Greetings everyone (sorry no pics this round),
I have made it safely to WAIS Divide and we have been hard at work here. Since arriving 1 week ago, we have busily been packing up and palletizing ice cores from last season so that they can be shipped out on LC-130 herc flights back to mcmurdo, where they'll stay until February when they will finally all get shipped back to the US on large shipping vessel.
All of the rest of the group has arrived here, and we are all getting along quite well. At the current pace, we should have all of last year's core packed up by early next week. The drillers are estimating being able to start drilling new core around Dec 12th, which lines up nicely with our schedule.
Once we start drilling new core, I will begin cutting and mounting small samples of ice on glass plates that will be used to study physical properties of the core. I used similar samples that were mounted 2 years ago, as the basis for my Masters Research.
Things are settling in otherwise. I celebrated my birthday at McMurdo, and Thanksgiving here at WAIS. Believe it or not, we had a huge dinner, replete with turkey and wine. Quite a feast. Christmas is only a few short weeks away, and then New Years. It seems that the season is already flying by (considering I've been away from home now for over a month).
It is truly great to be back here. I spent the last few evening walking around away from camp on the wide open ice sheet and it is easy to remember why I like studying this place. Don't get me wrong though, I do miss people back home too.
Obviously the very limited internet is back up here, but it is just that...very limited. I will do my best to update, but it will be sketchy.
I hope to post a few low res pics here in the near future so stay tuned.
so long from WAIS Divide, and I will write again soon.
-Antarctic John
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