You are currently viewing May 20: “Getting ready for tomorrows flight”
Left picture: Carlos on the snowmobile ready to go on to servicing the next set of skiway markers. Right picture: Jonathan giving a partly buried skiway marker a good whack to loosen it, so it can be raised.

May 20: “Getting ready for tomorrows flight”

Tomorrow is the last chance for us to get critical cargo to camp before the ski equipped Hercules transport planes (that we call Skiers) from New York Air National Guard end their current deployment in Greenland. Therefore, we need to make sure that the GRIP skiway is in the best possible condition for receiving a plane. Thus, Thomas groomed skiway, taxiway and apron using a Pistenbully, while Carlos and Jonathan inspected all skiway markers, including the lead in flags on both ends of the skiway, which all needed to be raised, and some even replaced. By evening the GRIP skiway was as ready as it could be, groomed and with all markings standing tall and clear of snow. Now we just hope, that is will all work out tomorrow, despite the forecast suggesting suboptimal weather conditions for flight operations, at least before noon.

In camp some extra cargo for going out with the Skier, was also readied and palletised by Kevin, Sepp, Chantal, Charlotte and Rahul. Furthermore, the drillers were busy hollowing out the new berm in for the drill tent. Also, the roof of the Dome cupola was cleared from snow and our doppler radar installed by Charlotte and Rahul. This radar detects motion in the vicinity of camp, but as it hasn’t been used for 2 years, it was a great relief that it seemed to work fine when Bo turned it on. In the coming days the radar will have to be tuned to the GRIP camp and location, so it can discern normal motion patterns around camp from suspicious activity, such as an unlikely visit by a stray polar bear up here at 3240m elevation, or even a camp member being lost in poor visibility. In the kitchen Anders once again made us delicious lunch and dinner with the food selection available in camp, but he is looking very much forward to tomorrow’s flight brining us a much greater variety of options – fingers crossed!

What we did this Wednesday:

  1. Readied retro cargo for tomorrow planned flight.
  2. Groomed skiway, taxiways and apron.
  3. Lifted all lead-in flags both N and S of skiway.
  4. Cleared all skiway markers from snow.
  5. Finished hollowing out berm for drill tent.
  6. Cleared the roof of the cupola from snow.
  7. Installed doppler radar on cupola roof.
  8. Started reprogramming doppler radar software from EGRIP to GRIP location.

Weather: Wednesday started with ground fog gradually lifting, giving room to a beautiful sunny day. Temp from -28C to -20C. Wind 2-7 kts turning from SE. to S, and then to WSW.

FL, Bo Vinther

Exercising here at GRIP is also possible, here Charlotte is doing a morning run in below -20C conditions and ground fog, together with Chantal who took the picture.