Field Work

I haven't blogged in a couple of days, I have been physically exhausted. We picked up the rest of our group from the airport and went to Pepe's to eat. There are now a total of 8 of us. Me, Perry, Dave, Sandra, Alex, Santonu, Adrian and Craig. Luckily the menu is big so I haven't gotten sick of the food yet.

Craig has had us working in the field the past couple of days. The conditions are extreme and it is a potent experience. Everywhere you look on the featureless landscape is white. I have only seen the sun a couple of times, when it peeked through the grey for a few brief moments. The warmth was energizing. All of our field work has been for the biocomplexity project (check out www.arcticscience.org, it shows where I am staying, how to ship to me, and what projects are going on). Dave's field work starts in July.

My first day in the field was intense from the get go. I crammed myself with a million layers into a snow suit that I borrowed from the warehouse and threw on two hats, a face mask, gloves, two pairs of socks and my sunglasses. I could barely move! Sandra and I were laughing, it was so funny. Linda, here's my hat and gloves!

After we all geared up, we went out to find 4 snowmachines waiting for us. Two of them had large wooden sleds attached with gear. We eagerly approached the contraptions; us desert rats were foaming at the mouth to drive on the stark white terrain. Robert, a local Inupiat came with us as a bear guard, the natives know the surroundings and habits of it best.

Dave and I were given one machine, and I was shocked when Craig told me I would be riding on the back of one of the sleds. I doubted him a little when he told me it was the most comfortable seat. I was somewhat envious of Perry, who got to drive. I was sure to have him take a picture of me :) We ended up taking off around 12:15 or so.

The ride was rough, but I had a blast. After a few minutes I got used to the feeling and was able to lean into the turns to balance out the sled. Dave was a good driver and made sure I was ok. The backdrop is so white that it is difficult to tell where the little bumps are. I would fly in the air a bit every bump, it was fun! I held on with a kung fu death grip just like when I started climbing; my forearms were tired. I eventually figured out what pressure was sufficient, and my arms loosened up so I could enjoy the ride. The wind is chilly on those things!

Santonu also had to ride on a sled and fell off on the way out to the site. We looked back him standing off in the distance. We all laughed about it later that night at Pepe's (he was ok of course, or we wouldn't have laughed about it). Santonu said it took Craig about 5 minutes before he picked him up. I could tell Craig was having lots of fun on the snowmobiles.

Once we got out to the barren white tundra, the fun began. We split into three teams, each was assigned a different task. Perry and Santonu worked on the tram for leveling, Dave and I worked on taking snow depth measurements, and everyone else (Alex, Sandra and Craig) worked on digging trenches in the snow that are going to be used to measure the runoff. Adrain went to the airport to pick up Ana, a PhD candidate at the U of Fairbanks also joined our team and worked with Craig's group; she is from Sweden. They joined us out in the field helping out Craig's team.

The sampling Dave and I did was not that bad. I drove the snowmobile (yay!) and Dave would step off and drive a metal T-bar through the snow until it hit tundra. Then he would pull it out and read off the measurement to me to record. We did this along a huge grid and took three measurements at each point at 112 points. Each point was 100 m apart, and we covered about 1 square mile. We carried a GPS unit to make sure we were on the right point. I messed up a couple of times, but he is very patient with me and gives me clear instructions.

The wind wasn't too bad yesterday, but today was chilly and windy. The wind slashes into you and chills you to the bone. My toes were a little cold in the rubber boots since there's no insulation, but after a while once the numbness passes it isn't so bad. It's no different than a chilly day on the slopes.

After Dave and I completed our task, we went to help out Craig's group digging trenches. The work was somewhat labor intensive, but I actually enjoyed it. Sandra, Alex, me and Dave went off to dig a 100 m trench on our own. All we could see across the austere setting was a faint pink flag; our goal. After a while it became a game for me. I worked hard to get to that point in a good time. My team and I were swift and worked fervishly for a few hours until alas! We reached the pink flag. Dave walked over to Craig while Alex, Sandra and I fixed the walls of our trench and shoveled out excess snow..."pack it up and come in guys." What glorious words to hear at the end of a hard days work.

I rode on the back of the snowmobile on the way to the road. Craig was right, the sled was actually more comfortable to ride! Four of us rode the snowmobiles back to the station, while everyone else loaded in the truck. Perry wanted to drive, but he gave up his spot for me, which I greatly appreciated. We followed Craig back, navigating along the snow-scape. Santonu drove really slow (I guess he was a bit shaken after his previous experience). Anyway, we got back and went, guess where....

Dinner at Pepe's (Sorry no whale tacos)

I was dead tired after eating, but we went back to the lab and had a little night cap; vodka with pink lemonade never tasted so good.

8:30 am and we took off once again, this time I drove while Dave sat behind me. Today we performed snow-water equivalent measurements and two 30 meter transects at the tramline. This was a little labor-intensive, but not too bad. I still have plenty of energy left to harass my colleagues (tee he). We took the T-bar and got a snow depth measurement, then hammered in a plastic tube. Then we dug a hole next to the tube and placed a shovel at the end of the tube. All the snow was placed into large plastic bags that were labeled. This was done to estimate the amount of runoff and volume of water we are dealing with. Later in the day Sandra came out to help us, in all that time we only got 15 measurements! The work done here is tedious. After the 15, we measured snow depth every meter along two 30 meter transects, one North and one South from the Northern tramway.

The weather was chilly and snow blew across the snowfield all day. I had to put on my jacket over the snow suit to keep warm, and I wore 3 pairs of socks today. I was amazed when I saw a single bird flying against the wind out on the field; I also saw a half dead mosquito I dug up.