Science!

Of course, just like in Antarctica, the reason we come to this inhospitable place is for science!

Those of you who have been reading this blog for awhile may remember that the two summers I was at South Pole coincided with an ice core drilling project. A lot of the people working on that project had previously been here to Summit to do the ice core drilling that happened here (which is actually how I first heard of Summit Camp and started to want to come to Greenland). That project is long-done but the site of the core sample is still marked with this imposing totem pole.

You might also remember that releasing weather balloon was a fun adventure at South Pole. And they  also release twice-daily atmospheric tracking balloons here at Summit. This one was a ridiculously great photo op, with sun-dogs going strong as the science tech brought the balloon out for release one evening.



There are two science buildings on station. One, set a half-mile to the south of the station so that it can avoid as much of the equipment and other air pollution created by camp operations, is called the TAWO: the Temporary Atmospheric Watch Observatory.

It's not a big space, but it's the primary work area of the two research scientists we currently have at camp. As the name suggests, the experiments/projects based there are primarily involving the atmosphere.

The other is the MSF, the Mobile Science Facility. (These names are kind of misleading, maybe. As far as I know, the TAWO is a permanent, not a temporary structure. And no one has been moving the MSF around since I've been here.) Which houses the rest of the research done here.

I haven't gotten to do formal tours of any of these buildings or learn about the science going on here in great detail (I just finally visited these two buildings while helping to do annual inspections on the doors and windows all over camp.) But if there are any other science related adventures while I'm here, I will post again!

Appreciation

I haven't posted many landscape pictures since it looks so similar to Pole here. But I do want to stop and appreciate the special beauty of the polar world....

A great sun-dog with my finger saving your eyes.

The is the shadow of The Big House (with two outhouses in the foreground) late in the evening when the sun was low. I love how it looks like a polar spider.

Working

I might end up doing more posts on working situations since that's where I spend most of my time up here, but here's at least an overview of my job at Summit as a Trades Helper.

We do have a building (called Smobile--I don't know why) that is kind of the construction office, though it doubles as a weight/exercise room, and I don't have a picture of it to share. But that's where we have our morning meetings, and the rest of the day most of us are generally working outside or elsewhere on station. It is a job that gets me more exercise than I've ever had in my life for this amount of sustained time, probably.

When we first got here, we spent a lot of time just trying to find and dig out (of the snow that blew in over the winter) and reorganize supplies in our very own Home Depot and Tool Crib.

This included locating and starting to dig in to the carpentry supplies; the carpenters usually end up building things just outside the door to Shmobile.

One of my first projects was digging out the side of the building and then assisting the electrician in fixing the wiring going into the micro-turbine power generator.

This picture was taken in the inside carp workshop, which is a good heated workspace, though not big enough for most of our projects. Here we were doing a safety training on how to operate a winch, as there will be work done in confined spaces (vaults) throughout the season and I've already gotten to be a vault attendant while an electrician did some underground (or, under-snow) work.

I've also gotten to assist on a bunch of carpentry projects. That's me on the left using a nail gun for the first time.

I also (along with my roommate and coworker, B) got fit-tested for a respirator by the station medic so that we can eventually do a painting project with some really toxic, specialized paint.

One day the electrician needed to drag a big set of wiring from The Big House out to the electric distribution shack, so five of us formed a chain gang (I'm second-to-last) and got the job done.

Probably the thing I've done the most of is shoveling. I'm on the right here after three of us (plus an ice-melter) spent a morning digging out the man-lift, Genie, from where it had been stored for the winter and consumed in snow.

That was totally worth it, as the following week I got to train as an operator of the lift. I'm on the left up in the cage at its full extension.

The view of camp from up there was spectacular....

That'll do for now, but I'll be sure to come back with fun pictures of any other particularly interesting jobs I get to work on....

Bears

For the first time since Summit came into existence in 1989, a lost polar bear wandered up into camp last summer. This is all kinds of bad: polar bears are happy to eat a human meal; by the time one made it up to Summit, she was hundreds of miles from any other food source and 10,000+ ft above sea level, exhausted, hungry, and disoriented; everyone in camp had to be herded into The Big House or The Green House and stay hunkered down (for almost two days); and she wouldn't leave. The summer crew did everything they could to scare her away and encourage her to go, but all of the smells of camp and food were too enticing. Evacuating her back to the coast was considered but was logistically and financially prohibitive. So, very very sadly, they ended up having to fly in hunters to kill her.

I would LOVE to see a polar bear up close, but because of the likely outcome of seeing one up here, I can't say I hope to while I'm at Summit. And polar bear safety has become a big thing up here. As mentioned in a previous post, everyone now has to sleep in hard-sided structures rather than tents, and all of the berthing structures have now been moved very close to The Big House so that if a bear is spotted, everyone can be corralled as quickly and safely as possible into the elevated station. And there is also someone on station now whose job is to stay up all night and scan the entire horizon for bears every 15 minutes.

There are bear safety/deterrent supplies in every building now...

And everyone who comes to base has a safety/awareness orientation session.

So hopefully that's the last you hear from me about bears as long as I'm at Summit. But then hopefully when I have a chance to travel a little bit about coastal Greenland, I'll possibly, just maybe, have a sighting that is safe for bear and human alike?

Around camp

A little more about camp, aside from where I sleep (and where I work, which I will get to!):

The Big House is the super-cozy space where we eat and hang out and where the operations team is centered. There's also a full bathroom and washer and dryer here, which is the main access for that kind of thing for about half of the 28 of us here right now. Many, many hours spent in this room already.

There are all these really sweet, homey touches, including windowsill plants! It's amazing what little things make such a big difference and aren't possible in Antarctica due to the strict environmental regulations of the International Antarctic Treaty, but that the Greenlandic government is much more lax about.

Here's a picture of the main room of The Big House from a different angle, showing the kitchen (on the left) and dish pit (on the right) in back.

The food here is AMAZING. Chef K is squatting behind the counter here, and this picture was taken mid-process of her setting out dinner. All she has out so far is dessert and a salad. But really, that could have been a full meal if you ask me!

The two other biggest buildings on station are The Green House (not a green house with plants; a building painted green) and the SMG (Summit Mobile Garage, where the mechanics work on heavy equipment), both pictured here:

As you can see, The Green House is now mostly underground, due to three feet of snow accumulation per year up here. It contains some berthing space, a lounge, an emergency kitchen, science offices, another full bathroom, and the medical office on station.

This is a far smaller station than South Pole, even though in other ways it looks and feels a lot like it. And there is a heavy emphasis on using equipment, including snow machines, as little as possible.

Next time: polar bears!

Sleeping

The sleeping situation at Summit is way less cush than in Antarctica. In McMurdo, everyone complained about having to have roommates in the summer (which is one of the reasons I preferred to be there in the winter). And at South Pole people get their own rooms, but they are notoriously tiny. Here, I am in a room that is the size of a South Pole room, AND I have a roommate. So basically I don't spend any time in my room except for when I'm sleeping. It's in a trailer that feels kind of like a train car and so is aptly called "The Caboose." Needless to say (?) it doesn't have indoor plumbing. This pic shows The Caboose on the right (the red structure); an even MORE utilitarian berthing structure in white in the middle ("The Flarm"), that has multiple bunks stacked three high all in one common space; and then, on the left, the outhouse that we all use. There are indoor bathrooms with sinks and showers  less than 1/4-mi away in The Big House.

Here's the indoor hallway in The Caboose...

...and my room, with my roommate, B, organizing some of her things. It's pretty not possible for us both to be standing up in the room doing anything at the same time, so if we're both in the room simultaneously, one of us needs to be in bed, and we've been doing a pretty good job of coordinating our comings and goings to accommodate that. And I'm just grateful we do have heat in The Caboose!

The outhouse pictured in the first shot is also the outhouse for the construction team, as our workspace (not pictured) is just to the right of The Caboose. I'll do a post on that later. Also, sometime this week, The Flarm and The Caboose are going to be dragged (by heavy equipment operators) closer to The Big House. They are trying to consolidate berthing structures for safety, as last year a polar bear wandered into the camp, and no one wants to be surprised by that. (More on that in another post, as well.) It will still mean walking out into the sub-zero temps to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, but at least it will mean a shorter walk from where I brush my teeth and wash my face before bed over to my actual bed. The constant daylight and shocking cold can be a real sleep-killer! But since I got mostly adjusted to the altitude and the new routine, my sleep has been pretty okay, and I'm grateful for that.

Summit Station

For those of you who haven't yet cracked open an Atlas to take a closer look at Greenland, let me help you out. The bits of land you see to the left of the island are northern Canada, and that little bit of land poking into the frame on the lower right is Iceland. The vast majority of Greenland lies above the Arctic Circle and its native people are Inuit. Though in a lot of respects Greenland acts as an independent country and would (as I understand it) prefer to be so, it is technically a department of Denmark, which is why you won't find it on a list of the countries of the world. Kangerlussuaq, the town I first flew into, is labeled on this map, about 1/4 of the way up the west coast of the island. And Summit Station, where I am now working until late June, is located at the red dot marked just above the L in the word Greenland.

We flew from Kanger to Summit South-Pole-style, in an LC-130 (Herc) piloted by the Air National Guard.

It was fun to be in one of these super-uncomfortable cargo planes again for the first time since I last left Pole, 2.5 years ago. Part of the cargo on our ride were two new snowmobiles for Summit--very exciting.

It wasn't too long into the flight when we said goodbye to the thawing coast and headed out over the ice sheet, no dirt to be seen again until we descend back to Kanger in June.

And after a quick, two-hour trip, we arrived. Summit is at 72-degrees latitude--definitely the furthest north I've been on the planet. Pictured here is the main building of the station, dubbed "The Big House."

The landscape looks pretty much exactly like it does at South Pole. Flat. White. Endless. :)

So that's where we are, now! You can read a lot more about the camp at this website. And I'll start telling more about various aspects of life here in coming posts. Till then!

Field trips from Kangerlussuaq

We have been told we are very lucky that we got to have a whole weekend in Kanger before our flight up to Summit. And I do feel lucky; it was so fun to explore around town! And then outside of town.

One evening after we finished our training session, I took the two-mile walk out to Lake Ferguson. I love this "Caution: Muskox" sign I saw along the way.

And somehow everything, even decomposing junk, is pretty in this sweeping, grand landscape.

The temperature next to the lake felt 10-20 degrees cooler than on the road leading to it, with the chill off of all that ice drifting over me. But it was a beautiful sight.

On Sunday, we took advantage of the rare opportunity to have a day off in Kanger and two of the full-time staff here were kind enough to take us on a huge adventure on Greenland's longest road (15+ miles! of graveled joy...which is to say there aren't any long-distance roads in Greenland; it's just a massive ice sheet with coastal towns along its edges that generally require boat or plane transport) to visit Russell Glacier and a spot further up at the edge of the ice sheet labeled "660." It was especially exciting for me because I got to drive the third vehicle, so now I can say I've actually driven Greenland's longest road. And what a road it was. We saw a bunch of caribou...Can you spot them?

And we passed by a lake with shores littered with "sea tomatoes"--apparently a type of bacterium.

It was weird and surprising to see just a few fir trees growing along the road at one point. I can't even imagine how long these guys must have been growing to be this big (maybe 6 feet tall or so?) above the Arctic Circle.

There is also the detritus of a long-ago plane crash along the road, looking very forlorn.

And then we started approaching the edge of the ice sheet, and: WOW.

We walked about a mile through terrific, exhausting wind to get to the edge of Russell Glacier, which was mind-blowing and TOTALLY worth the slog. So glad there are people in this picture so you can see the incredible scale of this ice.

We also got to watch it calving and the bergs floating down the outflow. Totally stunning.

We also drove to the very end of the road, to the 660 site, but I don't have any pictures of that as impressive as these, so let's just end on a high note. By the way, this area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and you can read about why that is, here. (Spoiler: it has to do not with the natural beauty of the place, but with its cultural significance to the native Inuits.)

With all this amazing exploring under our belts, it already feels like I've had an epic Greenland adventure, and my job hasn't even really begun. Next step: the journey to Summit Station!