Summit Camp II

Well, it's been a while and I'm a little / a lot behind on adding photos to the webpage, but here's a crack at the completion of the photos from Summit Camp. For reference, the summit camp at Greenland is at about 3,200 meters (10,500 feet) above sea level and lies at 72 degrees (too many) North, 38 degrees West. Some other cool basic information about the camp, some photos, and a "virtual photo tour" of the camp are available directly and via links from:

Summit Camp

Golly gee, where to begin when I haven't worked on this in over a month? Photos must be the answer!

This is a nice "sunset" (the closest the sun gets to the horizon) photo with the traditional greenland summit landscape. Seems like a nice place for a summer vacation, no?





Here's another, foggier view of the big house, tents, outhouses and weather ports (heated tents) taken just a bit after the "sunset" photo. I know, I've ALREADY shown photos of Summit Camp buildings, but how much do you really think there is to take photos of up there?



This is a photo of sundogs and a solar pillar on the horizon near Summit Camp (looking toward the skiway). I would love to wax philosophical on how and why sun dogs and solar pillars form, but I am le tired. A short version of the story is they are formed when light is refracted, similar to what happens when a rainbow is formed. Because of the cold, the particles here are all ice crystals and this allows the sun's light to be bent in a particular way. For more on sun dogs and solar pillars, click on these links.



This is a photo of new drill technology in development by the National Science Foundation (and others) for use in Greenland and Antarctica. Technical staff are checking over the equipment including the drill casing (the aluminum "sections"), winch controls and whatnot. You can see the end of the ice core sample inside the drill casing.



Here's a photo of the site where we (the University of Washington group) took a shallow (100 meters depth) ice core. Note the difference in technology between the two sets of coring equipment. In between the recovery of each ice core segment, there's a bit of this less hectic time, standing around, freezing, and preparing things around the site. Way in the background in the upper right, you can see small dots on the horizon--these are the buildings of Summit Camp...



This is how you celebrate at Summit Camp in style. Note the Shultze's Sausage (a favorite Seattle hang out) T-SHIRT and 1/2 of the ingredient list for the most oft ordered concoction there. Don't worry, I would never actually drink this stuff.




Someone constructed a friendly neighborhood igloo. Nice. Makes ya feel almost all warm and fuzzy inside, no?











Here's a photo of the facilities. Not too bad, though some aspects of outdoor bathroom breaks are a little disturbing. One that isn't is the idea of painting the outhouses black, which keeps them significantly warmer when the sun is up (i.e. all the time). Kudos to whoever is responsible for that idea.






Here's a picture of my sleeping arrangements. 'Nuff said.