Tuesday, 20 Nov 2007
3177 meters above sea level.

After a late arrival last night, we slept for an extra hour or two to get ready for the day ahead. We are now at Site I, which is our first stop where we do more than a few hours of science; in fact we plan to spend a full day and a half here.

Today gave everyone a chance to work on the traveling conditions in the modules, vehicles and science gear. In particular, Helgard and Karsten took the opportunity to fix radar antennas that had been acting up in the last few days; Atsu worked at getting a measurement of the firn temperature at 10 meters depth; Stian replaced the power supply in one of the UAVs; Mary made measurements of the physical properties on the top 2 meters of the firn, and Glen, Tom, Lou and Stein set up the Eclipse drill for our first ice core. After a few hours of set-up time, and the replacement of a few parts, the drilling went very well, reaching 21 meters depth by midnight.

Everyone appreciated staying in one place for a day, to get some work done in warm areas, and dig into boxes which were buried on the sledges. All in all, it was a very productive day; we will get a few more small tasks done in the morning, before heading out on the trail again after lunch.

This contribution is from the log of the Norwegian-US Scientific Traverse Team, who are en route from Troll Station to the South Pole Station. Much more information can be found here.