August 12, 2006 - Collecting Instruments in Linnedallen Options

[Maggie_Kane]

Today was a pretty tough day for all of us. We needed to go far up-valley and collect the equipment that needed to come down for the winter. It was also very wet and cold out. It really tested us. I took very few pictures because of the conditions and the workload, but have a few fun ones. There was a moment when the sun shone in onto the Kongress area, and cast a rainbow into the Linne valley.

Ray of Sunshine


The glacier group had to hike the farthest and download data onto a computer…in the rain. This required Al to lay on his stomach on the ice and stick his head inside a garbage bag with the computer (don’t try this at home!). When I asked him how that went, he said the screen looked good and bright in the darkness! That is a great example of how we keep our spirits up even when it is a miserable day. The others had lots of data collectors to gather up on the glacier as well, really pushing them all to the limit.

Ankle Twisting Rocks


Bennet, Heidi and I charged up valley to the Little Ice Age Moraine to collect velocity and depth data, take down the gauging station and dismantle the ISCO water sampler. We then had to load all this up on our packs and hike back. This made for some pretty lumpy looking loads! As you could see in the picture above, the very rough ground is hard to hike on, especially with heavy loads. It also really tears up our boots!

Bennet Loaded Up


We did our best to keep the fun rolling. Nothing like a good rock trundle (sending a boulder down a steep slope) to raise our spirits! A little wrestling never hurts either… anything to stay warm and get the job done!

The Clash of the Titans (battery vs. ISCO sampler)


I did pretty well too, but just started cursing near the end when I fell over trying to change out my soaking wet socks! The warmth of Isfjord Radio and homemade pizza for dinner was a welcome end to a challenging day.

Me Hauling Gear


Tomorrow is our last full day in the field, and we hope for clearer skies. We will be doing any last fiddling to our instruments that will stay the winter, deflating the boats and putting cleaned equipment into boxes for storage at UNIS and to bring back to Massachusetts. Although we are all very tired, we hate for the field time to end; we have spent nearly all day every day outside for a month and it is hard to imagine stopping and going back to school.