Today was our final chance to get critical cargo as well as frozen food to camp, before the ski-equipped airplanes leave Greenland, only to return some 3 weeks from now. Hence, waking up to dense ground fog with visibility ranging from 100m to 300m was absolutely not what we wanted! Anyway, yesterday the fog lifted around 11.00, so we were hopeful this pattern would repeat, but alas just as fog seemed to loosen its grip, another dense fogbank rolled into camp 11.30, completely obscuring the skiway. Would it really be the weather here at GRIP that would be depriving us of this final chance? An hour of frantic phone calls between Bo sending more and more depressing weather observations from camp, and the FOMs in Kangerlussuaq followed. They were having Skier 41 standing by, loaded up and aircrew ready to go, just needing some half-descent weather at GRIP for being permitted a take-off – and the clock mercilessly ticking towards crew rest and thus mission cancellation!
Finally, after lunch a sigh of relief, the fog lifted and Bo could report the weather conditions needed for Skier 41 to get airborne. For the next hour weather improved even further as Skier 41 approached camp, but then just as radio contact between camp and Skier 41 was established, low clouds starting rolling in. And unknown to all in camp, Skier 41 had developed a minor technical issue, and thus had to circle in the vicinity of camp, radioing back to base to hear if a landing here at GRIP could be permissible in spite of this. With this permission granted, the most beautiful sight could finally be observed here at GRIP – Skier 41 emerging from the low cloud cover south of camp flying into the clear sky over the southern part of the GRIP skiway, and then at last landing here at GRIP at 16.22L. An enormous sigh of relief here at GRIP, and an even greater thank you to the 109th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard for giving its all, making this mission happen! And to the crew of Skier 41 – you are simply the best!!!
With Skier 41, having drifted most of the cargo, it came to a halt on the apron, and our ground handling crew, Thomas, Sepp, Grant, Jonathan and Carlos started first unloading the remaining lose load, and then loading the retro cargo. It was also a big day for Thomas, who was to load his first air force pallet on a Skier using our Caterpiller to fork it into the cargo bay of the plane. Without hesitation, Thomas did so in the first attempt, closely following the directions of the Skier 41 load master. Defueling also proceeded without incident, and soon Skier 41 was loaded and ready to go. While all this was going on, we also had a very special visitor in camp. Our Field Operation Manger (FOM) from Kangerlussuaq, Marie, had decided to personally follow the critical cargo on Skier 41, and then she could also give camp a brief visit. It was a joy to show Marie all the progress we have made, and our relief that the cargo finally made it, made her visit even more special!
With Marie back on Skier 41, the next critical part of today’s mission was to begin. Would Skier 41 be able to depart GRIP? With the wind having gone down to 3 kts and being basically perpendicular to the Skiway, there would be zero help offered by the weather to get Skier 41 airborne. And at 3240m elevation the propellers of the Skiers are simply not delivering the same trust as at sea level. Now, it would come down to having just everything done right! Would Thomas careful grooming of the Skiway be enough for Skier 41 to gain enough speed? Would the directions of JP to put all retro cargo on a single pallet on the rearmost pallet-position of Skier 41 make it just that bit easier for it to get its front ski off snow? Would the excellent airmanship of the crew of Skier 41 be just enough to give the plane sufficient lift? We were all looking nervously on, as Skier 41 made its first attempt at getting airborne, but no, the attempt had to be aborted as the plane ran out of Skiway south of camp!
Skier 41 then turned around at the end of our Skiway, in order to make a second take-off run northbound. Again, the roar of the 4 powerful engines was heard from a mile away, and after passing camp the front ski of Skier 41 lifted, and then the plane got obscured by a cloud of snow of its own making – but was it airborne? Even from the cupola, Skier 41 could not be seen, nor could the northern end of the Skiway, and the low cloud cover north of camp made it impossible to spot if Skier 41 was in the air! A minute went by, feeling like hours, and then the airband radio in the cupola came to life “GRIP camp, GRIP camp, Skier 41 airborne!” could be heard loud and clear! The crew of Skier 41 happily reporting to Bo, who radioed back to Skier 41, once again thanking them for going out of their way to make this critical mission a success, and wishing the crew a good flight back to Kangerlussuaq. In the heat of the moment, Bo forgot to radio the good news to the ground crew, leaving them all in suspense even longer, until they finally lost patience and called him up on the local radio to get clarification, and finally relief!
Hence, a nerve wrecking, but also fantastic day, here at GRIP, were a lot also got done in camp, but some of this will have to be reported later, as the attention-span of Bo did not allow him to record much else, than the frustrating weather, and the crucial flight operations…

Most of what we did this Thursday:
1. Received Skier 41 in camp.
2. Unloaded, loaded and defueled Skier 41.
3. Received 2652L of fuel and 14.000lbs cargo from Skier 41.
4. Showed GRIP camp to our FOM Marie.
5. Pulled cargo to camp and brought fresh food indoors.
6. Worked on getting the drillers workshop finished up.
7. Continued shaping berm for drill tent.

Weather: Thursday started with ground fog only truly lifting in the early afternoon, giving room to gradually increasing sunny spells interspersed by bouts of low clouds. Temp from -28C to -20C. Wind 3-9 kts turning from E to ENE and decreasing.

FL, Bo Vinther