The Night Before

The Night Before......

What do you think about the night before you leave for a month up on the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS)?  I think about the weather, my clothes/gear and leaving my family for a month.  I have serious doubts about going and whether or not I am ready to go.

Last night I had dinner with my in-laws and they asked about what the weather was going to be like at Summit Camp.  Well, I hadn't looked in a few days so I logged onto the station website and saw that it has been hovering between -40 F and -50 F for the last week.  This really started me doubting my abilities and feeling like I don't want to go.  Nobody in their right mind willingly goes into a situation like this without some form of doubt.  I certainly have them all the time.

This afternoon my wife helped me go through my entire list of gear, piece by piece to see if it is ready to go.  I want to thank her for making this task go easier.  What kind of gear is needed to spend a month at Summit Camp, you ask?  Let's see....  Carhartt Artic Quilted Jacket and Bibs, Sorel Glacier Boots with felt linings, Duofold Expedition Weight Thermal underwear, wool socks, extreme weather gloves, neck gaiters and a balaclava.  This is just the clothing to go outside, not the gear needed to sleep in a tent at these temperatures.  For that I have a -20 F rated bag, with the possibility of using a -40 F rated bag if needed.  Normally I would only use mine, but this year I might use the office's -40 bag.

The hardest part of all of this is leaving my family for a month.  During the trip I treasure the Skype calls that I can make every couple of days.  It makes me feel like I am keeping up with what is going on at home.  I miss everybody, but I know I will be coming home in a few weeks.  Besides that, my wife enjoys when I am out of the house and she has some time to herself.

Once I am on the flight out of Denver, my feelings of not being ready and self doubts will be left behind.  But until that time I will pray for strength and relief from my doubts.  I know that tomorrow will be the start of another chapter in Mike's Feet.

He is Risen

Spring Time in the Rockies

Well, well.  Here it is, April in Golden Colorado and it is time for me to start getting ready for my 2014 deployment to Summit Camp Greenland.  This year, I am heading to Summit with my new job, or old job, or the project I originally went with 3 years ago.  This will be my fourth season up on the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) and my second early season deployment.  I will be doing several things this year, most of which I have done in the past, some I haven't done before.

I am heading north with the CAPABL project, (Cloud, Aerosol Polarization And Backscatter Lidar) like I did back in 2011.  Last year the project upgraded the original Lidar to Version 2.0, which promptly died.  They have spent the last year trying to figure out what happened and are planning on going up and doing a major remodel of the instrument into Version 2.5.  I will be going to help with this upgrade.

The other part of my trip to Summit is to do the prep work for our 2015 deployment of the new SUPR Lidar.   This project will be taking a majority of my time between now and January 1, 2015.  This Lidar is a major upgrade to the CAPABL system, with a more powerful laser, much larger telescope and six different data channels.  I am really looking forward to getting this beast online and taking data.

Over the next week, I will be updating this blog to set the stage for this years trip.

Hold on folks, this will be one heck of a trip.

M.