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.