Greenland

Flat, White, Cold, Snowy. Same Same. Another great summer in the white north based from the NEEM ice core drilling site. 9 weeks at camp this year and a varied and interesting time it was too. Been rushing around like a headless chicken since getting back with both work and play hence the slight delay in getting photos online. But here they are, a load of snaps from the cold...

Some views on the flight in across the mountains of the North West Coast...

The airport taxi to take you the short distance from the C-130 to the main camp - as the camp is at 2500m (an effective atmospheric altitude of around 3000m at this latitude) people have to take it easy for the first few days!

"The Lost Penguin"

A little project of mine (one of many out in 9 weeks!) was to sculpt a bar outside for Saturday nights - and here it is. Nerys helped me finish it off in time and everyone enjoyed Vin Chaud in the sunshine on the night!

and the party that ensued...

We occasionally get visitors to camp - here's a white bird that popped in for a couple of days on its way past that Sam, my ornithologist in residence, is yet to identify...

Pretty much the standard view on the Greenland Ice Cap!

The view to the surface from a 4m long drop excavated my myself and Lizzie the Doc.

Table tennis night in the garage tent - an international affair!

Anne drilling a shallow core out at the firn air village - a little camp 2km from the main camp. We drilled 2 holes up to 140m deep to get more samples of the firn and to let the gas guys pump the air from the different layers.

A usual evening entertainment was to go for a skate ski on the imaculately groomed corduroy runway - 4km long and flat as you like.

The science trench is where the ice cores are initially processed. A team of scientists live down here for the day at a constant -18 degrees centigrade sawing, analysing and packaging the ice up for it's various owners. Each project and nation bids in advance of the project for a slice of the core and it gets divided up in the trench. Some analysis happens down here too including the famous Picaro and all it's problems!

Cathy cutting the ice into pieces.

Vasilis shaving and polishing the main core.

Ice cream is easy - just mix the ingredients and leave outside to freeze!

Mauro the Great - the camp salsa teacher...

Dorthe, the camp and project leader, is interviewed by a German TV news crew who popped in briefly on a crew change plane.

Nerys was very proud of this - although wasn't too pleased with it being hung below the Union Jack...

Brandon lets out an "OOoooooooo" as the ball doesn't quite go in the goal. Table football was played every day, but the warm up to saturday night was always the best games of the week - here the girls are having a match and Anne and Emilie are concentrating hard...

The ice core in the barrel.

An C-130 comes for a crew change and to drop and remove cargo.

Another little project of mine was to go crazy when grooming the runway with the pisty beasty and drive around the camp a few km to make what was affectionately called the mountain track. This idea proved to be very popular and was used every day by walkers, skiers and runners.

Stef gets blindfolded before trying to hit the pinada (spelling corrections appreciated!) - a S American game to get sweets from a box by beating it to a pulp. Nice.

Swiss Guy passes another block to finish the Igloo of the season.

Swiss night was celebrated in national style with swiss meal and music.

The Slums.

The East side of camp was where the shanty town had been temporarily erected- my tent is the second along on the main line. Not heated like the other main tents but cosy (ie small), private and peaceful most of the time. It takes a while to warm your sleeping bag up at -26 degrees C at the end of the season though!

Empty drums are left on stilts for winter to stop drifting.

Moody skies above camp before a snow storm.

Julia was a legendary bluegrass banjo player and we had several evening concerts and a bluegrass brunch one Sunday.

The sun gets lower and lower as August creeps on, the light better, and the temperatures colder.

Final packing of ice cores in boxes and onto pallets to be sent out to Copenhagen for analysis and a candlelit party in the science trench when the generator was switched off.

A glass of champagne is raised as a world record depth is drilled in one season.

Well done the Dream NEEM Team!!!

So there it is. Apologies for not getting these up sooner - hopefully this gives you an idea of what I was up to all summer. We had a great team out there once again and it was good to work with such an international mix - 35 people and 14 different nationalities within them. Bonkers.

And next - a trip to the Alps for some unfinished business.....