Beaver Lake, Wednesday, 2nd January 2002
Typically, strong katabatic winds off the ice-cap from the SW were the order of the morning. Work days in Beaver Lake don't really start till early afternoon, because of these unpleasant winds, especially when they are often laden with drifting snow. By mid afternoon the weather became clear, sunny and windless, a balmy 4 degrees even in the shade. It was a pleasure doing work outdoors in t-shirts. We did a lot; erecting the solar panel frame for Anya's seismometer 180m uphill to the west, moving other equipment up to the site as well. I discovered 11 drums of ULP after falling into a snowhole next to one of the submerged drums ! The rest were dicovered buried beneath 30cm of snow. The weather looked good at last for an evening jaunt up to the GPS and after a filling pepperoni pasta Tom and I farewelled Anya and enjoyed a very pleasant hike along the recently exposed bluffs to the west. Only a few clouds hung above McLaren's Ridge, but other than that the air was still and wonderfully clear. Tom was quite taken by the spectacular scenery. The "Dragon's Teeth" still had a healthy dose of plaque on them, but the shape was there. Maybe the dragon is wearing a mouthpiece ?
We arrived at the site at half an hour after midnight, the last mile was still quite soft snow and hard going. Straight-away we set into action. I downloaded the GPS from January last year, after the internal reset proved a success. Tom and I surveyed the antenna horizon mask while this was happening. The sun set below ridge to the south at 2.30 and the temperature plummeted from -5 to -11 degrees in a very short space of time. After much wiring gymnastics and hot brews (to keep the fingers warm more than anything else) the satellite phone was installed and the cardframe changed around. The DSCC booted and all looked good for a 11.30 trial out. I ended up crawling into the sleeping in the nearby pyramid tent at 7:20.
Beaver Lake (BVLK) Technical Inspection
Beaver Lake, Base Camp S 70°48'11" E 68°10'46"
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