Work, work, work

So what do I do up here?

My day start at around 1700 where I wake up, do my mails and other stuff
and at 1900 there is dinner/breakfast and then from 2000 to 0800 (night
sift) I work as a helper in the CFA lab.
I prepare ice cores in the science trench, witch is 8 meters below the
surface. It is about -20 degrees Celsius down here. We use a 3.5cm X 3.5cm
X 110 cm piece of the ice cores witch I log breaks, length, remove cracks
with drill liquid and clean the ends of the core pieces. Then I load the
pieces into a holder and places the holder on a melt head. From here we
melt the ice from the bottom up, and the melt water is analysed in the CFA
lab (Continues Flow Analysis). Here we detect different chemical signals
and I try to detect drill liquid in this complicated CFA system. Drill
liquid will make havoc in the system, that is why we are careful in
cleaning the the ice cores.
This goes on until 0800 where the day shift take over and we eat
breakfast/dinner, have a beer and then go to bed.

This should be a standard day - especially after I'm finally is feeling
okey. Altitude+jetlag(changing to nightshift)+an upset stomach really
played a number on me.

Ice dessert ind the ice desert

I'm staring to get used to the life in camp and the altitude. Being so fare
from civilization, this is very civilized. We have a awesome cook that
treat us with good food and loads of cake.

I sleep in "Red dome 2" witch is a huge round tent/structure where there
are room for 8, but we are only 3 sleeping there now. The only real
reminder that we are away from civilization is the toilet facilities. There
are 3 small tents where there have been dug a deep pit under. A flag is
raised so others can tell that the tent is in use.

Yesterday we had "Saturday" witch is a party day, half day of work and
half day of partying. The last ting that I had expected in the middle of
the ice-sheet was a dessert of ice-cream (coffee/Kalua) with strawberry's
among other fruits. Is was heaven!

Today I'm getting ready for the night shift. In the CFA lab where we melt
a pice of the ice and analysis the water for chemical traces, I am on the
night sift, 12 hour shift, so 1900 (7PM) is going to be 0700 (7AM) for me.

The weather is, so fare, been grate. Low winds and temperatures between 5
to 13 minus degrees Celsius. It is actually a problem for the drillers
since the temperature difference in the drilling trench and in the ice core
they are getting up is so big that the core quality is low. The have tried
to cover the drilling tent with snow to increase the albedo.

You can follow progress at camp in the field diaries:
http://neem.nbi.ku.dk/field_diaries/
Pictures and more on
www.neem.dk

Altitude sucks!

We had a epic trip in a Hercules plane - you know, they look bigger in the
films?! The look of the landscape as we passed it was breath taking, so
beautiful - I'm in the right line of work.

Anyway arrived safe and sound at the NEEM camp, offloaded the plane, and
some left as we arrived. A lot of hello's and goodbye's - and then lunch.

The altitude sucks! I feel out of breath and a bit nauseas. I'm toled it
should pass in a day or so. A trip to the loo, also did me a world of good.
The loo is a small tent, where you raise a flag when it in use, and then do
you businesses into a deep hole into the ice. The biggest problem in camp
is when people forget to take down the flag after they are done.

I'm taking it easy the rest of the day, and will not push it the next few
days - then I should be fine.

I'm really sad that I cant shear pictures with you, it is so stunning this
icy wasteland.

An adventure isn’t idle

After lunch, me and tree others borrowed a car and went to the Russel Glacier. It should have been a 15km drive, ~ half a hour back an forth, but taking a wrong turn and getting stuck in a sand dune a few times, extended the trip a bit.

But it was worth it!

The road it self was a love child between a roller-coaster and a bumbercar, a few times I had to say "av, the sealing hurts". But wow the glacier was beautiful, carving blue ice in front of us. And the weather, it is 19 degrees, we were standing in shorts and t-shirts in the burning sun, only the cold air from the inland ice could raise the hairs on our arms.

I took pictures, but due to the data limitation up here, they will properly fist be showed when I get back to civilisation.

Arrived safe and sound

After a 50 min wait in the Copenhagen air port, the plane took off and the flight was nice and easy. A bit bumpy at the end, but nothing serious.

Plans have changed and I'm only in Kangerlussuaq for one day instead of tree. The American Hercules plan have to go back to the US for maintenance due to the Icelandic ash cloud.

The time difference here is 4 hours, +3:00 UTC, so I left at 9:00 in Copenhagen and arrived 9:30 in Greenland.   

And the adventures begin again

Yes I'm starting the blog up again, and this time in English. The reasons for this is that while on the AMAP conference in Copenhagen April 2011, I meet a wonderful lady from the states what would love to use my adventures to show that there are people behind the dry numbers, and those people have fun. So now that I'm going to Greenland I'm gonna post to this blog in a langue that she can read with out a translator program.

"Greenland, whats up with that?" you might say. Well I'm working on my master right now (kandidaten), and my research is about drill liquid. When we are drilling on the Greenland icecap, we drill 3 km down, and to prevent the hole from collapsing we put a liquid inside the hole that have the same density as the ice.

Down in the ice there are a brittle zone, a place where the ice is of a certain composition that it brakes into a thousand pieces when we get it up. It is pressure and temperature differences that dos it. The drill liquid seeps into those cracks and give us a world of trouble when we melt the ice and analysis the melt water for chemical traces. I have made a detector that can see the drill liquid in our system and that way say when we get bad data and when we have good data. This detector is going to be tested in the field this summer.

I am leaving on the 10th of June and should be home the 18th of July. In this period I will send mails to this blog, that will be posted. Pictures I can not send due to the size of the files.

Det sidste indlæg

Nu er mit livs største eventyr overstået og jeg er kommet hjem. Hvad skal der så følges op på?



Dun-jakke

Da jeg købte alt mit ski/polar tøj i Stadium valgte jeg at købe en lækker dun-jakke. Det var en FEJL! Jeg brugte den i 2 uger og jeg er nu ved at sætte den på den blå avis. UNIS forhandler mærket Klättermusen, et svensk kvalitets mærke. Jeg købte mig en Klättermusen skaljakke som jeg har brugt lige siden. Lag på lag er nu vejen frem selv om det lyder som om at man kommer til at fryse. Det gælder om at ramme balancegangen mellem at fryse/svede, og der virker en dun-jakke bare ikke.


Toldfrit tøj

Der var en mulighed for at købe mit skitøj toldfrit, men det krævede at jeg blev registeret beboer der oppe. Desværre er reglerne blevet ændret så man skal være der oppe i mere end et halvt år for at blive registeret. Er man ikke registeret så kan man ikke få tolden igen.

Klimatisering
Danmark er meget varmt! Især når jeg er blevet vant til +2 grader er fint vejr til at gå i t-shirt i. Det er fugtigt, varmt og det er forbandet mange pollen i luften (høfeber er noget knald!)

Hvad har jeg lært?

Det første min veninde Tina spurgte mig om da jeg kom hjem var "Har du lærte noget seje skills?"

Hvad skal man dog svare til det?

Jeg har selvføgelig lært det som kurserne udbød. Hele processen fra snefnugget dannes og til at den bliver til glecher og glider ud i havet eller smelter. Alt den mekanik der sker der. Det andet kursus lærte mig hvordan havet, isen og atmosfæren arbejder sammen. Men det er jo kun det akdemiske.

Jeg læret også en masse kulture at kende, der var jo folk fra USA, Canada, Norge, Sverrige, Island, Grøndland, Færeøgerne, Findland, Tyskland, Østrig, England og Holland.

Sørgsmålet endte jeg med at svare på ved at lave en billede præsentation med godt 30 billeder fra min tur hvor jeg netop viste lidt om hvad jeg havde lært.

Førstehjælp
At binde knob
- bruge dem til at hejse folk op med
At bruge en riffel og omgås bjørne
At vejret kan være slemt
At maden kan være dyr
har lært at bevæge sig i moræne grotter
...og isgrotter
...og bygge snehuler
...og bygge igloer
at deltage i fridaygathering
- også udendørs
Hvor vi lærte at nordlys kaster skygger...
kajakpolo
at tage på scootertrips
- og opleve den smukke natur
Den kan også opleves på en walkabout
lærte også at vandet er MEGET koldt
lærte vi glecheren at kende på første fieldwork
.... om snowpits
at sætte pris på solen efter at have undværet den i 70 dage
at "Ta Sjansen" på inflamebel gods
I April tog vi til søs med skibet R/V Lance hvor vi lærte
at arbejde på isen
stort som småt
bygge skulbture af resterne
at livet er fantastisk når man sidder i en jakuzzi med isklædre bjerge i baggrunden
at isen kan revne når somhelst
og så skal man skynde sig
... og komme ombord
En polar ræv lærte at tigge efter mad - hvilket den var rigtig god til.

I sidst men ikke mindst: Jeg har gode venner her hjemme i Danmark.