Summit 2006

Photos © 2006 Seth White

Home


Hello, from Baltimore-Washington International Airport. I'm on my way to Thule, Greenland and have some time to kill while waiting for our flight. A flight, by the way, which boards at 1:00 am. This seemed like a good time to finally make a (long) page from a (short) trip to Summit in April, when Thomas and I installed a permanent GPS station. On our way through Kangerlussuaq we were delayed a day due to weather, and since there had already been a string of weather delays another group of Summit people was also stuck in town. They were supposed to be on the opening flight of the summer season while Thomas and I would come on the second, but as it worked out we all ended up on a late first flight. Several of these people I already knew, and it was great to catch up with them. So while we were delayed, some of us spent an afternoon at the Kangerlussuaq Museum. The museum wasn't open for the summer yet but since we had a reasonably-sized group, Robin called so-and-so, who called such-and-such, who agreed to open it up for us. It's good to know people. Anyhow, this is a pic of the base commander's office, just as he left it in 1992 when the Air Force base officially closed.

This is a display about Camp Century, which was an experimental station built into the ice cap about 150 miles from Thule in the late 50's. It was built for various reasons, including snow and ice research (they drilled the first deep core in the Greenland ice cap here). But after learning of "Operation Iceworm", I would guess it was primarily a prototype camp for that operation, which never materialized. Do yourself a favor a google "Operation Iceworm"...it surprised me and it will surprise you too.

Also from the Kanger Museum: photos of the old GRIP drilling camp. It was one of these geodesic domes that we went down into last year (see here). Cool to see photos of them when the camp was in full swing.

The next day weather cleared and we landed at Summit.

This is the first wave of the summer hordes to descend upon Summit Camp. When we got to Kanger I was actually glad to learn that the first flight had been delayed. This way, I'd be on an actual opening flight to a remote station. It's not the same kind of event as the first flight coming into South Pole or even McMurdo after a winter season, since Summit operates in 3-month shifts during the winter (using Twin Otters for transport). But it was still something new for me. And when we arrived the staff even had food waiting for us.

So, along with everyone else, the two of us hit the ground running. Our work was especially urgent since we had a very limited window in which to get the system installed. This was my fourth time to Summit, and there really hasn't been any consistency to how the altitude affects me. Two times I have felt more-or-less fine, while the other two times were harder. It has never put me out of commission, but it does make things much harder than they usually are. The mere act of thinking is a good example. Going from sea level to ~12,000 ft. in one day, then sorting out your gear and doing an instrument installation in a hurry is not a trivial task. I won't belabor the point, I'll just say it was a good thing there were two of us there, as we each tended to catch the other's mental slip-ups. And of course by the time we were starting to become acclimatized, it was time to go. Drag. Still for me, three days at Summit is still better than none. But you knew this already. Anyway, this is the view looking out toward the skiway from the Green House. Just another scene from just another day at the camp.

In addition to installing the GPS base system, we also put in a monument on top of the GISP2 borehole near the camp. Since the Green House will shift and settle on the snow surface, it isn't the most stable reference point for a base. However everything at Summit has the same problem...except for the borehole. The borehole casing extends far down into the snow, and is presumed to be securely attached to the solid ice below. Of course the entire ice sheet moves, so even the borehole is not an optimal monument. However, it's the best thing there is at Summit. The Green House base coordinates will be periodically tied to the borehole, whose position will also be updated as necessary. Between the two reference points, we will be able accommodate any surveying requirements. Here is Thomas with the monument, which we installed inside the existing cap on the borehole. As a note, this entire hole is filled with some sort of buytl compound, which is poured in to keep the ice from crushing the borehole and closing it up. This particular chemical is used because it has the same density as ice and will not freeze in the hole. The solid ice farther down keeps the butyl trapped, however a borehole casing is inserted in the upper layer to keep it from seeping into the porous snow (or "firn"). I never knew this about boreholes, but then again I really didn't know dick about boreholes to begin with.

A drift at the Green House I thought was picturesque.

"Still Life" at Summit Camp. Boarding time for the Thule flight...more later...

Here is the Big House with the low sun peeking through the supports. There's about an hour left on the flight to Thule, and so far I have gotten some sleep and watched part of Big Momma's House 2 (with headphones unplugged). The plane we're flying today is a DC-8, complete with TV screens. This weekly flight to Thule is operated by a company called ATI, Air Transportation International. You check in at the Air Mobility Command counter at BWI airport and go to a regular gate. Then, you take a weird high-rider transport vehicle from the concourse to the plane. I didn't know those vehicles could elevate the passenger compartment up and down to different heights, but they can. So they drive you to the tail end of this DC-8, raise up the compartment, and you walk in the rear door.

A funny thing is that the same guy who stamped my "orders" paper before I got to the ticket counter is the same guy who called for us to board. This same guy also accompanied us along the way from the gate to the vehicle to the plane. I asked him why they used this vehicle to transport us from the gate to the plane instead of a normal jet bridge. Was it a security thing? Nope, it's because the DC-8 is modified so that the mid-section is cargo and only the last 5 seating rows are left for passengers. The passageway along the cargo section is just barely wide enough for a person to squeeze through, so people with luggage can't really enter the foreward door and move to the back. So you load the plane from the rear door, which requires this vehicle. Looking foreward from my seat, I can see he wasn't kidding. There is a hobbit-sized door on the port side, about 48" tall by 16" wide, which leads to the cargo hold. He also said they use those weird vehicles for pro sports teams to avoid the unwashed masses as they pass through the airport. So he gets the Orioles, Ravens, Nationals, etc. Basically he seemed like one of the VIP "handlers" for BWI. And this does feel like a VIP flight. We ARE on a chartered jet, we got two meals along the way, and the flight crew is top-notch. I fly a lot, and often I get grouchy about the flight attendants. But the two people on this flight are very good. Hmmm - my laptop battery is almost dead. More later...

I'm back at BWI airport on my way home from Thule, 3:00 AM this time, waiting for the ticket counter to open at 4:20 to change my flight back to Denver. Forget all the glaciers and musk ox around Thule, THIS is what I really live for - blogging while sitting in front a marginal bistro near the C concourse at an airport (and it is the ONLY establishment open in BWI at 3:00 am...guess I should be thankful). Oh, and by the way that DC-8 I just flew on is 1962 vintage. Yes, it's 44 years old. Anyway, late one evening at Summit I walked out and took a few photos of the camp. It was completely still and cold, about -30 F. Summit has higher humidity than Pole or even McMurdo, and if my memory doesn't deceive me, -30 F feels much colder here than it does down there. But anyhow, here is the camp silhouetted against the sky.

Looking at the Big House, with tent city in the background. We had expected to have two of these tents during the trip, but the crew had actually set up a small Weatherport for Thomas and I next to the Green House...with a small heater no less. Thanks! But as it turned out, the heater was so noisy that we turned it off for two of the nights. I had just bought a really nice sleeping bag, and as advertised it was comfortable in these temperatures.

The view looking towards the Swiss Tower from the Green House, with a drift in the foreground. It was a relaxed atmosphere while Thomas and I were there, however shades of things to come were seen when the TV and couches in the Big House were moved to a nearby Jamesway and replaced with more dinner tables and chairs. Summit will be filled past capacity with people this summer as the DISC drill is installed. There will be 50+ people at camp at the peak. Actually, since I'm writing this webpage so late, there probably ARE 50 people there now. I am glad we went in early to install the GPS system, since even with a "low" population, there was still quite a lot of activity, especially in the Green House. I would not have wanted to work there with another 25 or 30 people milling around. The DISC drill is destined for the WAIS Divide camp in Antarctica but is being tested first at Summit. The new building which houses the drill at Summit will then become the garage once the drill leaves. Currently, the garage is a Weatherport-type structure whose doors are barely big enough to fit the D-6 bulldozer inside. Another new addition at Summit this summer is an electric buggy, which Earl showed us while at the Air National Guard hangar on our way up. Earl is VECO's man in New York, a former Guardsman with the ANG 109th who now handles cargo, logistics, and just about everything else in New York.

We had a small storm blow through camp which delayed leaving for a day. The extra time was nice, however it wasn't until the morning of our flight where a) the system was installed and b) the weather was nice. As a result, we didn't get the chance to do all the surveys we wanted to do. We only had time for a quick run out to measure the endpoints of the skiway and the snow topography along the clean air zone boundary. Here is a roving system mounted on a snowmobile the morning of our flight.

I went out the the skiway a couple times to watch the LC-130's taking off, with hopes of getting a good shot of the JATO bottles being used. My timing was off as usual, since they didn't fire them when I was there (and did fire them when I wasn't). But I did put together three pics as Skier 92 passed by on takeoff.

I was looking forward to our flight back to Kanger, since the views out the window as you get closer to the ice edge are fantastic. Deep blue pools of melt water, massive fissures and cracks, and beautiful glacier streamlines awaited...or so I thought. There were only three of us on the flight so I figured we'd have lots of opportunity to hang out by the windows and watch the scenery below. But as it turned out, the very young-looking loadmaster had us sit down and buckle up a good 45 minutes before landing. I thought this was odd, but later Sparky explained that he was probably doing a check-out flight and had to follow the letter of the law. There was actually an older ANG guy who was kind of shadowing him the whole way, so I suspect this was the case. In any event, here is a picture of Larry napping on some bags at the rear of the plane. I like this picture.

Back in Kanger, Thomas, Larry, and I borrowed a truck for the afternoon and went for a walk up on Black Ridge. The day was a bit overcast but the view was still beautiful in its own way. The Arctic is much like the Antarctic in that photos usually have a clear sky, with scenery lit by a blazing sun. But the reality is that a majority of days are overcast with very diffuse light. Anyway, our truck was having behavioral issues but finally did make it up the hill. Today's fun fact: the trucks VECO uses at Kanger are old ones from Thule. Why not get new ones? Cost, plain and simple. They got the old trucks essentially for free, plus if you bring new vehicles into Greenland you have to pay a duty equal to the price of the vehicle. Greenland is a weird place, where sometimes there are punitive, prohibitive measures in place while at other seemingly arbitrary times, absolutely anything goes. It is also a very expensive place to travel if you're not Japanese. The US dollar really sucks versus the Danish krone. Currently, it's about 5.5 or 6 kroner to the dollar, which makes you think twice about ordering a beer at, say 35 kroner...

That evening, Sparky, Robin, Ed, and Ben from VECO put on a killer barbecue and invited us along with some other scientists and people working in Kanger. First rate affair this was, and good conversation among the group. In addition to Thomas, Larry, the VECO guys, and myself, a couple British glaciologists attended, as well as two Danes working in Kanger. One of the Danes was a girl doing the weather forecasting. Earlier in the week, since there had been a couple days weather delay, the ANG was getting anxious to go back to New York even though they hadn't picked us up from Summit yet. If that had happened, we would have either been stuck at Summit until the next "flight week", about 10 days later, or we'd have to arrange a pickup by the Kenn Borek Twin Otter which happened to be operating in Greenland at the time. I would have loved to stay another 10 days at Summit, but neither Thomas nor I could really afford to do so since we had a lot of work waiting for us at home. So we had to get out of there. Thankfully, the forecaster was very confident that the weather at Summit would clear in time for the Guard to make their return schedule, and convinced them to stay. And her forecast was perfect. However, Joe (aka "Solar Joe", who does solar/wind power) did get stranded at the Raven camp until the next flight period. The weather there was fine at Raven but they simply refused to pick him up. They certainly would have stopped to pick up a stranded Guardsman, especially since such a stop would have only added 1 hour to the flight. And it was especially strange since we stayed in Kanger overnight and didn't fly back to NY until the next day (hence the opportunity for the BBQ). But that's how it goes sometimes up there.

One final picture here, of some musk oxen that Thomas, Larry, and I happened upon during our hike. By the way, the Danish weather forecaster told us a humorous story during dinner about the Danish Prime Minister. While we were in Kanger, the PM was stuck at Station Nord, a Danish camp in the far northeast of the country. Evidently he had some important meeting coming up, and there he was stuck in the *middle of absolutely nowhere* with the dogsled teams. And in the meantime the Danish C-130 was at Kanger, waiting for the weather to clear at Station Nord. The official story, however, was that his pick-up was delayed by mechanical problems with the C-130. Not so, she said, in fact it WAS the weather. I don't recally why they were reluctant to blame the weather, but the C-130 was certainly not the problem...we saw it flying around Kanger during our stay. One last bit of trivia - Station Nord was originally built by the US as a weather observing station. Denmark later took over the station, mainly to have a permanent presence in the vast northeast part of the country, all of which is a National Park. The crew routinely does dogsled patrols which go quite a ways out from the station. For more on Station Nord, see here.