Taylor Glacier

I am sending this blog from Lake Bonney, a permanent camp in the Dry Valleys and about an hour and a half walk from our field camp. Here is a review of the last few days.

The field site: The tunneling site is located about 1.3 km up glacier from our camp at Blood Falls. This site was selected after rigorous reconnaissance at the base and surface of the glacier. The site was inspected by a member of FSTP, which is the safety group here in Antarctica.

On Thursday Nov. 1 our crew began to tunnel into the margin of the Taylor Glacier. Day one was devoted to establishing a safe route up the ice apron. The apron is formed at the base of the glacier from ice blocks that calve off the glacier and meltwater that flows from the surface of the glacier. The ice apron is approximately 25 feet high.

On day two our generator, fuel, and remaining gear was slung by helicopter up to the field site. This was a precarious situation since the pilot had to contend with steep slopes on one side and 150 vertical feet of glacier ice on the other. Lucky for us there was minimal wind and good visibility. As the load was slung in Brent and I remained on the ground to direct the pilot and ensure a safe delivery of the equipment and a safe exit for the helicopter. During the drop we were huddled together directly beneath the helo in radio contact with the pilot as the sling load was released. The remainder of the day was spent preparing a work space at the base of the ice. At approximately 6:00 p.m. on Nov. 1 we penetrated the glacier and began constructing the tunnel into the vertical wall of ice. On this day the team made it about 2 m into the ice before returning back to camp.

Scott tunneling through the glacier on day two.

Day three: Since we penetrated the ice we have shifted to using electric chainsaws, and for reasons I cannot explain they seem to work better at cutting ice than the gas powered chainsaws we used to build the stairs up to ice apron. We are currently working in teams of three for 6 hour shifts. The usual configuration is one member chainsaws, one member clears the ice with a mechanical hammer drill, or by hand using a large ice chipper, and one person remains on the hillslope as a spotter. We switch jobs quite often (about every 20 minutes) since the person who is spotting usually gets cold real quick since they are not moving. In order to stay warm and energized it is necessary that we have a high calorie diet. I think we consume nearly 5000 calories a day, much of this is chocolate! Many people gain weight while on the ice, I think Brent’s record is 11 lbs., but I do not think this will be the case with our group. We calculated that we will remove nearly 80 metric tons of ice when we are finished, although chainsaws make the cuts we still must remove the ice by hand. For this reason I doubt any of us will gain any weight, but we could really use some fat reserves to stay warm.

We are all very excited about our progress thus far, at this rate we will hopefully be into the glacier and tunneled down to the bedrock and basal ice layers by the end of November. My personal goal is to be tunneled in by Sean and I’s birthday’s which are November 28th and 29th, respectively.

Hope all is well in the northern hemisphere. We still have a good amount of snow on the ground here and it has been fairly cold (temps seem to range from -20oC to 0oC daily). We are all working hard and miss those at home.