Departure of the traverse

Chris and Hans Christian depart on the traverse.

Our carpenter, Christian, needs beams to continue his work on the covers of the 6m deep vertical shafts to the future trenches. These covers will serve as floors of the tents we intend to set up on them. In these floors there will be hatches cut to the precise dimensions of the elevator (in one shaft) and the staircase (in the other).

However, our camp supply of wood sits 135 km away on the sleds we had to abandon during the traverse to EGRIP last year. Today at 1450, Hans Christian and Chris departed EGRIP with a Pistenbully to go and pick up these sleds and at 1830 they were 43 km away from EGRIP making 15 km/h. If all goes well, they will be back Tuesday.

Here in camp, the duty roster of checking balloon pressure every hour, day and night, is coming to an end. Tonight at 2100, we stop refilling the balloons, and tomorrow we will begin to actively deflate the balloons. We keep our fingers crossed for a positive outcome.

What we have done today:

1. Repairing frozen pipes in drinking water supply.
2. Packing and departure of the traverse.
3. Finishing lid/floor for the elevator.
4. Pumping air to balloons, 3 min every hour.
5. Setting up new shower cabinet.

Ad. 1: Our main generator stalled at 0300 this morning, and before we had it going again, the water pipes froze. We are not concerned about the the generator, and the pipes were fixed in an hour.

Weather today: Clear, hazy with diamond dust. Temp. – 21°C to -27°C, Wind 10-15 kt from W to WNW.  Visibility: 2 km, due to haze.

FL, J.P. Steffensen