Thomas is cutting the top off the borehole casing at the bottom of the inclined trench.

It appears spring has arrived to EGRIP.

At noon, a very weak front passed over with some clouds for an hour, the wind changed from SW to SE and temperatures increased by 6 °C within half an hour. Now, we are looking at more tolerable temperatures, -18 °C by day and -28 °C by night, and this is 10 °C warmer than in the past week.

This has made work so much easier, and the energy consumption is going down as all heaters in the weatherports do not operate at full blast anymore. Work in the “inclined trench” is nearing its end. “Inclined trench” is our word for the 7 m deep slot in the floor of the drill trench where the borehole is. The last snow blocks have been cut and hoisted up and now a little fine tuning is needed before the drill can be mounted onto the tower.

What we did today:

1. Inclined trench extension is complete. The borehole casing is shortened.
2. Drill tower has been extended to 11.5m. There is 0.5 m from top sheave to roof.
3. German Basler flew one 3 hour mission today.
4. Horizontal band saw appears to be repaired. It cuts firn, half ice and frozen water.
5. Logging ice cores to 779.11 m.
6. Lamps, electrical panels revised and walls finished in the science trench.
7. Water vapour sampling site on line.
8. Raising skiway markers on NE part of skiway and NE lead-in. Raising skiway markers complete.
9. Moving snow between carpenter’s and mechanic’s garage.
10.  Finished cleaning around carpenter’s garage.

Weather today: Fine day with a short frontal passage at Noon. Temp. -18 °C to -33 °C.  Wind: 4 kt to 12 kt from SW, SE and S.
Visibility: Unrestricted.

FL, J.P. Steffensen