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It's 10:35 PM, and I'm in the Big House watching Blade Runner with a few other people. Earlier this evening, after dinner, Katie, Pete, Jack and I made some coyote ice cream. Goooooood stuff. A few other people were watching Jackie Chan's Supercop at the time, but most have gone to bed now. The people who work here need to get up early and get back at it. My work here this time was relatively easy, and it's done with. I just need to get up and get on a plane. There are a lot of guys from South Pole here this summer working on the relocation of the station buildings, and one thing Polies know how to do is work. Not a lot of slackers here. And unlike my brief two-week experience at Pole last year, most of these guys don't seem to be the type that like to sit around and tell each other how cool they are. I ran into a bit of this at Pole, and have heard this from others who've spent more time at Pole than I have: there is definitely some ego and machismo among the guys working at Pole. But I haven't seen that as much with these guys here. Of course, this is just the opinion of a guy who's been here for 1.5 days, so don't take me too seriously. The point is just that this group seems like a legitimately cool bunch, in slight contrast to the workers I met at Pole last year. But I digress. Anyhow, it's just a few night owls left, including Dave, Larry, and me. There was also a group of architecture students and their advisor at camp with us that had come up with a new design for Summit Camp. The current station works pretty well, but, as evidenced by this summer's building relocation due to snow drifting, a longer-term station will probably require a facility redesign...similar to what's currently going on at South Pole. It is all extremely tentative right now, and as far as I know this student project is the first stab at a new design. There is no guarantee that NSF will consider this or any other design, or even tthat Summit Camp will be around at all in 10 years. But it's a neat initiative and these students seemed pretty jazzed to get the chance to come up to Summit for a day or two. Anyhow, back to Blade Runner. Is this Rutger Hauer's best performance ever or what? The part where he's dying, and describing all the things he's seen in his life...what a scene. So much good stuff in this movie. Oh yeah. This photo is from my first day in Kanger, when I took a bike ride up to Black Ridge and had a look around. This is looking westward, and you can see the ice cap from here. Black Ridge is the high point near Kangerlussuaq, and is home to a number of installations including a TACAN.

Looking westward from another point atop Black Ridge, there's a pretty lake. The ice cap is also visible in this pic.

Looking the other way, out along the fjord, you can see the beautiful Kangerlussuaq dump. Today was burning day.

I took a walk back westward and noticed some little objects in the distance. Then one of them moved...so I figured they were musk ox. I hadn't seen any of them when I was here in August so I wanted to get a little closer. I walked down to within about 150 yards and sat to watch them graze. I really don't know how close you can get to them, but I know they can charge you if you get too close. So that seemed close enough. There was another guy off in the distance who was doing the same thing, and we both sat for about a half hour. Here's a picture of one of them.

There were three in total. They can move pretty quickly, but at this point they were just leisurely grazing. Strange shaggy beasts, these things. And their fur is incredibly soft and warm. There was a large re-introduction program years back in Greenland, I understand they are doing quite well these days.

I met a Danish girl last year who was here studying musk ox. One of her techniques was looking at their scat. I saw a lot of this stuff during my walk, and I figure that at least some of it was her quarry. Neat-o. I think the larger clumps are the original forms, and the smaller bits are what you get when it falls apart. This is my theory, a theory that is mine. But I am clearly not a scatologist.

MORE TURDS.

The next day we were scheduled to fly to Summit. The weather was fine on the ice cap in the morning, but some fog had rolled into Kangerlussuaq and the ANG did not want to run the risk of encountering this fog on their return flight. But the time the fog started to lift (around lunchtime), fog had set in on Summit. So the flight was cancelled and this is how we spent our morning...standing by and staring at this fog. But another day in Kangerlussuaq is not a bad thing.

While standing by for the flight, I walked around a little. Here's a JATO bottle that somebody made into a modern art project.

And a musk ox fur near the KISS building. The locals hunt musk ox, and in fact you can get a musk ox pizza at Nordley's, a nearby restaurant. I had one this evening, and it was quite tasty. Except for the fact that they use BBQ sauce instead of tomato sauce.

I noticed a waterfall coming off some nearby cliffs when I got off the plane. Robin (with Veco) said she hadn't seen that much runoff feeding this waterfall in years, so I decided to take a picture. So hereyago.

Later that afternoon the fog went away and the sun came out. It was a beautiful day, so Jim and I decided to take a walk. We walked out a ways in the direction of Lake Ferguson, and then I continued on to the top of a nearby ridge. On the walk back, I found a little piece of what looked like aircraft metal. Further along I found another larger piece, and then another. Many years ago, when this was still a USAF facility, three planes crashed during foul weather. The pilots all ejected and survived, but the planes are scattered around Kangerlussuaq. I didn't find the main fuselage, but it's nearby here on the shores of a lake, as I later learned. Anyhow, I have found pieces of two of them now (the second is along the road to the ice cap), and the third one is not too far away. It's up in the hills to the north of town. Maybe next time?

One more photo here - a balanced rock sitting on the shores of a lake between Black Ridge and Lake Ferguson. I really enjoy walking around this area. Hmmm...back to Blade Runner. Roy just did away with his creator...whoa. Why did Rutger Hauer not have a more A-list career than the crappy B- and C-list movies that he seemed to make? Fast forward a half-hour. Rutger just croaked. "All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die". Great flick.