Today we had a planned Skier mission with arrival just before noon. The weather forecast showed increasing easterly wind during the day meaning crosswind on our skiway. Not a good thing. After the Skier departed from Kanger the weather deteriorated, and at the estimated time of arrival we could hardly see the skiway, there were low clouds and we were seriously doubting the skier would land. Then suddenly the skier appeared out of a fog bank already on the ground. So far so good, we received new field participants, fuel and cargo, and the plane received our passengers and pallets. Meanwhile, the crosswind had picked up and passed the maximum allowance for take-off. We already had a request for an open field take-off (away from the skiway) against the wind and – in case it would fail – that the plane with passengers and crew would stay overnight and wait for improved conditions. Something we would have been able to accommodate, of course, but it would have been a bit squeezed. Miraculously, however, the wind direction suddenly turned towards the direction of the skiway and the Skier took off in first attempt in the middle of a cloud. Pew, we had spent all of our good luck for the day. Unfortunately, there was less good luck for the deep drilling that had several unsuccessful attempts of banging through the 56 m casing plug with a heavy load. Well, tomorrow is another day.
What we did this Friday:
- Prepared pallets with cargo and ice samples
- Received Skier under marginal conditions
- Sorted incoming cargo
- Attempted to break through the borehole plug at 55.6 m depth
- Watched the increasing amount of drifting snow crossing the ice sheet
- Light grooming of skiway after take off
Ad. 1. We waved goodbye to James, Carsten, Jørgen, Tom, Will, Rahul and Charlotte and welcomed Hans-Christian, Sonja, Anton and Magnus. Camp population is now 21 persons.
Ad. 2 We received 10,365 liters of fuel, 800 liters of mogas and 600 liters of drill liquid.
Weather: Starting out from the calm conditions in the morning the wind picked up and reached 22 kt from SW resulting in significant snow drift. Ground fog and low clouds. Temp. from -24C to -12C. Not possible to work away from camp.
FL, Anders Svensson
