My last full day at Summit

Joined: 23 Mar 2004 Posts: 72

I can’t believe this is my last day at Summit!! This has been an awesome experience, and the time has flown by quickly. I started off the day by going out onto the skiway with Kathy, the camp manager, in the groomer. She was hard at work getting the skiway ready for tomorrow’s flight landing. I got to driveJ !! She explained to me that the groomer pushes the snow down and presses all the air out of it. It makes it nice and hard so that the plane can land and take off appropriately. This is probably one of the most important jobs here at camp, because if the planes can’t get in and out, neither can the people!!

Here is an interesting piece of trivia about this skiway: according to the Air National Guard, it is the longest and highest up (about 2 miles) in the world!! They also “grade” how well the skiway is maintained. The better maintained, the more cargo is allowed to be shipped in and out, so that is another reason great care is taken to make sure the skiway is well maintained!

In the afternoon, I helped clean up the last remains of the satellite camp. It was weird to see it so empty. Almost no evidence that we were there, except for some holes in the snow!!

After we had everything collected and brought down to the cargo area, we had to put it all on pallets that will be loaded onto the plane. This is not as easy a task as it may seem at first thought. First of all, all the gear has to fit inside a 88”x 108” pallet (in this case two pallets were being used). It cannot go any higher than 96”. Then you have to put the netting on, and make sure it is pulled as tight as possible so that when the pallet is moved, nothing is going to fall out. Lastly, the whole thing has to be weighed, and cannot be over 5,000 lbs. Both of the pallets we are taking fall pretty close- 4,700 lbs. each!!!

This is Jack and Mac finishing the pallet

This a picture of us putting the lower netting around the pallet... not an easy task!

The pallet being weighed

Just before dinner, I went out to the weatherport to “organize” all of my things for tomorrow’s flight. Apparently it is believed to be bad luck to call it packing until the plane actually lands. This is because the weather is rather unpredictable, and even if the plane leaves Kanger, there is always a possibility that it would have to turn around and go back. Everyone here is anxious to get home (and I am SURE my students a anxious for me to get back too). It would be a huge disappointment if we couldn’t leave, so I won’t be using the “p” word anymore tonight, and not until the plane lands tomorrow!!!

After dinner, I spent some time talking to the researchers that came upon Monday and are just beginning their projects. It was quite interesting. One researcher named Alberto works for NASA. His project involves releasing a huge inflatable ball that contains a GPS system and tracking its movement. The really cool part about this project is that it is a test for what they really want to do with this instrument- send it to Mars to give us information about the landscape there!!

A while back I mentioned that in the 1990’s an ice core was taken all the way to the bottom of the ice sheet (2 miles down). Right now there are two researchers, Bob (University of Washington) and Greg (University of Nevada- Reno) who are working in the hole that the core was taken from. They are dropping an instrument down the hole that will make sound waves, and then measure how quickly sound moves through the ice. The instrument is attached to a huge winch that will lower it down slowly, and pull it back up when it hits the bottom. I think it is so cool that they will go down to ice that is 110,000 years old!

This is the winch that lowers the instrument into the ice core hole

This is the instrument that will be lowered into the ice core hole to measure how quickly sound travels through the ice

The last group of researchers are a German group. They are trying to install a seismograph in the ice to measure tremors as the ice moves. Unfortunately, they are having difficulties getting this project to work. It is important that the seismograph stays level, and that is incredibly difficult to do in ice. I hope they get it working while they are here!

It is pretty cool to me that there are so many different things going on at the same time here. I think it is amazing how much we think we know about our planet, but when you come to a place like this you realize how little we really do know!!

Cross your fingers for good weather for tomorrow!!