First Day Off

Today has been an exciting day, it was our first real day off since we got to Kangerlussuaq. Besides sleeping in (for me at least) we took a tour of the area around the Russell Glacier. The Russell Glacier is about 25 km north of town and is very impressive. It towers over the glacier till by about 50-100 feet. To get to the glacier we crammed into one of the pickup trucks owned by SRI and headed to Kanger where we picked up two other people who were in town on another project. We then headed north along a dirt road that followed the river that flows down from the melting glacier. After about 20 km we got to the end of the road that is open to the general public. To get from the road into the glacier we had to hike in several miles to the base of it where we sat, ate and listened to it's popping and cracking as it slowly moves along. We were lucky to see a sizable chunk of ice fall off of it, but it was not as spectacular as you probably have seen on TV. I have set up an account over at picasa to share some of the photos I have taken so far on this trip. All I can say is it is fascinating sitting that close to the tongue of the glacier. All told, it took us about 6 hours to do all of this today. I would say it was a great day.