would open so I was glad to be on the camp side of this activity. I got Nick and Robert and we walked back to the two leads. When we reached the big one, we saw that it already had a few centimeters of ice (and hence my initial guess that I must have come across it just as it was forming). We radioed the location and they said thanks and we proceeded. I went around the ridge from the left and carefully kept an eye on the direction and activity of the lead. We surveyed up to 700m but the next mark was on the other side. We decided to call in again and this time I made the call and chatted with Jackie. She recommended (as Robert had also suggested) to stop the line there for today and head back tomorrow to check activity and assess at that point. Nick jumped across the lead and we put in the 725 flag and then we marked two additional flags on either side of the lead with measurements. The flags were placed at 715 and 717 m with a measure of 80cm opening. Tomorrow we’ll go back and measure that length again and look at the ice conditions. If they have stabilized, we will find a narrow spot to cross the lead and finish the line.
We called it in and told base camp we were returning to start up on the next line. We went back to get some more stakes and headed out to survey Line #6. It took about 2 hours to get that line done across the camp’s multi-year floe. The longest work was getting the 1000m pole and marking the end with the bags. We had run out of red bags so Nick took the snow mobile back to get two more while Robert and I finished filling bags. We finished the end marks, took some pictures and headed back about 16:30 calling it a successful day with almost 3km (or half the thickness array) surveyed and all but one line (and the little bit of Line #3) completed. We knew it was quitting time because between the 700m and 900m of Line #6 each of us had tripped walking backwards so we knew we were getting tired. We headed back, stored the auger in the generator hut, sorted out the sled and started to log things in for the day. We debriefed and chatted about strategy for the next day with Jackie, Jenny, and Bruce.
First real day of work - 1 April
Got up at 06:00 and tried to start a first real day of work. Jackie and Bruce had surveyed the first line of the thickness transects and I was put in charge with Robert of completing the survey. It was blowing hard that day with temperatures around -15F and steady winds of ~20mph (a sharp cold wind). Robert and I spent the first half of the morning working with Jackie to modify the sled gear based on what they had learned the day before. We had to pre-open garbage bags (our markers) in the warm hut so we didn’t have to deal with them in the cold and blowing wind. We loaded up stakes, drills, a stapler, shovel, extra clothes, survey tape, compass, and other gear into an Akio sled. Jackie and Bruce completed the north leg (Line #1) the day before (March 31) the hard way by hand dragging the sled the full 1 km, using a manual drill, and other difficult tasks. It took about 3 hours of really hard work with the manual drill, cold blowing winds, and in many cases very little snow on the ice. It was by far the hardest line to survey out.
Robert and I headed out about 10:00 and while we had a huge upgrade in gear thanks to Jackie and Bruce’s experience, we didn’t have the one key thing they did – experience. Robert and I set off to work on Line #4 which was in the opposite direction of where Jackie and Bruce had set out so we didn’t have to set the bearing, just work on the distance. We are pretty green horns at this stuff so with the cold blowing wind and little experience in handling all this new equipment the first 500 m was long and slow. We had to contend with strong winds that would blow the tape out of our hands and send the little whip-it (whippie) flags skidding across the hard packed snow and ice (sometimes crawling hands and knees to chase after them). We had to drill holes with a hand drill into the ice to get the whippie flags to sit still and then grab a shovel full of snow to make a little mound to hold them in place. We reached the 500m mark just before lunch and put in the first big pole with hi-fives at the completion. Robert’s jaw dropped when I told him the lines were each 1000m long (twice what we just did) at the realization that at this pace it could take all week to just set up the array. We decided it was time to take a break, head back to camp, get some lunch and rethink again.
After lunch, Jackie was able to join us for the second half of Line #4. In about an hour we had the whole thing surveyed at about twice the pace of the first half mostly because we had three people instead of two. Jackie and Robert held the tape measure at each end (25m length) while I followed along to deal with the flags, making the snow piles, and drilling the holes. The big lesson that Robert and I learned that day was how to break down the process into single repetitive tasks that could be handled in cold, windy conditions. When we finished that line, we headed back to the center pole (middle of the array) and spent the rest of the afternoon getting the bearing line and first 100m out for each of the remaining 4 lines. At about 17:00 we finished that and headed in to call it a day. Robert had to catch up on his journaling and I had to go through gear, store the auger in the generator hut to keep it warm overnight, and other duties. The evening was full of meetings and by 23:00 I realized that I had better get to bed as I had a very hard day ahead of me.
Robert and I headed out about 10:00 and while we had a huge upgrade in gear thanks to Jackie and Bruce’s experience, we didn’t have the one key thing they did – experience. Robert and I set off to work on Line #4 which was in the opposite direction of where Jackie and Bruce had set out so we didn’t have to set the bearing, just work on the distance. We are pretty green horns at this stuff so with the cold blowing wind and little experience in handling all this new equipment the first 500 m was long and slow. We had to contend with strong winds that would blow the tape out of our hands and send the little whip-it (whippie) flags skidding across the hard packed snow and ice (sometimes crawling hands and knees to chase after them). We had to drill holes with a hand drill into the ice to get the whippie flags to sit still and then grab a shovel full of snow to make a little mound to hold them in place. We reached the 500m mark just before lunch and put in the first big pole with hi-fives at the completion. Robert’s jaw dropped when I told him the lines were each 1000m long (twice what we just did) at the realization that at this pace it could take all week to just set up the array. We decided it was time to take a break, head back to camp, get some lunch and rethink again.
After lunch, Jackie was able to join us for the second half of Line #4. In about an hour we had the whole thing surveyed at about twice the pace of the first half mostly because we had three people instead of two. Jackie and Robert held the tape measure at each end (25m length) while I followed along to deal with the flags, making the snow piles, and drilling the holes. The big lesson that Robert and I learned that day was how to break down the process into single repetitive tasks that could be handled in cold, windy conditions. When we finished that line, we headed back to the center pole (middle of the array) and spent the rest of the afternoon getting the bearing line and first 100m out for each of the remaining 4 lines. At about 17:00 we finished that and headed in to call it a day. Robert had to catch up on his journaling and I had to go through gear, store the auger in the generator hut to keep it warm overnight, and other duties. The evening was full of meetings and by 23:00 I realized that I had better get to bed as I had a very hard day ahead of me.
Heading out - 31 March
We were up at 5am. We had to stop by at Mani’s to pick up the first round of images to bring to the camp. We had all our stuff packed and at the door, ate breakfast and were out the door by 6am. We arrived at Mani’s (Nordic House) at 6:15 and he was awake (a credit to his dedication and excitement about this project). We spent a half hour transferring data and then Robert and I headed off to rendezvous with Alice at 07:00 so that we could transfer the use of Jen’s car and house keys to Alice who would in turn transfer them to the house sitter.
We then went to the airport, did the loading up bit and proceeded on our way. When we arrived in Prudhoe, we were met at the luggage station by one of the APLIS logistics fellows. He hurried us over to the building next door and told us to get into our Arctic gear for the flight as per requirements. It was then that I mentioned that I was the one who called last night about the box that needed to remain in Prudhoe.
“Oh, you’re the one. Could you make that label any smaller?!” I relayed that I was not the one who packed the boxes and I was curious to see not only the label but the gear inside. Sure enough everything I needed was in that box and I was relieved. We got ready, got on the plane and headed out. I even got to ride in the co-pilot seat (a first for me). We had a very enjoyable flight. We had a clear view of the landfast ice, but the first year ice close to shore had been smashed around a bit by a recent storm so it was full of leads and buried in fog. A few miles out (~10 n.m.) the fog began to clear and we cold see all kinds of sea ice structure. We were flying at 3000 ft with a clear view of the surface. I took the opportunity to make a series of shots because this was a flight nearly due north from Prudhoe to the camp. Since I was sitting in the co-pilot seat, I was able to get a really good look at the navigation GPS right between the pilot and co-pilot. So after each shot (or sequence of shots) I took a followup shot of the GPS screen so I could catalogue that transect of pictures (see photos). I even took a short 30 second video with voice commentary so it will be interesting to see how that came out over the roar of the engine noise.
I asked the pilot to make a circle about the camp and took a bunch of pictures as he came in for the landing (see photos). We arrived and stepped off the plane to be greeted by 5 faceless or frozen-faced folks. One of them was Pat Mckueown (Jen’s husband, one of the divers and logistics guys). I had met him several times before but I could only recognize him because his name was written with a black marker on the left breast pocket of his insulated coveralls. His eyebrows were thick with ice and his cheeks were bright red. He had been here since March 1 setting up the camp and it was obvious that he had been doing a ton of work here the last 4 weeks.
We loaded up our gear onto the snow mobiles and walked toward the camp. I met up with Jackie and Bruce. We stood out in the cold for about 20 minutes exchanging messages and I got a crude briefing from them on where my hooch (hut) was located, when meals were served, and what they were up to. I also got a 30 second briefing on where the outhouses were and how to use them (as I really needed to after 6 hours of flying). I found my hut, picked a bunk, dumped my gear, changed into something more flexible than that Goodyear blimp parka outfit and proceeded to find my working gear, tool box, and other basic necessities. After a half hour of this I went into the command hut (location for all communications and the basic working hut) and proceeded to find out what the status of everything was. Robert came in about as disoriented as I did and about one hour after we landed I found him very comfortably sitting in the mess tent chatting with some of the key logistics guys about how the camp works. I can not tell you how nice it is to take a teacher into the field and have full confidence that he is not only a good teacher but also a very competent field person.
After chatting with the logistics guys myself (and getting more oriented through their insight), Robert and I headed over to the logistics hut where we set to work putting up his work station and getting his antenna mounted on the hut roof. It was a pretty smooth operation and we have the week and a half of training and practice to show for it. Within a couple of hours, we were able to make the first call and I got to be the lucky one to call my family. It was so good to hear Hans’ voice after all this travel. Years ago when I used to do field work, I would basically fall off the face of the earth for weeks at a time because ship-to-shore communications was strictly limited to critical messages. So this is a new experience for me to know that I can “ET phone home” anytime I really need to. The whole PolarTREC experience is very comforting in this regard.
I spent the rest of the day trying to get camp set up including arranging the rifles, emergency tents, and helping Jen to prep the GPS for the high resolution study. After dinner, I helped Robert out with the first journal transmission which went smooth as butter and we were just absolutely psyched because it was the first day of camp and all those hard 10 days of spin up were finally paying off. Robert had the biggest smile on his face when he was able to just push the button for each pre-composed message and watch happily as each message uplinked. Hi-fives all around.
I went back to my hut and spent a couple of hours finally getting the chance to unpack my personal gear and get settled into the hut before bed.
We then went to the airport, did the loading up bit and proceeded on our way. When we arrived in Prudhoe, we were met at the luggage station by one of the APLIS logistics fellows. He hurried us over to the building next door and told us to get into our Arctic gear for the flight as per requirements. It was then that I mentioned that I was the one who called last night about the box that needed to remain in Prudhoe.
“Oh, you’re the one. Could you make that label any smaller?!” I relayed that I was not the one who packed the boxes and I was curious to see not only the label but the gear inside. Sure enough everything I needed was in that box and I was relieved. We got ready, got on the plane and headed out. I even got to ride in the co-pilot seat (a first for me). We had a very enjoyable flight. We had a clear view of the landfast ice, but the first year ice close to shore had been smashed around a bit by a recent storm so it was full of leads and buried in fog. A few miles out (~10 n.m.) the fog began to clear and we cold see all kinds of sea ice structure. We were flying at 3000 ft with a clear view of the surface. I took the opportunity to make a series of shots because this was a flight nearly due north from Prudhoe to the camp. Since I was sitting in the co-pilot seat, I was able to get a really good look at the navigation GPS right between the pilot and co-pilot. So after each shot (or sequence of shots) I took a followup shot of the GPS screen so I could catalogue that transect of pictures (see photos). I even took a short 30 second video with voice commentary so it will be interesting to see how that came out over the roar of the engine noise.
I asked the pilot to make a circle about the camp and took a bunch of pictures as he came in for the landing (see photos). We arrived and stepped off the plane to be greeted by 5 faceless or frozen-faced folks. One of them was Pat Mckueown (Jen’s husband, one of the divers and logistics guys). I had met him several times before but I could only recognize him because his name was written with a black marker on the left breast pocket of his insulated coveralls. His eyebrows were thick with ice and his cheeks were bright red. He had been here since March 1 setting up the camp and it was obvious that he had been doing a ton of work here the last 4 weeks.
We loaded up our gear onto the snow mobiles and walked toward the camp. I met up with Jackie and Bruce. We stood out in the cold for about 20 minutes exchanging messages and I got a crude briefing from them on where my hooch (hut) was located, when meals were served, and what they were up to. I also got a 30 second briefing on where the outhouses were and how to use them (as I really needed to after 6 hours of flying). I found my hut, picked a bunk, dumped my gear, changed into something more flexible than that Goodyear blimp parka outfit and proceeded to find my working gear, tool box, and other basic necessities. After a half hour of this I went into the command hut (location for all communications and the basic working hut) and proceeded to find out what the status of everything was. Robert came in about as disoriented as I did and about one hour after we landed I found him very comfortably sitting in the mess tent chatting with some of the key logistics guys about how the camp works. I can not tell you how nice it is to take a teacher into the field and have full confidence that he is not only a good teacher but also a very competent field person.
After chatting with the logistics guys myself (and getting more oriented through their insight), Robert and I headed over to the logistics hut where we set to work putting up his work station and getting his antenna mounted on the hut roof. It was a pretty smooth operation and we have the week and a half of training and practice to show for it. Within a couple of hours, we were able to make the first call and I got to be the lucky one to call my family. It was so good to hear Hans’ voice after all this travel. Years ago when I used to do field work, I would basically fall off the face of the earth for weeks at a time because ship-to-shore communications was strictly limited to critical messages. So this is a new experience for me to know that I can “ET phone home” anytime I really need to. The whole PolarTREC experience is very comforting in this regard.
I spent the rest of the day trying to get camp set up including arranging the rifles, emergency tents, and helping Jen to prep the GPS for the high resolution study. After dinner, I helped Robert out with the first journal transmission which went smooth as butter and we were just absolutely psyched because it was the first day of camp and all those hard 10 days of spin up were finally paying off. Robert had the biggest smile on his face when he was able to just push the button for each pre-composed message and watch happily as each message uplinked. Hi-fives all around.
I went back to my hut and spent a couple of hours finally getting the chance to unpack my personal gear and get settled into the hut before bed.
31 March 2007
Last day before heading out - 30 March
Things are basically set to go. I have a few minutes to sit and gather my thoughts. We’ve been in a flurry with last minute activities from all those things that go “bump” just as events start to spin up. Robert has managed to get his glasses repaired. The telecommunications system which never materialized has been modified into a courier service with aircraft delivery of one precious DVD per day with all the relevant communication uplinks to be attached.
One of the scientists from the submarine incident is staying at Jen’s house and recounting the tales to us while the other is en route from home in the UK after getting a couple of days with his family. Mani’s housing is all squared away at the Nordic House and IARC has set him up in creature comfort style so that he can just come and go everyday to work in Jen’s office with all the computer systems up, running, and working away smoothly. The intended buoy array is up and running in its intended configuration (oh, such a lovely sight – see image or complete website). The field scientists are all on their way from all their homes, slowly making their way to the camp. The months of work to write the proposal and the months of work to prepare for this mission are now coming down to this one day before we depart to start on a seemingly short expedition of only 2 weeks. Years of training, months of negotiating, and numerous outstanding and positive people have worked very, very hard to make this all happen. We are at that point where it is the night before the launch of a space craft only this time I’m the one who’s going as one of the cryonauts. All the many months of preparation focused on this time of only two weeks to collect an enormous amount of field data. It will go by.... so.... very.... fast....
Late night: Thought I would just take it easy, pack the last of my things, look out for aurora, and head to bed early. Got a call from the ice camp from Bruce Elder who told me that he and Jackie were at the ice camp. They were told that everything was already flown out to the camp but when they arrived, nothing they needed was there. So I got the call. “Don’t leave Prudhoe until our 6 boxes arrive” he said. One of the boxes has all my camp gear like the parka, bunny boots, sleeping bag and emergency stuff I would need (and require) before boarding the plane. I was also told to pick up a few things that they didn’t have time to get like anti-freeze, a lighter and some tooth paste for Pablo.
I was told to pack a bag with extra gear. After spending 30 frustrating minutes trying to locate gear at someone else’s house, I remembered that I had the phone number to the Prudhoe station, so I called them. Turns out the missing boxes had arrived and all the boxes would be heading out on the first flight that morning to the ice camp.
One of the scientists from the submarine incident is staying at Jen’s house and recounting the tales to us while the other is en route from home in the UK after getting a couple of days with his family. Mani’s housing is all squared away at the Nordic House and IARC has set him up in creature comfort style so that he can just come and go everyday to work in Jen’s office with all the computer systems up, running, and working away smoothly. The intended buoy array is up and running in its intended configuration (oh, such a lovely sight – see image or complete website). The field scientists are all on their way from all their homes, slowly making their way to the camp. The months of work to write the proposal and the months of work to prepare for this mission are now coming down to this one day before we depart to start on a seemingly short expedition of only 2 weeks. Years of training, months of negotiating, and numerous outstanding and positive people have worked very, very hard to make this all happen. We are at that point where it is the night before the launch of a space craft only this time I’m the one who’s going as one of the cryonauts. All the many months of preparation focused on this time of only two weeks to collect an enormous amount of field data. It will go by.... so.... very.... fast....Late night: Thought I would just take it easy, pack the last of my things, look out for aurora, and head to bed early. Got a call from the ice camp from Bruce Elder who told me that he and Jackie were at the ice camp. They were told that everything was already flown out to the camp but when they arrived, nothing they needed was there. So I got the call. “Don’t leave Prudhoe until our 6 boxes arrive” he said. One of the boxes has all my camp gear like the parka, bunny boots, sleeping bag and emergency stuff I would need (and require) before boarding the plane. I was also told to pick up a few things that they didn’t have time to get like anti-freeze, a lighter and some tooth paste for Pablo.
I was told to pack a bag with extra gear. After spending 30 frustrating minutes trying to locate gear at someone else’s house, I remembered that I had the phone number to the Prudhoe station, so I called them. Turns out the missing boxes had arrived and all the boxes would be heading out on the first flight that morning to the ice camp.
30 March 2007
Return to Fairbanks to Run Around - 29 March
We came back to Fairbanks, picked up the car that Jen had left in the Airport parking lot only an hour earlier as she had just flown out to head to the camp early as the chief scientist. We spent the morning at ARCUS sorting through the diagnostics of the failed communications during the dry run journal transmissions while in Fort Yukon. After lunch, I spent the rest of the day catching up on communications with Mani and getting back into full logistics mode. The time of camp departure was upon us and there were a few thousand details yet undone.
Fort Yukon - Full Day Visit 28 March
Walking to School
I walked to school on Wednesday. Brenda didn’t have a car as such things are quite expensive (more on that later). It was only a mile and I used to walk that distance every day twice a day back and forth from the University of Delaware. The biggest differences were the temperature (-25F), the road conditions (hard packed with snow spread with small traction stones), the bike paths (replaced by snow mobile trails), and I had 4 layers of clothes on. I had my laptop with my talk in my back pack and my camera in hand.
I took pictures of the everyday things I saw on my walk to school; things one would normally see in a small rural village in Vermont: neighbors homes (see photos), the approach to main street (photo left), the post office, the radio station, the church, the state office, the country store (photos here and here), 
and the school (photo right). They were different in some ways, but in many ways there were so familiar to the things I’d see in my little town of West Hartford, Vermont. The more I walked around and talked with folks, the more I began to see a commonality between life in a rural Vermont town and that in an Alaskan village. Places like this don’t look pretty in the post card sense. The land is hard and structures are built to be practical, not pretty. My village has trailer homes with piles of junk cars in front so I was trying to see past the superficial.
The People
Just like in Vermont, folks are suspicious of outsiders. They have their communities, their traditions, their culture, and they like their privacy. They keep hush-hush on stuff that folks aren’t supposed to talk about. But most importantly, they are some of warmest loving souls you’ll ever meet. If you get to sit down and just talk with them about their lives, you’ll appreciate the emphasis they place on the important things in life. Brenda has spent several years in this village. I saw how the locals interacted with her. I could see that she really had earned a considerable amount of trust because of her open and honest form of communication and her love for the students – her tough love as she calls it. These universal impressions left a very warm feeling in me.
The Talks
As part of our outreach Robert and I each gave a one hour talk. I spoke about the SEDNA project and our efforts to understand the changes going on in the Arctic especially that the sea ice is thinner now and there are issues to consider that never had to be considered before - issues like the fact that less ice means more waves and more damage from storms. I also talked to these high-energy students about the fact that these changes will happen as they become adults and through their life time. I asked them to try to think of ways that they could make a difference and asked them to think of ways of channeling all that energy (and frustration) they have into solving one problem in a way that would make life in their village a better place to be.
Robert gave his talk about life in Vermont. He talked about all the things that were similar (hunting, fishing, snow mobiles, lots of trees, sports) and things that were different (maple sugaring). He tried to give them a flavor of what life is like in Vermont and how in many ways the rural lifestyle has a commonality that can be shared between Vermont and Alaska especially in the more rural locations.
Brenda said we did a good job. We had kept their attention for one hour each and she said that was a good measure of how well the talk was received.
Buying Goods
While Brenda was wrapping up her teaching after our talks, I went to the town store to get some supplies for her as she was limited in mobility with her broken leg. The store looked like a typical country store in Vermont and I had to keep reminding myself that I was not in Vermont. National public radio was on the PA system with highlights of the news. The shelves were stocked with a little bit of everything and they even had the 48” long fluorescent light bulbs that Brenda needed for her living room. It reminded me of the saying at Dan & Whit’s in Norwich, VT: “If we don’t have it, you don’t need it!” They had all the latest in technology including the computer screens and credit/debit card systems. The cost of things was the only thing that let me know this wasn’t Vermont. A bag of Doritos costs close to $7 because everything this time of the year comes in by airplane. Gasoline for snow mobiles and cars costs ~$4 a gallon and heating oil was in the same price range. These prices more than anything revealed the remoteness of the village.
Tribal Meeting Event
See Robert’s entry on the PolarTREC website for this incredible event.
I walked to school on Wednesday. Brenda didn’t have a car as such things are quite expensive (more on that later). It was only a mile and I used to walk that distance every day twice a day back and forth from the University of Delaware. The biggest differences were the temperature (-25F), the road conditions (hard packed with snow spread with small traction stones), the bike paths (replaced by snow mobile trails), and I had 4 layers of clothes on. I had my laptop with my talk in my back pack and my camera in hand.
The People
Just like in Vermont, folks are suspicious of outsiders. They have their communities, their traditions, their culture, and they like their privacy. They keep hush-hush on stuff that folks aren’t supposed to talk about. But most importantly, they are some of warmest loving souls you’ll ever meet. If you get to sit down and just talk with them about their lives, you’ll appreciate the emphasis they place on the important things in life. Brenda has spent several years in this village. I saw how the locals interacted with her. I could see that she really had earned a considerable amount of trust because of her open and honest form of communication and her love for the students – her tough love as she calls it. These universal impressions left a very warm feeling in me.
The Talks
As part of our outreach Robert and I each gave a one hour talk. I spoke about the SEDNA project and our efforts to understand the changes going on in the Arctic especially that the sea ice is thinner now and there are issues to consider that never had to be considered before - issues like the fact that less ice means more waves and more damage from storms. I also talked to these high-energy students about the fact that these changes will happen as they become adults and through their life time. I asked them to try to think of ways that they could make a difference and asked them to think of ways of channeling all that energy (and frustration) they have into solving one problem in a way that would make life in their village a better place to be.
Robert gave his talk about life in Vermont. He talked about all the things that were similar (hunting, fishing, snow mobiles, lots of trees, sports) and things that were different (maple sugaring). He tried to give them a flavor of what life is like in Vermont and how in many ways the rural lifestyle has a commonality that can be shared between Vermont and Alaska especially in the more rural locations.
Brenda said we did a good job. We had kept their attention for one hour each and she said that was a good measure of how well the talk was received.
Buying Goods
While Brenda was wrapping up her teaching after our talks, I went to the town store to get some supplies for her as she was limited in mobility with her broken leg. The store looked like a typical country store in Vermont and I had to keep reminding myself that I was not in Vermont. National public radio was on the PA system with highlights of the news. The shelves were stocked with a little bit of everything and they even had the 48” long fluorescent light bulbs that Brenda needed for her living room. It reminded me of the saying at Dan & Whit’s in Norwich, VT: “If we don’t have it, you don’t need it!” They had all the latest in technology including the computer screens and credit/debit card systems. The cost of things was the only thing that let me know this wasn’t Vermont. A bag of Doritos costs close to $7 because everything this time of the year comes in by airplane. Gasoline for snow mobiles and cars costs ~$4 a gallon and heating oil was in the same price range. These prices more than anything revealed the remoteness of the village.
Tribal Meeting Event
See Robert’s entry on the PolarTREC website for this incredible event.
Fort Yukon Visit - 27 March
Fort Yukon: originally a trading fort along the Yukon River (google Fort Yukon). Population is a mix of folks with the dominant population being the indigenous inhabitants of the Gwich’in Athabascan tribe.
The Flight
We went to the airport with bags in hand – half full with gifts for the visit (4 quarts of fresh maple syrup boiled the weekend before we left home by Jackie’s husband who owns a sugar maple farm, bottle of wine, 8 T-shirts with the logo that Brenda had helped design – her painting of SEDNA is in the logo). Jen told us the night before that it would be an interesting flight. Frontier Flying Service takes us up there on a small propeller plane that holds about a dozen passengers with the back third of the plane full of luggage for us and supplies for the village. The flight is only a half hour long but there are no roads to connect the village to anything else so everything has to come in by either aircraft or a couple of barges in the summer. Heading to the aircraft was interesting. Unlike most commercial flights, there was no security check in and in fact we were encouraged to wear any type of survival gear that we might have so I strapped my leatherman kit with flashlight to my belt buckle and put my mini med kit around my neck. Boarding the plane was like getting into a long narrow van. There was one seat on either side of an aisle. The pilot (who was also the steward) gave us our safety instructions by kneeling at the entry door (see photo) and telling us that we should locate the oxygen mask hatch by our elbow and how to use the exit over the wing. Despite many years of flying on commercial aircraft, I made it a particular point to listen very carefully to his instructions.
The Arrival
The flight was pretty uneventful but the arrival met us with that start of yet another adventure. We had received e-mail communication from Brenda (our host teacher) that she had slipped and fallen the week before and broken her leg. She insisted we come to visit anyhow and I thought it would probably be a good idea as we could help her out with basic needs given her state. The initial plan was that she would meet us at the airport with a friend to give us a lift. When we arrived, two groups got off the plane into vehicles standing by right on the runway with engines on keeping folks warm. We got off, they left, and we were standing there. The airport terminal was quite small (a one story shelter about the size of a modest cabin). It was a heated shelter and the temperatures were below zero so we thought that would be a good place to think about what to do next.
For the next 30 minutes we went through several levels of “what do we do next”. The fellow working at the airport said that Brenda had broken her leg and had gone to Fairbanks to get some more x-rays. After Robert and I got over the jaw drop from that information we started to think from first principles. Who are we coming to see?.... Brenda. Why are we visiting? ... For PolarTREC outreach. Where does she work? ..... The school. ... The SCHOOL! I looked around and saw a pay phone (thank goodness they still have such things). Next to it was a small pile of phone books. We located the one that said local directory of Fort Yukon. We found the number to the school and I dialed the pay phone. A funny answering machine came on so I left a message. Then I tried to call Brenda just in case. The same funny answering machine came on. I hadn’t been in touch with Brenda for a couple of days. We asked if we could use the office phone line to make an 800 dial-up computer call to check e-mail for messages. The link was too unstable but the attendant told us to make the phone call on his phone as the pay phone was acting funny lately. – Confusion in my brain -
After a few phone calls we slowly sorted out the reality of the situation. Brenda was actually still in Fort Yukon at the school (not Fairbanks). Through a few message relays she finally reached us (called us on that misbehaving pay phone) and told us the school was about a half mile down the road. A fellow was just coming in to pick up some supplies and offered a ride in his truck to the school. Things slowly returned to normal and we got back on course, shaky as the start had been.
The School
Except for the fact that the school was standing on stilts to keep it above the permafrost, it looked like a school you would see just about anywhere in the rural US. It was small but clean and tidy with a principal’s office and a note for guests to sign in upon arrival. The entry hall had the US and State flags prominently standing in close proximity to the glass case with all the sports trophies. It was a K-12 school with the little grades down one wing, middle school down another, and high school down a third. The principal told us to walk down to Brenda’s class and we headed right into an algebra class in session. After the huge hello and inspection and cast signing of her broken leg she set us to work one-on-one with the kids doing their math exercises. We did that for the remaining 3 classes that day.
School was only half days this week because it was spring carnival with dog races, snow shoe races, and the carnival queen and princess competitions. So after dropping off our gear at Brenda’s house we caught a ride down to the snow shoe and three legged races. There was a fresh shoulder of moose meat on the wood fired grill. Except for the details of the type of meat and the fact that it was way below zero, it felt like your typical small rural village event like the kind we often hold in Vermont in the summer. The people were a very close-knit group and everyone looked out for everyone’s needs. The kids were goofing off and the parents were catching up on the latest events in town. The similarities in behavior and customs to those in rural Vermont were more striking to me than the differences I was seeing.
Brenda’s Cabin
When we returned to Brenda’s very cozy cabin (see photos), we just took it easy. She had a broken leg and a friend had given her a 5-wheel office chair for her to take the weight off her leg. She was getting around great and in good spirits about our visit. The cabin was small but had all the creature comforts including indoor plumbing, an oil and wood furnace in the living room, a shower and toilet, and a nicely laid out kitchen.
Robert and I used this time to prepare our talks for the next day and to test journal uplink capabilities. It was quite something to call home from a satellite phone! We hit a number of glitches with the uplink which were frustrating. I told Robert to write down everything that is going wrong and then we’ll chalk this up to a pre-field dry run. In the meantime, we had a great visit with lots of good food (fresh moose stew with rice, smoked salmon with potato and bacon chowder, etc) and wonderful company.
Meeting with the First Elder
When we last communicated with Brenda (Friday 23 March), we asked her about meeting with the village elders. That evening, she invited one of the elders (Nancy) that she knew quite well to her house. We talked for hours about global climate change and what impact it was having in this area. Nancy spoke mostly of the big changes. She spoke of the warm fall, the colder deep winter, and rapid warming spring (just like we had in Vermont this year). She spoke of the change in the taste of the salmon because they are coming up rivers that are changing. The salmon are eating different things now and that changes the way they taste. We talked about our upcoming experiment, where we would be going, what we would be doing, who we would be working with. Since we were visiting Fort Yukon for the sake of education outreach and to help out Brenda with a broken leg, it made the whole situation feel very comfortable. We had no agenda to engage in any type of research in this area, we were there to talk, listen, share, and compare our lives in Vermont with the lives of these folks in rural Alaska. The elders of the village were mostly women. Brenda was born and raised in the pan handle of Florida and I spent my formative high school years in Upstate New York in a rural farm community. We were like a cackling bunch of hens with Robert chiming in talking how things are here and there. We even got into the classic conversation that older folks do about how kids these days ......
The following evening Nancy invited Robert and me to join her for one hour in the home of a second elder (Hannah). Their friend and fellow elder Annie was also there. They shared dried moose meat, smoked salmon, and wonderful stories. It was like the visits I used to make years ago with my family during the holidays when we used to go from one relative’s home to the other. Stopping by for some food and chatting with others to see how their lives were coming along. It was a special event and Robert and I feel honored to have been asked to meet with them.
The Flight
We went to the airport with bags in hand – half full with gifts for the visit (4 quarts of fresh maple syrup boiled the weekend before we left home by Jackie’s husband who owns a sugar maple farm, bottle of wine, 8 T-shirts with the logo that Brenda had helped design – her painting of SEDNA is in the logo). Jen told us the night before that it would be an interesting flight. Frontier Flying Service takes us up there on a small propeller plane that holds about a dozen passengers with the back third of the plane full of luggage for us and supplies for the village. The flight is only a half hour long but there are no roads to connect the village to anything else so everything has to come in by either aircraft or a couple of barges in the summer. Heading to the aircraft was interesting. Unlike most commercial flights, there was no security check in and in fact we were encouraged to wear any type of survival gear that we might have so I strapped my leatherman kit with flashlight to my belt buckle and put my mini med kit around my neck. Boarding the plane was like getting into a long narrow van. There was one seat on either side of an aisle. The pilot (who was also the steward) gave us our safety instructions by kneeling at the entry door (see photo) and telling us that we should locate the oxygen mask hatch by our elbow and how to use the exit over the wing. Despite many years of flying on commercial aircraft, I made it a particular point to listen very carefully to his instructions.
The Arrival
The flight was pretty uneventful but the arrival met us with that start of yet another adventure. We had received e-mail communication from Brenda (our host teacher) that she had slipped and fallen the week before and broken her leg. She insisted we come to visit anyhow and I thought it would probably be a good idea as we could help her out with basic needs given her state. The initial plan was that she would meet us at the airport with a friend to give us a lift. When we arrived, two groups got off the plane into vehicles standing by right on the runway with engines on keeping folks warm. We got off, they left, and we were standing there. The airport terminal was quite small (a one story shelter about the size of a modest cabin). It was a heated shelter and the temperatures were below zero so we thought that would be a good place to think about what to do next.
For the next 30 minutes we went through several levels of “what do we do next”. The fellow working at the airport said that Brenda had broken her leg and had gone to Fairbanks to get some more x-rays. After Robert and I got over the jaw drop from that information we started to think from first principles. Who are we coming to see?.... Brenda. Why are we visiting? ... For PolarTREC outreach. Where does she work? ..... The school. ... The SCHOOL! I looked around and saw a pay phone (thank goodness they still have such things). Next to it was a small pile of phone books. We located the one that said local directory of Fort Yukon. We found the number to the school and I dialed the pay phone. A funny answering machine came on so I left a message. Then I tried to call Brenda just in case. The same funny answering machine came on. I hadn’t been in touch with Brenda for a couple of days. We asked if we could use the office phone line to make an 800 dial-up computer call to check e-mail for messages. The link was too unstable but the attendant told us to make the phone call on his phone as the pay phone was acting funny lately. – Confusion in my brain -
After a few phone calls we slowly sorted out the reality of the situation. Brenda was actually still in Fort Yukon at the school (not Fairbanks). Through a few message relays she finally reached us (called us on that misbehaving pay phone) and told us the school was about a half mile down the road. A fellow was just coming in to pick up some supplies and offered a ride in his truck to the school. Things slowly returned to normal and we got back on course, shaky as the start had been.
The School
Except for the fact that the school was standing on stilts to keep it above the permafrost, it looked like a school you would see just about anywhere in the rural US. It was small but clean and tidy with a principal’s office and a note for guests to sign in upon arrival. The entry hall had the US and State flags prominently standing in close proximity to the glass case with all the sports trophies. It was a K-12 school with the little grades down one wing, middle school down another, and high school down a third. The principal told us to walk down to Brenda’s class and we headed right into an algebra class in session. After the huge hello and inspection and cast signing of her broken leg she set us to work one-on-one with the kids doing their math exercises. We did that for the remaining 3 classes that day.
School was only half days this week because it was spring carnival with dog races, snow shoe races, and the carnival queen and princess competitions. So after dropping off our gear at Brenda’s house we caught a ride down to the snow shoe and three legged races. There was a fresh shoulder of moose meat on the wood fired grill. Except for the details of the type of meat and the fact that it was way below zero, it felt like your typical small rural village event like the kind we often hold in Vermont in the summer. The people were a very close-knit group and everyone looked out for everyone’s needs. The kids were goofing off and the parents were catching up on the latest events in town. The similarities in behavior and customs to those in rural Vermont were more striking to me than the differences I was seeing.
Brenda’s Cabin
When we returned to Brenda’s very cozy cabin (see photos), we just took it easy. She had a broken leg and a friend had given her a 5-wheel office chair for her to take the weight off her leg. She was getting around great and in good spirits about our visit. The cabin was small but had all the creature comforts including indoor plumbing, an oil and wood furnace in the living room, a shower and toilet, and a nicely laid out kitchen.
Meeting with the First Elder
When we last communicated with Brenda (Friday 23 March), we asked her about meeting with the village elders. That evening, she invited one of the elders (Nancy) that she knew quite well to her house. We talked for hours about global climate change and what impact it was having in this area. Nancy spoke mostly of the big changes. She spoke of the warm fall, the colder deep winter, and rapid warming spring (just like we had in Vermont this year). She spoke of the change in the taste of the salmon because they are coming up rivers that are changing. The salmon are eating different things now and that changes the way they taste. We talked about our upcoming experiment, where we would be going, what we would be doing, who we would be working with. Since we were visiting Fort Yukon for the sake of education outreach and to help out Brenda with a broken leg, it made the whole situation feel very comfortable. We had no agenda to engage in any type of research in this area, we were there to talk, listen, share, and compare our lives in Vermont with the lives of these folks in rural Alaska. The elders of the village were mostly women. Brenda was born and raised in the pan handle of Florida and I spent my formative high school years in Upstate New York in a rural farm community. We were like a cackling bunch of hens with Robert chiming in talking how things are here and there. We even got into the classic conversation that older folks do about how kids these days ......
The following evening Nancy invited Robert and me to join her for one hour in the home of a second elder (Hannah). Their friend and fellow elder Annie was also there. They shared dried moose meat, smoked salmon, and wonderful stories. It was like the visits I used to make years ago with my family during the holidays when we used to go from one relative’s home to the other. Stopping by for some food and chatting with others to see how their lives were coming along. It was a special event and Robert and I feel honored to have been asked to meet with them.
Way Station - Jen's House 25-27 March
On Sunday at noon (25 March), I left the PolarTREC training early to hook up with Jen so that she and I could synchronize on field camp preparations. She had been running at least as hard as I had to get issues sorted out and organized. We went to get some lunch at a place which had an internet café so she could catch up on vital e-mail communications (dial-up only at home). She had been going full tilt and I could see that my first job as fellow PI was to help her decompress, get something to eat, and work out a plan for dealing with the next couple of days.
One of the more difficult issues was the fact that Mani (UD Ph.D. student - see team list) had a flight delay already in Philadelphia so he was not going to make his connecting flight. As a result we were thinking about how to schedule the day since he would now arrive at 02:00 of the next morning instead of the scheduled 16:30. Basically we knew we were in for a very, very long day. So we start making our lists. One thing I have noticed about the synergy of this team is that all three of the lead ladies of this expedition are fastidious about keeping lists (post-it queens!) and this has been a huge asset. So when Jen and I started to sort out strategy, we also started to make our lists including sorting out housing issues for Mani, finding the polar gear for he and Scott (second UD student), and meeting up with Jen's student Alice (see team list). We ran around tending to several of the one million details that remained incomplete while Robert finished up his communications training. We finally "decompressed" (as Jen likes to call it) by heading to her home and getting ready for an informal dinner party with 4 of her friends. It was the first real dinner Jen had made for herself at home in almost a month so we really needed to take these few hours to just relax, enjoy a meal and talk to some colleagues. It turned out to be quite effective as these people would also be around for the next three weeks while my student Mani was in Fairbanks as our high-speed logistics and relay node so I was able to work with Jen to ensure that he would have enough friendly folks to look after his well-being while I was in the field.
We left after that to get Mani at the airport (yet another flight delay). For Mani, the adventure had been full of flight delays (several hours overdue in each airport). He walked off the plane worn and tired but with this incredible smile on his face because he had never been this far north before. He was amazed at the mountain ranges he had crossed on his flight and since he arrived in the middle of the night he was welcome by the northern lights as we drove to Jen's house at almost 02:00. Mani grew up in western India so for him, this felt like coming to another planet.
Bright and early at 06:00 on Monday 26 March (we were in bed with only three hours of sleep), we had to wake up, get ready and prepare for more training. We picked up Robert from the PolarTREC training and proceeded to Joe Nava's house on NRA Way for an experience called "Bear Training".
Roughly nine of us (Jen, myself, Mani, Robert, Alice, Andrew, Bill Simpson, and a couple others fellows - see team list forthcoming) all destined for the ice camp sat through a 4 hour training course on how to deal with bears. This included a video and the use of shot guns including the operation, safety, and firing range practice of 12 gauge shot guns (see photos). It was such an amazing experience that I forgot my backpack at Joe's house and had to spend a good part of the day figuring out how to get back there to retrieve it. The afternoon was spent chasing down yet more of the million details (Robert's glasses had broken and we needed to find an optician that could fix them). So Robert and I dropped off Jen and Mani to work on setting Mani up with his computer at her office while Robert and I spent 3 hours driving from store to store in search of those last minute things that we were still missing. We ended the day by hooking up with one of the PolarTREC administrators (Janet Warburton) for one last dinner as she was a long-time friend of Robert’s. In nearly every event we encountered someone knew someone from long ago. The more the events unfolded, the smaller the world and shorter the time.
Robert's journal entry.
We finally unpacked Robert's gear from the car late that evening and then proceed to load up Mani's gear and get his stuff to the Nordic House which is a visiting faculty house where he would be stationed for most of the expedition. To the delight of both Mani and I, the place turned out to be just super. Mani has been sticking with Chandra and me through some pretty thin funding years and it has finally paid off so I tried to include those little extra specials for him for his years of can-do effort to make sure that his accommodations during this trip would be, as they say in Norway, the Viking way - dry, warm, and comfortable. He and Scott (fellow Ph.D. student and team buddy) would share a cozy upstairs floor with two rooms in a house with shared bathroom and kitchen with other visiting scientists. It was a real treat for Mani and the UD contingent felt very happy about the setup we had managed to coordinate. I got to bed about 02:30 that night with the next adventure just around the corner.
One of the more difficult issues was the fact that Mani (UD Ph.D. student - see team list) had a flight delay already in Philadelphia so he was not going to make his connecting flight. As a result we were thinking about how to schedule the day since he would now arrive at 02:00 of the next morning instead of the scheduled 16:30. Basically we knew we were in for a very, very long day. So we start making our lists. One thing I have noticed about the synergy of this team is that all three of the lead ladies of this expedition are fastidious about keeping lists (post-it queens!) and this has been a huge asset. So when Jen and I started to sort out strategy, we also started to make our lists including sorting out housing issues for Mani, finding the polar gear for he and Scott (second UD student), and meeting up with Jen's student Alice (see team list). We ran around tending to several of the one million details that remained incomplete while Robert finished up his communications training. We finally "decompressed" (as Jen likes to call it) by heading to her home and getting ready for an informal dinner party with 4 of her friends. It was the first real dinner Jen had made for herself at home in almost a month so we really needed to take these few hours to just relax, enjoy a meal and talk to some colleagues. It turned out to be quite effective as these people would also be around for the next three weeks while my student Mani was in Fairbanks as our high-speed logistics and relay node so I was able to work with Jen to ensure that he would have enough friendly folks to look after his well-being while I was in the field.
We left after that to get Mani at the airport (yet another flight delay). For Mani, the adventure had been full of flight delays (several hours overdue in each airport). He walked off the plane worn and tired but with this incredible smile on his face because he had never been this far north before. He was amazed at the mountain ranges he had crossed on his flight and since he arrived in the middle of the night he was welcome by the northern lights as we drove to Jen's house at almost 02:00. Mani grew up in western India so for him, this felt like coming to another planet.
Bright and early at 06:00 on Monday 26 March (we were in bed with only three hours of sleep), we had to wake up, get ready and prepare for more training. We picked up Robert from the PolarTREC training and proceeded to Joe Nava's house on NRA Way for an experience called "Bear Training".
Robert's journal entry.
We finally unpacked Robert's gear from the car late that evening and then proceed to load up Mani's gear and get his stuff to the Nordic House which is a visiting faculty house where he would be stationed for most of the expedition. To the delight of both Mani and I, the place turned out to be just super. Mani has been sticking with Chandra and me through some pretty thin funding years and it has finally paid off so I tried to include those little extra specials for him for his years of can-do effort to make sure that his accommodations during this trip would be, as they say in Norway, the Viking way - dry, warm, and comfortable. He and Scott (fellow Ph.D. student and team buddy) would share a cozy upstairs floor with two rooms in a house with shared bathroom and kitchen with other visiting scientists. It was a real treat for Mani and the UD contingent felt very happy about the setup we had managed to coordinate. I got to bed about 02:30 that night with the next adventure just around the corner.
29 March 2007
Ice Park 23 March
On Friday evening we took a weekend break. Dinner was covered by PolarTREC at a lovely Italian restaurant in good company. Then we proceeded to the ice park for an evening stroll in the cold weather to test out our clothing layers. It was about -18F (-23C). I had on Under Armor, flannel lined Carhartt pants and a shell on the bottom with a pair of liner socks and hi-tech socks inside very thick high alpine hiking books. On top I had on Under Armor, a thick polypro, a thick Norwegian knit sweater and a shell jacket. On top I had a hat and turtle fur. Since it was below zero I could feel the hairs of my nose freezing as I breathed in but it didn’t feel that cold at first for two very big reasons: 1) absolutely no wind in Fairbanks (typical), 2) extremely dry desert conditions with very little snow (~ 6 inches total on the ground all winter). If you stand there and start chatting you start to get cold because it feels like a 20 below ice box. Without the wind or the humidity it felt only like near zero on a very calm night in Vermont. I think that is why there are so many large towns up here and they can survive in relative comfort. I am sure that if the wind were to blow, it would be extremely difficult to keep houses here warm enough.
As for the ice park, that was very special (see photos). Each year, Fairbanks puts on an international ice carving exhibition with participants coming in from all over the globe including Russia, Japan, and China. They use ice carved from a nearby quarry pond which produces beautiful high clarity ice. Groups of folks with chainsaws and hand saws carve out many blocks of ice and place them at stations around the park. Then the competition begins and each group spent several days carving the ice into sculptures using chain saws and carving tools.
Prizes are awarded and the whole scene is just magical with hundreds of sculptures and even a children’s play area built out of sculpted slides and ice block tunnels. The displays were amazing, some as high as 2-3 stories (30 feet/10 meters), some from one block of ice, some from multiple blocks of ice. At night the sculptures were back or front lit with colored lights. Contrast was added by filling hollowed sections with tightly packed snow (e.g. to emphasize some writing). The displays were beautiful but the cold did soon get to us so we only lasted about 2 hours in the cold given the clothing we had on. We all returned to our rendezvous time 11pm and commented about what we learned that day from our survivor teacher Tuck about "circulation and insulation".
Robert's journal entry.
As for the ice park, that was very special (see photos). Each year, Fairbanks puts on an international ice carving exhibition with participants coming in from all over the globe including Russia, Japan, and China. They use ice carved from a nearby quarry pond which produces beautiful high clarity ice. Groups of folks with chainsaws and hand saws carve out many blocks of ice and place them at stations around the park. Then the competition begins and each group spent several days carving the ice into sculptures using chain saws and carving tools.
Robert's journal entry.
PolarTREC Event 22-25 March
We arrived at Fairbanks pretty much on time. Robert had volunteered to be one of the van drivers for the PolarTREC group so we were able to pick up a rental van to haul all of our gear. It was one of those large 15 person passenger vans with all the seats in it. The van was "plugged in" to keep it warm. 
It was a bit old with rear wheel drive and slightly bald tires so it was an adventure to drive it especially when it wasn't heavily loaded. We arrived at the Princess Hotel (see photos) which indeed sounds like an odd name being located in Fairbanks. It has that name because of the Princess cruise lines which run around Alaska in the summer including excursions to the interior (Fairbanks). It was rustic with the big beams and hardy frontier look with a big cozy fireplace when you walked inside. The rooms were typical hotel but with local charm like the "hand-carved looking" entertainment center (see photos). There was wireless available near the hotel lobby so we spent many of our off time hours near the lobby trying to catch up on e-mail.
The first thing I did was check in with Hans and that's when he told me that there had been an incident on the Submarine at the camp and that I should read the mail and my blog where he had loaded up some press release links. I read it all very carefully trying to take in all the issues that would now add complications to our field planning. It slowly began to dawn on me that this might be the end of the trip before we ever got started (see press releases). A couple of days of uncertainty followed where all we could do was proceed as if things would continue and then hope in the back of our minds that they would. All the planning in the world could not have prepared us for such a situation. In addition to this press release, Hans relays to me the news that "Anderson is coming back" for a Stargate episode to be filmed on our ice camp during the classified Navy section (see press release). This is the camp period that Jackie, Jen, and I had negotiated with the Navy and NSF for months to try and get some of us onto the camp so we could collect our scientific data and deploy our buoy arrays. There were other teams too who tried to do the same. I can not tell you how bizarre it feels to be bumped from two weeks of scientific data collecting due to such political maneuvering by those with higher powers (i.e., $$$$).
We were absolutely amazed when we found out that the British crew, in the midst of this tragedy, managed to get nearly a full survey done below the ice before the event and so their mission was basically a scientific success. They let our UK science colleagues off at the ice station where they were. Peter was flown home to see his family instead of via submarine. His colleague Nick remained in Fairbanks as he did not have family to see and didn’t see the point of spending 6 days travel home and back just to see his flat. Jen (chief scientist - see team list) helped Peter get a flight home to the UK. She was amazed how calm he was through all of this. Having known Peter for almost 25 years I knew that he was just that sort of private fellow who would use the focus of his work and his family to keep him going in the midst of this tragedy. A couple of days later this incredibly resilient man was contacting her about the next phase of the experiment and confirmed that both he and Nick would be joining us at the ice camp following a few days rest in UK. He asked if Jen could find Nick a place in Fairbanks and she offered her home immediately as she had planned to use her house as a crash pad for anyone coming through on the way to the ice camp. The whole sub incident just set the tone of the whole experiment at a very serious level that gave everyone pause for thought at how seriously we would have to consider safety on this mission.
In the meantime, we had to wake up the next day bright and early to begin our 4-day long PolarTREC training at 08:00 on Thursday 22 March. I was the only research scientist able to make the event. It was intended for the teachers as an orientation, but since it was so close to our field camp departure date, I thought it useful to attend and I was so very glad I did. The ARCUS team (see link as non-profit organization) is incredibly organized with a long track record for organizing and coordinating teacher training and several other coordination efforts. Never before in my career of 20+ years had I been able to get such formal training so I really enjoyed the experience for my own personal development. In addition, the teachers chosen were just absolutely outstanding. There had been 200 applicants and only 15 chosen. They were not only outstanding from an academic standpoint but also in their positive attitudes, outdoor capabilities, and willingness to work very, very hard with a positive attitude. We basically worked in formal lectures from 08:00 to 18:00 every day and then had to spend 2 hours after dinner every night doing our "homework."
Robert's journal entry.
The first day was an overview of PolarTREC, the responsibilities of the teachers, and a conference call with the researchers. The second day was survival training with a
"learn to return" fellow named Tuck Brouhard from LTR Training Systems (see photos) who targeted the class toward all the things we were most likely to encounter. He covered basic first aid, how to dress in layers for the cold, how to ensure the integrity of our primary shelter (i.e., ourselves and how we kept our bodies protected with clothing), and how to be careful out there. His presentation on frostbite left clear images in our brains as to why we needed to take care of ourselves especially our feet and hands to prevent them from getting cold. Pictures of frost bite are some of the most horrible things to look at especially when we realize that it is self inflicted because we are caught unprepared. The images of these pictures were clearly burned into our brains as he made it very clear how to follow certain safety rules to avoid having our feet and hands look like the ones shown in those those photos. Shudder, shake, brrrr!!!!
Robert's journal entry.
The last two days were intense training on the use of technology. There were several pieces of hi-tech equipment that each teacher was given and their job was to learn how to operate this equipment to submit daily journals, photographs and podcasts for the PolarTREC website. The teachers each received a laptop computer, an iridium satellite phone, a high end digital camera, a James-Bond-looking mini tape recorder, and a back pack to carry all this stuff in. One of the teachers even learned how to run this stuff from a fold open solar panel system since she would be on the coast of Greenland on the go with no power supply. I was just amazed at how much cool gear and high level training they received in the operations of these very sophisticated systems. There was an enormous amount to learn in those two days. I sat in on those meetings to make sure that Robert has a back up technical person (me) who would also know how it all worked. In an emergency, it was highly likely that the PolarTREC teacher would have far more communications equipment than all of the scientists put together on this camp.
We left the PolarTREC training feeling like we had just had someone open our brain and pour a bottle of knowledge into our head. The meetings were separated by very enjoyable meals and lots of bonding sessions so that the teachers got the chance to really get to know one another. Overall it is an intense enjoyable memory.
Robert's journal entry.
The first thing I did was check in with Hans and that's when he told me that there had been an incident on the Submarine at the camp and that I should read the mail and my blog where he had loaded up some press release links. I read it all very carefully trying to take in all the issues that would now add complications to our field planning. It slowly began to dawn on me that this might be the end of the trip before we ever got started (see press releases). A couple of days of uncertainty followed where all we could do was proceed as if things would continue and then hope in the back of our minds that they would. All the planning in the world could not have prepared us for such a situation. In addition to this press release, Hans relays to me the news that "Anderson is coming back" for a Stargate episode to be filmed on our ice camp during the classified Navy section (see press release). This is the camp period that Jackie, Jen, and I had negotiated with the Navy and NSF for months to try and get some of us onto the camp so we could collect our scientific data and deploy our buoy arrays. There were other teams too who tried to do the same. I can not tell you how bizarre it feels to be bumped from two weeks of scientific data collecting due to such political maneuvering by those with higher powers (i.e., $$$$).
We were absolutely amazed when we found out that the British crew, in the midst of this tragedy, managed to get nearly a full survey done below the ice before the event and so their mission was basically a scientific success. They let our UK science colleagues off at the ice station where they were. Peter was flown home to see his family instead of via submarine. His colleague Nick remained in Fairbanks as he did not have family to see and didn’t see the point of spending 6 days travel home and back just to see his flat. Jen (chief scientist - see team list) helped Peter get a flight home to the UK. She was amazed how calm he was through all of this. Having known Peter for almost 25 years I knew that he was just that sort of private fellow who would use the focus of his work and his family to keep him going in the midst of this tragedy. A couple of days later this incredibly resilient man was contacting her about the next phase of the experiment and confirmed that both he and Nick would be joining us at the ice camp following a few days rest in UK. He asked if Jen could find Nick a place in Fairbanks and she offered her home immediately as she had planned to use her house as a crash pad for anyone coming through on the way to the ice camp. The whole sub incident just set the tone of the whole experiment at a very serious level that gave everyone pause for thought at how seriously we would have to consider safety on this mission.
In the meantime, we had to wake up the next day bright and early to begin our 4-day long PolarTREC training at 08:00 on Thursday 22 March. I was the only research scientist able to make the event. It was intended for the teachers as an orientation, but since it was so close to our field camp departure date, I thought it useful to attend and I was so very glad I did. The ARCUS team (see link as non-profit organization) is incredibly organized with a long track record for organizing and coordinating teacher training and several other coordination efforts. Never before in my career of 20+ years had I been able to get such formal training so I really enjoyed the experience for my own personal development. In addition, the teachers chosen were just absolutely outstanding. There had been 200 applicants and only 15 chosen. They were not only outstanding from an academic standpoint but also in their positive attitudes, outdoor capabilities, and willingness to work very, very hard with a positive attitude. We basically worked in formal lectures from 08:00 to 18:00 every day and then had to spend 2 hours after dinner every night doing our "homework."
Robert's journal entry.
The first day was an overview of PolarTREC, the responsibilities of the teachers, and a conference call with the researchers. The second day was survival training with a
Robert's journal entry.
The last two days were intense training on the use of technology. There were several pieces of hi-tech equipment that each teacher was given and their job was to learn how to operate this equipment to submit daily journals, photographs and podcasts for the PolarTREC website. The teachers each received a laptop computer, an iridium satellite phone, a high end digital camera, a James-Bond-looking mini tape recorder, and a back pack to carry all this stuff in. One of the teachers even learned how to run this stuff from a fold open solar panel system since she would be on the coast of Greenland on the go with no power supply. I was just amazed at how much cool gear and high level training they received in the operations of these very sophisticated systems. There was an enormous amount to learn in those two days. I sat in on those meetings to make sure that Robert has a back up technical person (me) who would also know how it all worked. In an emergency, it was highly likely that the PolarTREC teacher would have far more communications equipment than all of the scientists put together on this camp.
We left the PolarTREC training feeling like we had just had someone open our brain and pour a bottle of knowledge into our head. The meetings were separated by very enjoyable meals and lots of bonding sessions so that the teachers got the chance to really get to know one another. Overall it is an intense enjoyable memory.
Robert's journal entry.
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