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| A first image from the heli, testing the GoPro cameras. We were working on the big floe next to the ship (by till). |
14/09/2011
view from above
11/09/2011
More fog, bears and cracks - and now snow
quick update.
So we've been back in the ice for three days now, and the Arctic has not exactly been forthcoming. We've been fogged in almost constantly - and whenever the fog teases us by opening up a little bit it starts raining, and lately snowing quite heavily. Yesterday a big solitary bear circled the ship for a bit and then seemed to settle just at the edge of the fog line, as if to say, you might not always see me - but I'm here!
Nick and I just gave an interview to the Greenpeace video man, in basically a blizzard - so I'm hopeful we'll look pretty hard. The southafrican media team has been really unobtrusive and pleasant to work with.
Apart from fog-inhibited aerial imagery we've been able to do some good work - Will's been busily scanning, yesterday I managed to collect over 1000 survey points, the result is pictured here.
Nick extracted some impressive samples with the corer and the crew has continued drilling like pros.
So, all is good here, tonight we'll be heading back to Longyearbyen to pick up Sun and Time Magazine representatives... should be an interesting next leg...
bye for now and somebody please send us up some sunshine - or at least a fairly powerful fog dispeller.
oh, and there should be a fairly big piece in the independent on sea ice (maybe mentioning us) tomorrow
07/09/2011
Bears, Cracks and Fog
(by Till)
We just had a few hours of port in Svalbard, exchanging media crews - reuters and arte have gone off the ship and been replaced by 2 southafrican journalists.
Unfortunately blogging isn't the easiest matter since we don't have internet out on the ice, so i've got to get this out before we leave the longyearbyen fjord...
any volunteers to manage our blog whilst we're out on the ice?
we would email you the content and you'd have to put it up for us... get in touch via my ship's email address: camp2@myas.greenpeace.org
weather is predicted to be absolutely disastrous the next few days, so we're steaming up the west coast of svalbard to seek shelter in ny olesund (or something like that) until it clears up and then we'll cross the framstraight into the ice at a 81N 1E.
This first week has been pretty intense, reuters and arte only really had three days on the ice so they were constantly trying to get shots, interviews etc. At the same time we were coordinating 6 different instruments on the ice and up to 15 people working. Combining that with constant bear presence, extremely thick fog and at one point an ice floe breaking up like quicksand beneath our feet made for quite exciting days.
But who would be better suited to write about these things than the pros from greenpeace and reuters so please check out the following links...
http://twitter.com/#!/jossgarman
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/bearing-down-us-80-degrees-north-20110906
(that picture is actually from our expedition...)
and look for gerard wynn's stuff over the next days on google news e.g
I'm losing connection any second now so byebye and hopefully speak soon !
We just had a few hours of port in Svalbard, exchanging media crews - reuters and arte have gone off the ship and been replaced by 2 southafrican journalists.
Unfortunately blogging isn't the easiest matter since we don't have internet out on the ice, so i've got to get this out before we leave the longyearbyen fjord...
any volunteers to manage our blog whilst we're out on the ice?
we would email you the content and you'd have to put it up for us... get in touch via my ship's email address: camp2@myas.greenpeace.org
weather is predicted to be absolutely disastrous the next few days, so we're steaming up the west coast of svalbard to seek shelter in ny olesund (or something like that) until it clears up and then we'll cross the framstraight into the ice at a 81N 1E.
This first week has been pretty intense, reuters and arte only really had three days on the ice so they were constantly trying to get shots, interviews etc. At the same time we were coordinating 6 different instruments on the ice and up to 15 people working. Combining that with constant bear presence, extremely thick fog and at one point an ice floe breaking up like quicksand beneath our feet made for quite exciting days.
But who would be better suited to write about these things than the pros from greenpeace and reuters so please check out the following links...
http://twitter.com/#!/jossgarman
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/bearing-down-us-80-degrees-north-20110906
(that picture is actually from our expedition...)
and look for gerard wynn's stuff over the next days on google news e.g
Arctic ice breaks up as polar bears stalk ship
I'm losing connection any second now so byebye and hopefully speak soon !
17/08/2011
Sometimes to Entrust is to Abandon
(By Nick)
Karl of CED shipping has picked up 5 of 6 boxes of scientific equipment this morning. Till realized at the last moment that he needed more time prepping the Magna-Probe, and we need a US to UK adapter plug to charge one of its batteries. For sure, I have one at my house and will bring it tomorrow. All the gear should leave from Heathrow on Friday according to my diary. Directly I have spoken with Norwegian Air to change my flight back from Longyearbyen and to add another bag for check in. We'll certainly need more space now that we have to carry the batteries for our gear as THEY CANNOT BE SHIPPED. Tomorrow I'm going to see how the ultrasonic sensor works at the Vet College. Things have gone off without a hitch so far, and we have rarely had to extemporize. For sure, not all the posts will be this mundane, so please bear with!
Karl of CED shipping has picked up 5 of 6 boxes of scientific equipment this morning. Till realized at the last moment that he needed more time prepping the Magna-Probe, and we need a US to UK adapter plug to charge one of its batteries. For sure, I have one at my house and will bring it tomorrow. All the gear should leave from Heathrow on Friday according to my diary. Directly I have spoken with Norwegian Air to change my flight back from Longyearbyen and to add another bag for check in. We'll certainly need more space now that we have to carry the batteries for our gear as THEY CANNOT BE SHIPPED. Tomorrow I'm going to see how the ultrasonic sensor works at the Vet College. Things have gone off without a hitch so far, and we have rarely had to extemporize. For sure, not all the posts will be this mundane, so please bear with!
15/08/2011
Preparations and Unequal Comparisons
(By Nick)
I remember vaguely something about Robert Falcon Scott believing the worst part of any expedition was over when the preparations were finished. For sure, he died in Antarctica, so Till and I have been trying to enjoy getting ready for the trip, and all its last minute, minute tasks.
This involves prepping and obtaining scientific equipment, such as an ultrasonic sensor from the Veterinary College. They use this instrument to test cows for pregnancy - we'll be using it to measure brine channel volume in the sea ice. Till is busy trying to secure a surveying station, with which we can produce beautifully accurate profiles of the ice surface.
I learned yesterday how to use the conductivity instrument and the way to calibrate it is get a special solution called HI-7033. With a little luck the place we can get some HI-7033 is our own lab at DAMTP or perhaps the Chemistry Department. The cold weather clothes are packed in metal boxes and we have taken a gas powered drilling head to Karl at CED Shipping, earlier than the other gear, in Over (no-man's land Cambridgeshire) because it is HAZARDOUS MATERIAL.
Our secretary Doris informed me today that the flights from Longyearbyen to Tromsø at the end of the expedition are for sure full. What this means is I will get to enjoy a few extra days to get my land legs back by hiking around Svalbard at the end of our voyage on the Arctic Sunrise.
I remember vaguely something about Robert Falcon Scott believing the worst part of any expedition was over when the preparations were finished. For sure, he died in Antarctica, so Till and I have been trying to enjoy getting ready for the trip, and all its last minute, minute tasks.
This involves prepping and obtaining scientific equipment, such as an ultrasonic sensor from the Veterinary College. They use this instrument to test cows for pregnancy - we'll be using it to measure brine channel volume in the sea ice. Till is busy trying to secure a surveying station, with which we can produce beautifully accurate profiles of the ice surface.
I learned yesterday how to use the conductivity instrument and the way to calibrate it is get a special solution called HI-7033. With a little luck the place we can get some HI-7033 is our own lab at DAMTP or perhaps the Chemistry Department. The cold weather clothes are packed in metal boxes and we have taken a gas powered drilling head to Karl at CED Shipping, earlier than the other gear, in Over (no-man's land Cambridgeshire) because it is HAZARDOUS MATERIAL.
Our secretary Doris informed me today that the flights from Longyearbyen to Tromsø at the end of the expedition are for sure full. What this means is I will get to enjoy a few extra days to get my land legs back by hiking around Svalbard at the end of our voyage on the Arctic Sunrise.
14/08/2011
Quicest for a good title
Finding the right catchy, witty yet serious, epic yet lighthearted blog title is proving somewhat of a challenge - here is a selection of shortlisted candidates:
- of ice and men
- into the white
- the great white nothing
- the great white violence
- withering ice
- men of ice
- no country for ice men
- no country for old ice
- the terrors of ice and darkness
- sunrise in the arctic
- on the ridge of glory
- hearts of ice
- sea ice and climate change
- lifting the lid
- the darkness and the horror
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