NSF's Newest arctic explorer, Alexander "Xander" Jackson Wagner, shows his team spirit. Photo: Renee Crain

Greenland Inland Traverse (“GrIT”) personnel arrived at Thule Air Base, the northernmost U.S. military base in the world, earlier this month to begin preparing for the 2011 inland haul to Summit Station.

Cooper and Quinn Irinaga show their GrIT team spirit, too. Photo: Matt Irinaga

To find a safe route through the shifting crevasses that make the first 70 miles of the journey challenging, four GrIT team members are exploring the transition from island to ice sheet. We learned a few years ago that the ice sheet is so dynamic in the transition that we have to find a new route using ground-penetrating radar every time we prepare to pass through it. Our “SCAT” team members—strategic crevasse avoidance technicians—are doing this right now.  Progress had been slow earlier this week as the team faced brutal conditions and a lanced segment of the ice sheet, but they found a way to “thread the needle” through this zone. Onward!

Damen Guthrie (grandson of Earl Vaughn, son of Dino Guthrie) does some sled work. Photo: Dino Guthrie

Back on the SCAT team by popular demand: CRREL’s Jen Mercer (navigator) and Allan Delaney (radar expert), and CPS’s Robin Davies (driver) and Kevin Emery (mountaineer). New team member Galen Dossin also is on the SCAT team, sharing crevasse-probing duties with Kevin.

Cash Littrell (Karla College's boy) probes the snow with his red shovel while Bailey spot checks him. Photo: Karla College

When the SCAT has found the path, the traverse proper will launch from Thule, with new vehicles, sled configurations, and infrastructure. We’ll share photos from Robin Davies when we get them. For now, enjoy these images of arctic program 2.0 personnel who look as though they’re ready to head out on the GrIT with the tall people.

Natalia Guthrie (Dino Guthrie's daughter) models Extreme Cold Weather gear, essential gear for all polar adventurers. Photo: Dino Guthrie

Polar explorers love cold conditions. Photo: Karla College

The National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs (NSF) funds the Greenland Inland Traverse. CH2M HILL Polar Services and Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratories are working together with the NSF to develop the traverse infrastructure and route to Summit Station. The 2011 spring traverse will deliver fuel to the NEEM international drilling camp and Summit Station, continue efforts to optimize mobility, and provide a research platform. For more field notes coverage of GrIT, click here. 

Comments (0) Mar 31 2011

"The kids loved camping, and enjoyed seeing how it got dark but stayed warm - a combination they are not used to," writes Dana Moudra-Truffer of her family's winter break from their life in Alaska.

All over the country, massive storms are making the headlines—a third blizzard in New England in as many weeks, and, more surprisingly, a snow storm in Atlanta over the weekend that closed the Peach State’s capital city. As happens during cold spells, the “blogosphere” is bleating about how the inclement weather is evidence that climate warming is baloney (not seeing the ice sheet for the snowflakes, if you will).

But never mind all of that.

Dana Moudra-Truffer sent this photo of her two girls, Emilie, left, and Sonja, having breakfast on Anini Beach, Kauai, during a 10-day family get-away from Fairbanks, Alaska, where they live (and Dana manages support to a sheaf of NSF-funded researchers conducting field work in the state).

Dana wrote that the family “lucked out with the weather” in Hawai’i. Though they had some night-time rain and wind gusts, they camped in the shelter of large trees growing on the beach. The girls are breakfasting in the shade of their branches in Dana’s picture.

“The tide was high and on a couple occasions during breakfast the adults had to put up our feet to keep them from getting wet,” Dana wrote.

“The girls enjoyed watching the small waves coming in. The big waves were crashing a few hundred yards away on the reef that protects the beach.”

If you’ve got the winter doldrums, take a few minutes and try to put yourself in the picture with Dana’s family. Play footsie with the tide. You know that the water’s warm.—Kip Rithner

Comments (1) Jan 12 2011

Not only do we at Polar Field Services support adventurous and intrepid scientists, we seek out intrepid adventures ourselves. From the far flung to the local, we explore, investigate, and engage.

Equinox Marathon, Fairbanks, AK

Two excellent runners in Alaska: Christie Haupert and Cody Johnson following the Equinox Marathon in Fairbanks. Photo courtesy Christie Haupert

Running 26.2 miles anywhere is challenging, but factor in the landscape in the far north, along with a notoriously challenging course, and the Equinox Marathon is in a category of its own. Which is why we are so impressed that PFS’s own Christie Haupert and Cody Johnson trounced this race. Christie reported that Cody finished with an outstanding 3:46 (and this was his first ever marathon!). Christie said she ran the best race of her life:

“I trained hard for a mountain race earlier in the summer, the hardest in the state. I spent the month of July practicing on a mountain two hours south of here, running up and down, up and down. I really wanted to perform well in the mountain race, as it was HUGE and very intimidating. I didn’t know if I could transition from the mountain training of steep steep up and steep steep down to the “flatter” running needed for Equinox. Nor did I know if my body was strong enough to handle both races in one summer…I have, since running my first marathon when I was 21, wanted to break the 4 hour mark in a marathon. To run a 3 hr 58 min time in the Equinox Marathon, the same year I ran Matanuska Peak Challenge (finishing in a respectable 4 and a half hours), was incredible to me…I’ve been running since I was 11 and I’ve always wanted to feel like a runner – but never have. After Saturday, I feel like I might just be a runner…finally … if only for that day.”

Colorado’s Sand Dune National Monument

It’s not all Rocky Mountains here in Colorado, Polar Field Service’s home base. In the southwest corner of our great state are the other worldly sand dunes, a beautiful landscape of desert and sky, with the occasional foliage, trees and rivers mixed in.

Naomi Whitty and her daughters Ella and Christina Kramer camped out for some great girl’s time.

Ella, Christina, and Naomi snuggle up in the sand dunes. Photo courtesy Naomi Whitty

Kyli Olsen also visited southwestern Colorado recently, touring Mesa Verde with her mom (who lives in Kansas) and sister, a Denver resident. Kyli says, “Everything was still surprisingly green.  It was a beauty of a weekend with lots of sunshine!” Here are a few of her photos.

Kyli Olson at Mesa Verde on a recent family trip. Located in southwestern Colorado, Mesa Verde is the site of ancient cliff dwellings, the ancestral home of the Pueblo Indians, who lived here A.D. 600 to A.D. 1300.

Tractor Pull, Tunbridge, VT.!

There’s more to Vermont than world-class maple syrup and fall foliage, as Diana Garcia-Lavigne proves with this photo of the tractor pull at the Tunbridge World Fair. She writes, “I had a blast at the lawn tractor pull, which is my new favorite event since they cancelled the demolition derby a few years ago, on account of it being too dangerous.”

More Camping, This Time In Alaska

Dana Truffer Moudra and her kids went car camping by Nome Creek, one of many camping trips this summer. Although they arrived late in the drizzle, and the drizzle continued the next morning, and her daughter Emilie had a run-in with the inside of the tent, leaving her a tad disgruntled, and they returned to Fairbanks that morning, Dana reports it was a good weekend after all. The salvation? Fresh blueberries, picked the night they arrived at the campsite, atop their ice cream, and sunshine when they got home.

Aspen Golden Leaf Half Marathon, Aspen, CO.

Blog contributor Rachel Walker ran 13.1 miles from Snowmass, CO. to Aspen, CO. in the Golden Leaf Half Marathon. The mountain trail run wound through stunning scenery, started at 8,650 feet above sea level, and was an awesome way to celebrate the 7-month birthday of her son. Henry (son) and Jeff (dad) missed Rachel’s finish because the little guy was napping, which was fine with mom; Jeff’s support—from doing double time dad duty to encouraging her to work out—definitely helped with the endeavor. Congratulations, Rachel!

Comments (2) Sep 29 2010

Greenland kindergarteners. Photo: Ed Stockard

Greenland has a national costume—traditional Inuit animal skin garb transformed with Danish textiles and beads—and the people wear it proudly on special days. These special days include national celebrations, religious holidays—and the first day of kindergarten.

Yes, Greenland’s kindergarteners dress in the national costume on the first day of school, a propitious-seeming tradition. Those of us who have led our own reluctant kids into their first classrooms—those of us who remember it as more of a Christians-into-the-lion’s-den occasion than a national parade–can’t help feeling a sartorial flourish might go some distance toward softening the transition to formal education. 

Basse Vængtoft, manager of the Kangerlussuaq International Science Support (KISS) facility, participated in the Greenlandic tradition a week or so ago when one of his boys entered kindergarten. Kathy Young (who helms the CPS science support operation in Kangerlussuaq) reported that both Basse and his wife, Pani, donned their traditional clothing that day. We were hoping for a picture of the KISS manager’s family, but with the research season in serious wind-down mode, Basse must be as busy as our CPS colleagues staffing the logistics hub for NSF researchers working in Greenland.

Ethan Pagenkopp's first day jitters were later helped by a visit from the nature and science museum. Photo: Angela Pagenkopp

Meanwhile, in northwest metro Denver, PFS 2.0 member Ethan Pagenkopp (Angela’s eldest son), started kindergarten at STEM Magnet Lab School, Colorado’s first such magnet. Instead of a national costume, faculty from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science visited the school, launching rockets and leading the student body in a variety of experiments. Each student was given a white lab coat and encouraged to participate in the special activities.

“STEM” stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. The STEM initiative seeks to increase and improve education opportunities for K-12 and undergraduate students in these areas, to train the next generation of U.S. scientists and engineers.

Question: Can you think of a better national costume than a lab coat at this point in our history?

–Kip Rithner

Comments (1) Aug 23 2010

Henry James Walker. All photos: Rachel Walker, the proud (and torturing) mom

Go Dogs, Go! (A book for beginning readers by Seussian author P.D. Eastman) has a riff where a pink-clad she-poodle wearing a number of increasingly outlandish hats asks a handsome, B-flat jazz-daddy mutt, “Do you like my hat?”  He says no repeatedly. Finally, she approaches him in a hat so outlandish–festooned with potted plants, pinwheels, small animals, etc–that he succumbs: “Yes, I do like your hat!” and off they drive into the sunset.

Young Henry James, Rachel Walker’s boy, doesn’t like his hat.  Born February 27th, and thus a shade over three months old now, it won’t be long before Henry will be able to reach up there and yank his hat off. Or add a couple of potted plants and a fishing reel, maybe. 

Henry stretches while wearing his hat at four weeks. While there's no telling how he feels about the green beanie, clearly the boy loves his milk.

Hatless and happy with mama Rachel just a few days ago.

Rachel reports that Henry likes his daily hikes with mom in the hills behind Boulder. So that’s probably a wide-brimmed, UV-screening sunhat (um, like the one at the top?).  As for us, we’re delighted that Rachel has agreed to don her writer’s hat part time to help out on the field notes blog.

Comments (0) Jun 03 2010