You are currently viewing July 4 and 5: Next depth level, international dining, Jeopardy and a shallow drill pickup
The whole camp playing jeopardy. This event was brought to us by the hosts Nicholas and HC.

July 4 and 5: Next depth level, international dining, Jeopardy and a shallow drill pickup

Driller’s report: Over the weekend we have had a lot of up and down again. Saturday, we managed to drill through the blockage at 55.70m (previously called 56m). This was a great success! We then faced challenges with a further blockage at 55.93m. Which still remains, as well as the blockage another 3 meters further down. We also deployed a 7 m Kovacs auger. This setup managed to drill through all blockages mentioned further up and brought us down to approx. 63m. The drill came up dry, meaning we have not reached drill fluid yet. Unfortunately, the hole with the auger is too small for any cameras to pass through. On Sunday we continued deploying the hole saw. We broke the 126mm hole saw while pulling up and getting stuck on a loose piece of casing at 48m depth, probably from a seam further up. We then deployed a smaller hole saw and continue working on the 56m blockage, which is a huge mess of fibre glass pieces, spread out over half a meter.

Saturday weather was no good for flying, but Sunday afternoon the Basler went out to pick up the shallow drill left behind at Site E. There was now some wind and temperatures were lower than on Friday, so the Basler could bring the shallow drill back home in a two hours operation.

Saturday evening, we had a UK-DK-DE-AT inspired delicious 3-course serving in camp: Homemade Fritattensuppe for starter, oven-roasted lamb with Yorkshire pudding and plentiful gravy, vegetables and Spinatenknödel for main dish and a lovely pie with berries for dessert. Cooks were Eliza, Sune, Sonja, Chantal and Iben. Between main dish and dessert our local entertainers HC and Nicholas were hosting a ‘Jeopardy’ competition for four teams: Loaded with difficult questions about indoor and outdoor sounds in camp, Steff’s 50-year career on the ice, bonus questions and prizes it was an unforgettable experience. Thank you all for being so creative and turning the 2026 GRIP field season into something special.

What we did this weekend:

  1. Penetrating casing plug and finding stuff below
  2. Picking up shallow drill at Site E
  3. Testing Basler touch down as source of vibration
  4. Widening mega trench to avoid snow drift
  5. Opening of large storage trench
  6. Packing down trench balloons
  7. Fixing zipper in carpenters garage door
  8. Enjoyed impressive Saturday night dinner
  9. Conducted well-prepared GRIP Jeopardy competition

Weather: Wind 6-14 kt turning from SE clockwise to NE, temp -14C to -12C, mix of overcast and sunny conditions.

Ad. 3: As the Basler airplane was scheduled to land a couple of times within only a few days, an opportunity to record some vibrations presented itself. And so, a line of 48 geophones, commonly called nodes, was deployed along the skiway Wednesday. A 5.6 km line with a 120-meter node interval, starting and ending approximately 1000 meters north and south of the skiway. The fairly wide node spacing is, admittedly, somewhat unusual. It was chosen to make the nodes line up with the skiway flags. With the high seismic attenuation in the ice, any high-frequency reflection near one node will most likely taper off before it reaches the adjacent. In this case, however, the targets are deep, near bedrock, and a wide node spacing is probably more acceptable. Now, the question is if the Basler landings are forceful enough to create some good vibrations.

Ad. 9: Jeopardy intro text by Nicholas:

‘Good evening, and welcome to the Saturday evening gathering of the remarkable people of GRIP camp.

Out here on the Greenland Ice Sheet, life seldom unfolds entirely according to plan.

The borehole casing has chosen this particular moment to become thoroughly plugged. Fresh vegetables have become little more than a distant memory. Shallow drills have developed an unfortunate tendency to remain exactly where they ought not. Even the mighty Basler aircraft appear reluctant to continue their journeys. And everywhere one looks, undocumented, unlabeled boxes, extend towards the horizon like an archaeological puzzle waiting to be solved.

But tonight, the work can wait.

This is Saturday. A time to escape the challenges of the field and enjoy a very special pre-dessert event.

Ladies and gentlemen…

Please join us upstairs for an evening of friendly competition – WELCOME TO JEOPARDY!’

FL, Anders Svensson

The Saturday night chefs that surprised us with an extremely delicious meal of a wild Danish, British, Austrian/German mix.
Chantal digging out the luminescence trench (again) for the last round of sampling. Now the trench will be converted into a double pit to further investigate the snow stratigraphy.
Geophones placed next to skiway flags for detecting landing airplane
Not a scene from a Fellini movie, but Iben doing a puzzle, Jim, the pilot, filming from the Basler wing, and Mimi, the mechanic, enjoying a coffee in an armchair, while waiting for the next ice core at Site E. Note snow is soft with Basler tail wheel all buried (Friday Site E).
Pulling a string below the ski of the Basler to detach it from the ice before attempting to take off (Friday at Site E)
Maria just pushed a core full of melt layers out of the core barrel (another puzzle, Friday at Site E).
When waiting for the next core to come to surface, you can as well solve a puzzle (Friday at Site E)
The drillers and the 7m-long auger. It came up in one piece, as a great relief, and has penetrated further than any other previous tool. Unfortunately, the hole is too small for any of our cameras.