Müller Ice Cap Daily Report Monday May 26

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 Daily Report for 26 May 2025

A big flight day here in our camp, starting out with many hugs and goodbyes, as Alison, Fei, Nerilie, Anais and Jamie left camp for Eureka by the first of a total of four Twin Otter demobilization flights today. On next three flights we managed to ship out the remaining firn/ice cores from camp, our main drill tent, the eclipse drill, all firn-gas equipment, and last but not least our main generator. This generator weighs more than 500kg, so getting it on the Twin Otter took quite a bit of preparation, and both guidance and parking skills from the Twin Otter pilots, aligning the cargo hatch of the plane with our sledge, carrying a platform on which we had placed the generator just before the plane arrived! All told, the Twin Otter had 90 minutes on snow, before the generator and eclipse drill had been loaded onto the 3rd mission, a time just short enough that the Twin Otter could manage a fourth mission to camp as well. A big thank you to Troy and Liam our fantastic Twin Otter pilots!

 

What we have done today:

- We all said goodbye to Alison, Fei, Nerilie, Anais and Jamie who left camp by Twin Otter.

- Packed down shallow drill tent, as well as 5 personal tents.

- Handled 4 Twin Otter shuttle missions to Eureka for Muller camp demobilization.

- Rigged camp for upcoming adverse weather conditions.

 

We are 8 in camp (Etienne, Iben, Rebecca, Richard, Nicholas, Tessa, Julien and Bo)

 

Alison Criscitiello and Bo Vinther.

 

Wx at Müller: Overcast until the early afternoon, then sunny until the evening followed by light snowfall towards midnight. Wind from 240 deg true, gradually picking up to 10kn from 210 deg true. Temperatures between -15C and -11C.

 

Caption: Getting our main generator into a Twin Otter (continued) Picture 3: The sledge with the platform, ramp and generator was then pulled by Skidoo to the plane, and the generator pulled into the plane – a tight fit! Picture 4: This was done by having the Skidoo pulling first under, then through the plane using the door on the other side. Picture 5: The generator is inside the plane after the pilots had rotated it, while pulling it the final distance! 


Caption: Getting our main generator into a Twin Otter. Picture 1: A ramp had to be dug and groomed flat all the way to the generator. Then a sledge was fitted with a platform made from stacked flooring material, securely locked and reinforced against lateral sliding. Finally, a Twin Otter ramp was placed on top of the platform and the sledge reversed down the snow ramp. Picture 2: After the generator was placed on the platform, the Twin Otter lined up the cargo door with the platform and sledge, and a small snow ramp with more flooring material was constructed to exactly match the height of the cargo door. 



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