Sajama ice core drilling rig and team, at the summit. Depth drilled as of 1500 was approx. 35 m, nearly out of the firn and into the ice.
27 June Update from the summit
The weather station team arrived at the summit approx. 1400 24 June (Tuesday). What a great sight to see everyone again at the expedition 'village' atop Sajama. After adding more clothing, and enjoying hot drinks, we excavated a tent site and set up our trusty Kelty tent -- just as the wind began to pick up. Meanwhile, the drilling mast was being erected, and final testing was being done on the myriad of components required to drill through an ice cap to bedrock.
The story now skips ahead to Thursday afternoon. In the interm, the weather has not been conducive to work at this elevation: steady winds of 30-50 mph (est.), temp. of -8 to -16 C (est.), and even a bit of new snow one night have limited our progress. Despite only a modest improvement in the weather, drilling began after lunch and can only be described as a fantastic operation. Victor Zagorodnov's new drill is being smoothly operated by Bruce Koci, Vladimir Mikhalenko and Victor. Todd Sowers and Lonnie Thompson are kept busy logging and processsing core as it emerges. All of this being executed without a drilling structure, in less than ideal weather!
At the weather station, considerable digging was required to reach the datalogger enclosure, and some equipment cached nearby last October (2-3 m of hard, wind-packed snow). This was possible during the windy days, although the weather was too severe to inspect electronics and data storage. The sound of our aspirated temp/RH sensor fan coming on every 10 minutes was proof enough that things were working. Today, winds at the station had dropped to 10-15 m/s, so the enclosure was opened, protected by a pyramid-shaped tent erected around it. Nine months of data were dumped to a Dell notebook, and an updated datalogger operating system (O/S) was successfully installed. Completion of this task is a major relief, which would have been impossible without a computer on-site.
With only a few more meters of core, word will go out to the anxious balloon pilots. All of the gear is at high camp, and they will move up to the summit at a moments notice -- for the most exciting balloon launch ever!!
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Last updated: 8 October 1998
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