Today was very special here at GRIP, first of all it was Sepp’s birthday, and secondly, we got visitors in camp, as the GEUS Twin Otter arrived after servicing a weather station on the way, and just in time for dinner, and celebrating Sepp, even bringing a birthday cake all the way from Pituffik Space Base! Hence, we are now 19 here at GRIP, and were thus able to loudly sing our traditional camp birthday song for Sepp, who let Anders choose the “instruments”: drums, pan flute, snowblower! Anders made a fantastic lasagne for the birthday dinner, and with the extra birthday cake, we had two to choose from, both a delicious American style cake, and a super-dense chocolate cake with port and macrons prepared by Bo. Sepp also got a birthday flipbook showing him snow blowing prepared by Charlotte and Grant, and signed by the whole GRIP crew. Hence, we all had a really nice evening!
During the coming days, the GEUS crew: Nanna, Anne, Chris, and Peter as well as Kiddy and Björn the Twin Otter pilots will fly out and service automatic weather stations on the Greenland ice sheet, using GRIP as their hub, staying here in camp evenings and nights.
In camp we also made lots of progress, as the weather was beautiful with calm conditions again facilitating outside work. Hence, Charlotte, Jonathan and Rahul managed to mount a further 10 solar panels on the dome, and Thomas continued the storage trench excavation work until right before dinner were he and Sepp refuelled the Twin Otter (600L of Jet A1). Julien and Chantal assisted the solar panel team setup a new anchor and moved beds into the Weatherports for expected guests. The drillers also made further progress, both testing the drill motor and setting up further technical and power installations (see report below). Inside the dome Carlos made further preparations for the luminescence measurements.
What we did this Wednesday:
- Received and fueled the GEUS Twin Otter.
- Housed and briefed the GEUS and TO crew.
- Drill motor section tested and ready.
- Cable from the surface unit to the winch slip-ring connected.
- Completed routing of power cable to drillers workshop.
- Started assembling drill.
- Installed a climbing anchor around the cupula.
- Continued readying retro cargo for upcoming flight period.
- Continued excavation of storage trench.
- Mounted 10 solar panels on the dome, 59 panels are now in place.
- Celebrated Sepp’s birthday, instruments: Drums, pan flute, snowblower.
Re 3-7: Drillers’ report:
Kevin connected the motor section on the bench, all is functioning as expected as is declared ready. Kevin and Chantal connected the cable from the surface unit to the winch slip-ring (downhole power and coms). Julien and Chantal also secured the drip liner in the inclined trench. Julien has initiated communications with PI’s regarding the logging plans for the future cores. James completed routing cable through the new trench to the workshop. James and Grant diagnosed faulty heater in control cabin, James and Grant organized all the zarges and drill spare boxes. And finally, James and Grant collected the drill, and started assembling – downhole filter, 1 of 2 chips chambers to outer tubes are ready to use.
Weather: Wednesday started cloudy, but sunny spells enlarged during the day. Temp. from -21C to -8C. Wind increasing from 0-6kts, mainly from S.
FL, Bo Vinther
