Field updates from Muller Ice Cap

 Daily Report for the 19-20 April 2025 Weekend – and even Easter weekend! While the drill production is slowly increasing, we stopped working Saturday at 4 pm. After 2-3 weeks in the ice cap a shower sounded really nice. We used 4 hours and 80 liters of water showering in the Viessman freezer and turned into a hothouse. We moved the Webasto heater out in the cabin and with a pot of warm water and a camping shower head we all took a shower. After that we had an Easter Egg hunt in the drill tent   and a very eager group raced around finding colorful eggs and Kinder Eggs with toys. After that, we had pizza for dinner and played games. A really good evening.  Now the Viessmann is turned back into a freezer and the first five full ice core boxes are stored at cold temperatures.   What we have done: -Saturday: Drilled 7 ice cores from 26.39 m to 33.14 m below the present  surface. -Sunday: Drilled 14 ice cores from 33.14 m to 54.72 m below the present surf...

 Daily Report for the 18 April 2025   Although we still had some power generator problems we managed to drill most of the day. The firn (old snow that became glacial ice) in the cores becomes  more dense with fewer ice layers. Very promising 😊 At the Mountain View Suburb, the cable was respooled and the inclined  trench dug so they Eclipse drill is ready to go. We have decided to start the work in shifts tomorrow, but start easy with a Saturday and Sunday. What we have done: -Drilled 8 ice cores from 17.88 m to 26.39 m below the present surface. -Worked with power failure problems related to drilling. -Logged, weighed, O18 sampled and ECM measured bags 18 to 26. -Respooled the cable on the Eclipse winch. -Made the inclined trench for the Eclipse drill and the drill is ready to go.   Dorthe Dahl-Jensen   Wx at Müller: Blue sky with light overcast, wind 6km from 225 deg, temperatures between -26 to -24 deg C. Caption: A Müller ice cor...

 Daily Report for the 17 April 2025 As you might have noted from the pictures from camp drying of  boots and socks are reappearing events. Today we thought we had smoke in the front tent while eating lunch. It turned out to be water vapor from all the drying boots spread out all over the floor. Interestingly, we all agree that we don’t smell …..  Today we have had a lot of problems with our drills. The intermediate drill kept causing power failure… when pulling up with the winch. The shallow drill, the Eclipse drill also had problems with the winch motor. Grant, Kevin and Etienne used a lot of the time trying to solve the problems while David built a platform to protect cables, Emma, Jaime and Sofia started sampling the inclined trench for O18 and organized clothing for the wet drilling to come and Shari baked focaccia bread for dinner.   What we have done: -Drilled 7 ice cores from 9.07m to 17.88 m below the present surface. -Worked with power failure prob...

 Daily Report for the 15 April 2025 Again, a very sunny day with low winds. We continued preparing  all details in the drill tent. It just took a long time getting the last things done … balance the tower, terminate the cable, load test the termination, insert a tower holder for the pull out, make the push pole, ……. While all these last details where going on Ali, Etienne, Sofia and Jaime took the skidoo to the shallow drill site and repaired the Axion tent by sewing a ripped zipper at a door opening.   What we have done: - Spent the day making all the small last things for the drill trench -Restored the Burb (Suburb) shallow drilling site after the weekend winds. -Assembled the drill tower and load tested the cable termination - Got the drill head ready -Had two overflights of a Twin Otter   Dorthe Dahl-Jensen   Wx at Müller: Blue sky, wind 3-6 km from 300 deg, temperatures between -22  to -30 deg C .   Caption: Camp is cozy Capt...

 Daily Report for the 14 April 2025 A nice sunny day with low winds. Most of our effort went into  getting the drill tent ready for ice core drilling. The biggest task has been to dig out the inclined trench and with high music and enormous energy. Emma, Ali, Sofia and Jaime made the deep trench allowing the tower to tip from vertical to horizontal when the drill is at the surface. We reached the depth and just need some fine tuning of the stairs. There were several thick ice layers needing chain saws to cut through. Other tasks went on in parallel like setting up the saw, logging computer, drill computer, assemble and test the drill and much more. Also, the setup with solar panels needed some tuning that kept Kevin busy most of the day. What we have done: - Made the inclined trench -Finalized the setup of the logging table -Prepared the O18 scrapers and ECM and logging programs -Assembled the drill and tested it - Worked on tuning the solar system -Changed to ...

 Daily Report for the 12 and 13 April 2025 Our first Saturday in camp and we had decided to stop working  at 4 pm. But the wind was high from the morning, up to 33 km and we could not see from tent to tent so from noon we all stayed in the kitchen tent. We had a really nice evening with Kevin serving Baileys and Swiss chocolate and Shari Pizza. We played games like Werewolves, Beaver tales and Meyer. Both toilet tents collapsed in the wind and Kevin’s tent ripped. Around 11 pm the wind dropped to 24 km so it was safe to go to our tents and sleep.  Sunday morning we woke to sunshine and low winds. Wonderful. We had a peaceful morning before continuing work. We had a good day getting many tasks done. The big drill tent managed the storm What we have done Saturday: - Kept generators and Star link alive in the wind -Moved all drill boxes into the drill tent and marked and secured everything outside - Had a fun Saturday evening What we have done Sunday: -Groome...

  Daily Report for the 11 April 2025   We woke of to a very windy day with winds of 24 km gusting 32 km. The wind was from North – directly the opposite direction of the main wind direction so front on all structures. Luckily both the kitchen tent and the drill tent have back doors… We all worked in the drill tent furbishing the tent. We moved all the boxes in front into the tent before all were drowned in snow, finished the railing, installed the tower base and the winch, made drill and logging tables and started to dig the inclined trench. Shari served wonderful food for us beef strew for lunch with warm break and curry coconut lentil soup with vegetables and chicken.   What we have done: - Worked on furbishing the drill trench - Moved all drill boxes out of the drifts and into the drill tent. Dorthe Dahl-Jensen   Wx at Müller: Sunny with drifting snow. Wind 24 kn gusting over 30 kn, temperatures from -24 to -27 deg C. Captions: Walking between tents ...