Today we were happy to finally make it to NEEM, even though it was for a short visit. After returning from breakfast, we all donned our cold weather gear once again and headed to the LC-130 to depart for NEEM. The flight to NEEM went up the coast over Disko Bay and the Jacobsavn Ice Field - the views of ocean, glacier, and icebergs were spectacular. Arriving at NEEM we had quite a welcoming committee. There is a documentary film crew filming at NEEM and they were there with their cameras recording our arrival. After our trip to NEEM being delayed by weather for two days we were warmly welcomed by everyone there. The iconic structure of the NEEM camp is their dome, which serves as the main living area for the camp. After a quick visit in the dome, complete with warm chocolate chip...
Today was a day to learn about some of the vagaries of Arctic research and travel. We woke up this morning to a low cloud ceiling with just a bit of light on the horizon. Last night we were told to have our bags out ready to be loaded on the cargo pallet before breakfast. So we all rolled up our great sleeping bags (that kept us warm and toasty in our tents on the ice sheet) and had our bags ready before we headed off to breakfast, thinking that we would be leaving Summit Camp for NEEM shortly before noon. After breakfast we had the daily camp update and at that point everything still seemed on schedule. Following breakfast, Ben, the camp medic gave an interesting presentation on altitude sickness and a demonstration of the Gamow Bag which is used as a treatment. Since the elevation...
Hi, this is Zack Wistort and Nate Wiegman, two students from Niskayuna, New York, who have had the fortunate opportunity to be heading up to Greenland. Today at Summit we saw and learned a great deal. Our minds are still trying to soak it all in, but we will attempt to write a short summary of all the amazing things that we have done. We started the day by seeing the UAV research being conducted here at camp by scientist Rune Storvold. The UAV's flown here can be equipped with many different kinds of instruments but it seems that the main testing revolves around developing the UAV's systems, and checking the albedo of the snow. From there we went to the backlit snow pit. Two pits are dug side by side with a wall in between which is about 10cm thick. Then, the top of one of the snow pits...
Today was a great day! After breakfast, we were issued our cold weather gear which we will need when we go up to Summit tomorrow. There was a lot of laughter as we tried on all of the gear that had been issued to each of us. Our gear consists of fleece pants and jacket, insulated bib pants, a huge parka, balaclava, fleece hat, gloves and/or mittens, boots, and a neck gaiter. After our gear was issued we had to pack what we would supplement this gear with, mostly long underwear, warm socks, regular underwear, and a long-sleeve tshirt or turtleneck. Tomorrow on the plane we will be wearing a good portion of our cold weather gear to be prepared for our arrival at Summit.
The organizing of gear took a good portion of the morning. After lunch, we headed out on a less than wonderful road...
This morning started with an early wake-up call - my alarm went off at 4AM so I could be sure to be ready and in the hotel lobby with all my gear for the 5AM pickup by the shuttle to the Air National Guard base. Once on base we went through check-in and a metal detector and then it was on to the waiting room. While I waited for my flight, I met up with the rest of the US members of the Science Education Tour who would be on the flight with me. There were also a number of research teams that were heading to Greenland with us.
As we boarded the plane we were given earplugs which have to be worn at all times since it is very loud inside the plane. Our seats were benches with cargo net backs - not super comfortable, but not too bad either. In our pre-flight briefing they told us we...
Despite the fact that it is the middle of July and over 90 degrees outside, I have packed a bag with long underwear, wool socks, and fleece. It feels strange to be packing such warm clothes when it is hot outside, but those are what I will need when I get to Greenland on Monday. I almost wish I could leave right now, I am so excited about this trip. Even though I am ready right now it will take awhile to get to Greenland. Tomorrow around lunchtime I will fly from Washington, DC to Albany, NY. In Schenectady, NY I will meet up with a couple of my fellow travelers and we will spend the night there so that we will be ready to catch our early ride with the 109th on Monday morning. So even though I am ready to go now, I won't actually get to Greenland until Monday afternoon.
