With sunny and calm conditions here at GRIP again today, it was possible to really get things moving here in camp! The biggest move was the drillers and Thomas using the Pistenbully to move and place the white garage tent on top of the berm as an extension to the white drill tent, and then continuing technical installations in their new big tent (details given in drillers report below). For the solar panel project, it was also a big day, with Charlotte, Jonathan and Rahul getting 4 more solar panels in place, after getting help from Chantal on how to safely use and secure both ropes and the scaffold.
Sepp also made good progress on the power line cable ducts to the weatherports, now progressing with the snowblowing of trenches towards the second and third weatherports, while Thomas was moving snow on an even bigger scale working on levelling the large winter snow drifts in camp. Bo found some time to dig out some stuck flags that had lost their significance in and around camp, while Kevin continued his work in the dome on the logger. Carlos made preparations for mineral bleaching experiments, essential to the luminescence dating method we plan to employ on the deepest part of the new GRIP core. And making good use of the fast satellite internet we have in camp, Julien submitted a manuscript to Nature Communications even before breakfast today! In the evening, we were all treated to delicious halibut prepared by Anders, while Charlotte did a yoga class after dinner to round off a big day!

What we did this Monday:
1. Moved white garage up on drill tent berm.
2. Connected the two white tents on the berm.
3. Mounted a further 4 solar panels on the dome, 5 panels are now mounted in total.
4. Worked on power and technical installations in the big white drill tent.
5. Continued work on the new logger.
6. Made inventory and sorted lumber in camp.
7. Leveled surface around camp.
8. Continued making power line trenches.
9. Liberated stuck flags in and around camp.
10. Made preparations for bleaching experiments.

Re 1-6: Drillers’ report:
It was a Monday was full of progress: We moved the second white tent into position and joined the tents using the connector flap, removed the end wall and refitted the other end wall (cables moved to inside of the purlins). Repaired failed tent stitching. Positioned winch and did final mounting. Began building the retaining wall and guardrail around the winch. Connectorized power distribution cables. Conducted safety checks and helped with the scaffold and rope use by the solar panel crew. Continued to make repairs to the logger and made inventoried/sorted available lumber in camp.

Weather: A mainly sunny day, with some passing clouds, especially in the evening. Temp. from -24C to -12C. Wind 2-8 kts, increasing to 10 kts in the evening, between SW and W all day.

FL, Bo Vinther