At Summit

I have been very busy, and it hard to believe that I've been at Summit Camp for one week now. Straight off the plane I could feel the altitude, more than I would have when living in Colorado. Fresh baked cookies welcomed us into the Big House which is elevated in preparation for the snow drifts to come.

In trying to describe the atmosphere here I would say it is the best of both worlds: like being on a hut trip in the Rocky Mountains (without the mountains) and working in the lab with interesting instruments. If only I could have the best of all worlds and get Cathy and Huxley here to give it that family feel. After only four days, half of the 35 people flew out of camp leaving the right number of folks to not feel crowded. There are only three science techs up here including myself with a handful of others here for a three week stint.

The camp makes water from the snow by melting it next to the diesel generator.

The Mobile Science Facility (MSF) is where I spend most of the day checking on the instruments, which look at cloud properties in this remote location. The flags lead back to the Big House in case visibility the is low, but so far it has been balmy with temps above 0 degrees F. Really the wind chill is what nips you since that is usually far below zero.

A fellow student, Aronne, showed me the ropes and how to use them to tie up a radiosonde. After some long days he had imparted his wisdom, and I was ready to take over.



The folks here for the 3 week stint stay in these solar heated tents, don't be fooled by the name, bring the warmest sleeping bag you can find.
Luckily I have a spot in the greenhouse with a bunk and running water. Below, Aronne contemplating his time there.
The sun hasn't set all week and I don't think it will anytime soon, with the solstice approaching. Sleep has been hard to come by, but maybe I've gotten enough sleep over the years to have 1 eleven week day.

One cool part is the optical phenomena, during the "night" time hours. Here the shop, home to a myriad of snow vehicles is overshadowed by a sundog. This bright spot is caused by refraction at 22deg with respect to the sun from ice crystals that are kicked up by the wind. All in all life is good at Summit.