Geological treasures - history in the landscape.

No change - or if any, for the worse. Foggy, cold drizzle, enough breeze to add a chill factor and drive the drizzle into your face and elsewhere on the trek to the drum and with the little things that matter exposed.

So - 13 of us, temporarily marooned in a tent complex in a geological treasure chest. The camp is close to the remains of a 350 million year old coral reef with fossils from before fish had teeth. Channels, canyons and lakebeds everywhere, from the ice age and the great melt - the valleys were formed by moving ice and water as the huge ice sheet melted. This site was under about 2 miles of ice which formed lakes as it melted and then rivers that carried deposited silt on to flood plains and down to the sea. There are huge rocks scattered around that were carried on the surface of the ice and dropped through as it melted - called, not surprisingly, drop-stones. Berrimilla's Rock is a piece of the original coral reef that broke off an exposed ridge perhaps 10,000 years ago and rolled down to its present spot.

And the camp is beside the Haughton Crater, formed about 39 million years ago by the impact of a meteorite estimated to have been half a mile across. The meteorite vaporised as it impacted, bringing up the geological strata from a mile below the surface and melting it in the explosion so that as it cooled it became breccia - a complex mix of once molten fragments and cooling vapour that is a a grey and rough rock - until you cut it and polish the surface to reveal the complexity of the structure of the rock. The crater was formed in a few seconds as the molten fragments spread outwards at a kilometre a second. Pascal is, among other things, a geologist and he is taking samples this year for analysis to try to establish the composition of the meteorite impactor.

The end of time

Here we (still) are in a sort of ghostly hibernation - the camp metabolism down to a minimal heartbeat, the tents unlit and shadowy wraiths in slo-mo animation inside. I can see 7 laptops some with attendant hooded and earphoned face glowing and flickering with reflected light of a movie or computer game. The little generator toiling away outside, one stove going in the big mess tent just keeping it habitable. Earlier, the rain was clattering against the sides of the tent, blown by the gusty 25 knot wind bringing polar cold from the north. A short gap a few hours ago when it looked as if the aircraft might fly and I packed my bags for the third time - wrong! The wind has died to a much more gentle blast but the cloudbase has not lifted.

So here we sit. The C130 should be in Resolute by now and is due to leave again tomorrow. Doesn't look as if we will be on it unless it can wait for us and that means a whole lot of gear that is still here will need to be sent south by commercial flights when it can be moved out. Us too.

The camp gets its water from a stream a few hundred metres away. In normal operations, there's a water pump to get it up here. Not any more - all the pumping gear is packed away and we do a water run when heeded with jugs and big urns. Noodles and freeze dried food - back in Berrimilla mode for me but the food ain't so good here. One way I can certainly contribute is to make some suggestions as to what to bring next time. The only thing that gets cooked is water - big kettles on the tiny Coleman stove - and the hot water is kept in 2 big thermos containers and of course, is never hot enough for a good cup of tea! Two teabags and a long jiggly soak is the go, for a brownish stain in the water in my slowly collapsing paper cup that will I keep recycling until it dies.

Pascal is writing his reports, John and his people are at the moment out in the cold fetching more fuel drums and finishing all the close-down jobs that can be done without squeezing the heartbeat out of the place while we are still living here. The others are sleeping or here with their laptops.

It is beginning to get darker at night - it is now 2315 and quite gloomy inside the tent - I can only just see to type. The 300ft cloudbase doesn't help.

Outside, bleak, wet, misty magnificence. I will post more photos when I have a proper link again. The mess tent in what I hope will be its last few hours of animation before it slowly becomes a crystal cave in the dark of winter.

Perhaps tomorrow...

This and that - passing the time

0400 Friday 13th

Yesterday evening just for fun, I pulled in the GRIB weather for Devon Island and Resolute. It was giving 10 kts from the north at midday today - perfect for flying out. I did not specify precipitation in the file...and it has been blowing about 30 kts and gusting ever since, with heavy rain. The rain is abating and the cloudbase is now about 1000 ft but still gusty 25+. Will be an interesting day!

There are still two hardy people camped out in personal tents - everyone else has moved into one of the sturdier permanent tents . I've just braved the frigid blast to go across to the mess tent and make some coffee (works better than tea when the water is tepid!) and Ben is sitting next to the stove, hoodied (twice, I think) and headphoned watching movies on his laptop. Slept all day yesterday, he said - what else is there to do? Actually, he worked his butt off yesterday. The kids from Grise Fiord are all wired into the information age - iphones and laptops - and they find it easier to pass the time than I do.

An over simplified explanation of the politics: HMP is just outside an area owned by the native peoples of Nunavut which includes the whole of the Haughton Crater. The Grise Fiord community come across from Ellesmere Island to hunt and fish in the bays and inlets just to the north. Nunavut now has a capital, Iqaluit and, at least in theory, all the communities are administered from there. I suspect that it is just in theory. Each community speaks for itself as far as I can tell, and with some force. Just as with native title areas in Australia, permission is required to enter native lands and NASA has to go through the process each year in order to gain access to the Crater. In return, the Project employs local people and whenever possible uses community facilities - the Co-Op shop and the Co-Op hotel in Resolute, for instance.

And the rain is back. We will call Resolute in a couple of hours and we are on standby for whatever is available given the conditions. The C130 is due into Resolute tonight - no predictions at this stage but we did learn 2 years ago that things change amazingly fast up here.

Tomorrow will be the second anniversary of Berrimilla's transit of the ice in Franklin Sound - that scarily beautiful 0300 pinkout with a solid ice centre that, to me, marked the critical point in our NW Passage transit. A sort of full circle if we actually make it to Resolute this time!

Another night in the boonies

The fog has lifted - just a bit. About a mile vis, lots of crosswind. No aircraft available - we are to call Polar Shelf again in an hour. Still a chance we could get out today but I think it's slim.

The best laid plans - while setting up to send the last one via Iridium I discovered that when I loaded the Sailmail application into this computer for this trip I forgot to transfer Berrimilla's address book and Sailmail only recognises addresses in its address book. And the blog address is complicated and I could not remember it - senile old fart that I am. So a phone call to my sister Isabella in the UK and she fired up my Gmail account and extracted the address from that. Egg all over face, but embarrassment tempered by fix.

The Humvee is jacked up on blocks for the winter - but not yet sealed. The mess tent still has power, the Palace of the Imperial Throne is cold and windy but functional - makes one wonder how the Franklin and Shackleton people managed in the icy and open conditions they faced, and for months at a time. The parts shrivel in sympathy! And I think about the need to go outside the shelter to empty the pee bucket on Elephant Island (and what to do about those who cheated) and I wonder how I would have survived - if at all. Hmm.

Everyone finding things to do - watching movies on their laptops, sleeping, writing blogs...again, how did the early survivors cope with the unknown - how long would it last; how to pass the time, day after day; peoples' idiosyncrasies that are ok when things are going well but grate under stress.

So who is left here - Steve Braham's team of communications heroes: Steve, resident super boffin, Parna, Isiah and Vik; the support team of John Schutt - amazing man and central pillar of the camp (Google him - astonishing career) with Jesse and Travis and the three kids hired from the Grise Fiord Community - Ben, Terry and Salya; then there's Geoff, the cook who now has no kitchen and Pascal and me. And, of course, Ping Pong.

Just heard no flights today - if we are lucky, then early tomorrow. We have all day to get to Resolute and load the Herc. Vancouver Saturday evening if all goes well.

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The logistics of evacuation - if you follow...

Fogbound and then some on the edge of the crater. Visibility about 50 metres in drizzle and wind. Cold, damp and dismal physically but still exhilarating to be here. We have closed everything down except one tent and one small generator - no running water, Coleman stove for hot water for coffee or instant noodles, nuts and raisins and biscuits to go and that's it. We have all the food stored in the Humvee and if we really do have to stick it out here we can unseal it and retrieve more food. Final close down when we know about the weather and available flights.

No internet, so this via Iridium if I can get it to work...

There are 13 people and perhaps a ton of gear to get out to Resolute - tight squeeze but might just be possible in two Twotter flights if we can get them into here. Ideally, a third flight to take gear to Humvee Beach just south of Domville point on the west coast of Devon Island and to retrieve a snowmobile left there with the Humvee after the North West Passage drive (google it or www.marsinstitute.com and find a link).

There is an Air National Guard C130 due into Resolute early tomorrow to load us and the gear bound for NASA Ames and depart on the first leg to Yellowknife in the evening - a deadline we really do need to meet if we can because the Herc is a one-off trip and things can get expensively pearshaped if we miss it. If we make it, I'll get off in Vancouver and make my way back to Ottawa for my flight back to Sydney.

So that's it - for the mo!. No more pics until I get somewhere wired again. If I can get this to go, then I can keep all y'all posted as things develop.
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The logistics of bodily function

People keep asking!

The poo is incinerated and the pee is flown out to Resolute where it goes into the sewage system. There will be 70 odd gallons of frozen pee here in the dark of winter waiting until the start of next season when it will be flown out on one of the empty flights returning from camp set-up. The blokes stand on the cooler box and let fly, the women use a jug in the privacy of the Palace and airlift it to the drum.

Kind of cool to think that there will be a bit of me up here for the winter.

Winding down

We are 5 days short of the second anniversary of Berrimilla's closest approach to Beechey Island. Eerie feeling!  We were about 40 miles south (so only 60 or so miles from here)  when we called it off and turned east. The weather that day in Barrow Strait was awful - freezing rain, about 30 knots from the east and ice closing in and an unhelpful forecast.

One for the wall:
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/08/10/4861610-galactic-jewel-shines-in-its-setting

Today should be the final day for packing up the camp. We're down to the minimum in the kitchen, most of the comms are down with just the C band working to keep this internet link up for as long as possible, all the science is done, greenhouse comms set up for the winter and all but the essentials packed away. Everything must be packed dry because any moisture will freeze and possibly destroy the equipment and tents etc will mildew. There will be about a metre of snow and ice in winter. Then the whole place must be made bearproof - even the Humvee where the remaining food is stored is vulnerable to a hungry bear and the doors must be cargo-strapped.

If we get flights today, some of the 13 people left here will fly out with as much of the gear as will fit and tomorrow all the rest of the people and gear. All depends on the weather - we could end up camping in the mess tent living on noodles until Polar Shelf can get to us with aircraft. Here's the forecast:

http://www.flightplanning.navcanada.ca/Latest/gfa/anglais/Latest-gfacn37_cldwx_012-e.html?Produit=GFA&Region=37&Langue=anglais&NoSession=NS_Inconnu&Mode=graph

At 0430 (I'm in boat mode so three hour sleeps...) we have 8/8 at 2000 ft and 20 miles vis and it's not raining yet so flyable. We will hear from Resolute in about 3 hours.

Watch this space - the Mice are in charge.

News from the Throne Room.

This may be the last email until we get back to Resolute - still taking down the camp and the internet comes down in an hour or so. More pics here
http://picasaweb.google.ca/alex1whit/TraverseThroughTheHaughtonCrater#
and I will keep adding to it until the comms go. The traverse would take all the cliches to describe - bright sunshine, awesome, breathtaking, gobsmacking amaaazing. All that stuff. And pretty cool too. We got back to camp after midnight. The crater is a very complex feature and I cannot do it justice - Pascal, on the other hand, knows it intimately and it was fascinating to listen. There's an old coral reef in the rim...
For the curious - the poop tent I took down yesterday was the backup - it housed the Second Throne. Today we took down the Poo Palace, after moving the Imperial Throne into the shed containing the about to hibernate ATVs. Pic will follow eventually.

It's astonishing what you can get into a Twotter. We had 3 flights today taking gear and people out - probably none tomorrow as the forecast is bleak. High wind and rain. Hoping to get everything out on Thursday.

More photos

More added to this album
http://picasaweb.google.ca/alex1whit/PascalAndTheRover#

Sorry no captions yet - wireless link way too slow - may be able to add them later or when back in Resolute.

PS

My job - at the bottom end of the pecking order - has been to take down the poop tent.

Did I really write that? Bleeah.

Down Under Mars on Devon

Berrimilla has her own rock in this version of Mars
G Earth  Berrimilla Rock @ 75 26'50.53N 89 54'08.50W.

Everyone working flat out to dismantle the camp ready for pull out over the next two days. Weather looks set to get nasty again and some urgency so these will be very short.

The photos:
The Rover team
End of a long and ultimately successful day
Ping Pong who runs the show - she's an Australian cattle dog.

Finally eiowt of there

As the Canadians might say. Stunning, gobsmackingly beautiful cold desert landscape and the Camp is a buzz, literally. They are doing some interesting work. I'll try to describe as I get time to write these.
Photos here
http://picasaweb.google.ca/alex1whit/ToHMP#
http://picasaweb.google.ca/alex1whit/PascalAndTheRover#

I've been checked out on an All Terrain Vehicle aka a quad bike in Australia. Driving and safety rules are sensible - helmet, radio and shotgun if going out of sight of camp, always at least in pairs and usually threes with the most experienced front and rear. To preserve the landscape as much as possible, never - ever - go off the track. Tell someone where you are going...

The Haughton Crater is a mile or so away - I'm hoping to drive down into it tomorrow if anyone can be spared to be the lead traverse and show me the way.

Midnight Sun part 2

Gmail dropped the pic.

The Midnight Sun

Unremarkable except that I was beginning to think I'd never see it. The FZFG has dissipated for the moment along with the DRZ. Yeehaa! Now it has to stay dispersed until 0800 when everyone is awake and back in the office ready to fly.

We are too far north to see the recent spectacular northern lights displays across sub Arctic Canada (you need darkness to see them...) but this is a good substitute. Enjoy it with me.

One for my aircraft nut mates

You know who you are! This is the wreck of an Avro York - sad. The York was a commercial airliner and freighter based loosely on the Lancaster bomber airframe. (There are 2 Lancasters here somewhere too) I remember seeing Yorks by the hundred flying over my grandmother's house during the Berlin Airlift - probably my first lesson in aircraft recognition was distinguishing Yorks from Tudors and DC3s. The photos are a bit limited, I'm afraid - was raining and I was watching for bears and short of time as well. Full sized versions when/if I ever get out of here and can send them to anyone who wants them. I might try to get better pics tomorrow if things improve.

This one crashed in 1955 0r 1956 as far as I can discover from the internet. Here's one link and there are others:
http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=88843
From the photos in this site, the wreckage has deteriorated significantly since they were taken. It would not be difficult to recover it but expensive. The wings and nascelles are substantially intact, most of the two main tailfins and elevator are there but mangled and full of bullet holes. The central fin is mixed up in there somewhere too. There are oil coolers and other bits and pieces scattered about. The fuselage is completely destroyed - looks as if there has been a fire at some stage. No sign of the 4 engines or the props. I guess 4 Merlins in any condition would have been souvenired years ago. There is a bulldozed gravel ramp close to the wreckage, possibly to assist with removal of the engines.

 I suspect it must have crashed on snow or it would have been a lot more mangled by the terrain where it sits. Or it was pushed there by a bulldozer over snow.

Nothing quite like it...

With apologies to Flanders and Swann. This stuff has sand and grit in it - no place to wallow.

A little bit of bliss in Resolute. Enjoy!

The Same.

Murphy and the Examiner in a wreathing clammy clinch. Breeding imminent. Freezing rain again in Resolute. Appendages for a clearance this afternoon...
More 2008 and 2010 pics here - click on the Wildlife albums. Captions may follow today if we are still stuck here.
http://picasaweb.google.ca/home?tab=mq

And the sun came out

And the planes flew - and ours went u/s on it's first trip and we who were second became second hand and here we still are. Appendages for tomorrow!

Some high arctic flowers here:
http://picasaweb.google.ca/alex1whit/HighArcticFlowers#

More photos - from Alaska 2008

Fogggbound time put to use - I have collected my photos of wildflowers from Alaska in 2008 and put them here:
http://picasaweb.google.ca/alex1whit/TundraFlowersAlaska#
Captions to follow if I get time to go through and identify them. Takes a mindboggling time to do it - there must be an easier way.
And then I will put up some wildlife pics from the same time.

Unfortunately, I did not bring the Southern Ocean Albatrosses and the Kerguelen pics with me else I'd have got them sorted too. Nothing like a spot of freezing foggg to spur one to action.

Flabby in Resolute

Still stuck in Resolute. This weather system seems to like it here but I wish it would go away.

Till it does, I've got a lot of time on my hands - can't roam far because of bears, did not bring my running shoes and have to stay close anyway in the forlorn hope that the freezing fog and drizzle will go away for long enough for a Twotter round trip to the Crater - about 45 minutes each way, but it has to be able to land at each end with some certainty.

So I've been headbanging with picasa web albums and there are some more photos here
http://picasaweb.google.ca/alex1whit/Resolute#

The Canadian army is moving in in strength for a big exercise - tents, field kitchens and soldiers everywhere.