GoNorth! heads out of Thule 

Aaron Doering, GoNorth! PI, prepares to drive the dogs (and team mate Andrea Verdegan) to the transition. All photos: Robin Davies

Paws up and a howl to the GoNorth! team, which left Thule Air Base on Sunday, and should get out on the ice today.  These pictures were taken Sunday as the dogs, the sleds, and the GoNorth! gear were transported to the ice sheet transition some 30 miles from Thule Air Base. The GoNorth! team will follow the safe route flagged by the Strategic Crevasse Avoidance Team, which pushed a ground-penetrating radar over the first 60 miles or so of the route to find a way clear of pitfalls. Once they get past the crevassed area, GoNorth! will head to the deep drilling camp called NEEM, and then on to Summit Station. 

The team arrives at the transition.

If you look closely behind the GoNorth! team, you can see the tracks the team will follow up on to the ice sheet. That's quite a grade!

Aaron, Andrea and Brant Miller (PhD student in Science Education at the University of Minnesota) situated the dogs along a staked line.  There, the Polar Huskies probably curled up and snoozed overnight, waiting for the call to put on the harness and make tracks.  This should happen today.

And, if all goes to plan, the Greenland Inland Traverse (GrIT) team will fire up the tractors and head out soon after the GoNorth! team.

Comments (0) Apr 26 2010

A crowd watches as the GoNorth! dogs prepare to deplane. Photos: Kim Derry unless otherwise noted

Community members crowded Thule’s airport yesterday to witness the long-awaited arrival of the GoNorth! Huskies, a pack of charismatic hounds with their own Web site and millions of school-age fans (and older ones too).

 

“All of the dogs, and half of the GoNorth! people, have arrived, and they are wonderful,” PFS’ GoNorth! liason Kim Derry wrote yesterday. “After an overnight flight from Thunder Bay, Canada, Mille [Porsild] and Aaron [Doering] are in good spirits and we unloaded thousands of pounds of dog food and cargo from the DC-3 Basler (Kenn Borek Air). With the help of John [Hansen], the Police Chief, and a few other Thule locals, we moved the dogs from the Basler into a truck and got them situated at the East side of town. They are currently happy to be back on snow—it was getting too warm for them in Minnesota.” 

 

 

Mille Porsild, the dogs' primary handler, passes a dog to Kim Derry.

 

Kim, left, and Mille help the dogs into the truck.

“They’re all very good dogs – the usual mix, where some are shy and others demand loving or are really vocal. After I trucked them across town, they settled right in to their new digs,” wrote Kim.

Weather conditions at Thule Air Base kept GoNorth! leaders Aaron Doering and Mille Porsild inside today. The base commander declared a “Storm Condition Delta” during the day for sustained winds above 50 knots and visibility less than 100 yards.  During these conditions, all personnel are confined to their quarters, an untimely development for the pair who wished to visit their Polar Husky dogs. The “superstar” canines who arrived at the air base for an ice-sheet trek to Summit Station doubtless hunkered down and curled up across town to wait out the storm.

Aaron Doering, right, and Mille Porsild check the weather conditions at Thule. Photo: Robin Davies

The dogs and humans have been exploring the Arctic by sled for years. They’ve visited Alaska, Russia, Finland, Norway, Scandinavia, Canada and now Greenland. The dogs are bred for the adventure, and the people seek to research the impacts of climate change and report back in real time.  The team visits communities as they travel the Arctic, presenting their “What’s Climate Change to You?” program—the heart of the Aaron Doering / University of Minnesota-led National Science Foundation grant—at local schools.  When able, they overnight in these communities, sleeping in the school gym or other host shelters. This year, the need to avoid cross-breeding meant the Polar Huskies stayed home for the community visits; these were completed instead by guest-starring Greenlandic dog teams.

In addition to local outreach, the team takes samples and makes observations for a variety of science experiments, including an investigation of traditional ecological knowledge, and NSF-funded projects examining black carbon in snow and a prototype network for measuring winter precipitation.  Weekly, the team participates in live chats and updates the GoNorth! Web site with trail reports and photos. Classrooms across the US and all over the world participate in these live events and use the curriculum posted to the GoNorth! Web site to learn about the host country, the changing Arctic, and much more.

Soon the GoNorth! team will run up to Summit Station. They’ll follow the Greenland Inland Traverse team for the first 60 or so miles through the crevassed ice of the transition. The GrIT will carry thousands of pounds of dog food to resupply the GoNorth! four-leggers.

But no one’s going anywhere until the weather improves. Thule’s local forecast suggests it could be a little while before the Polar Huskies get in the harness. 

Comments (0) Apr 15 2010

Wind blows off the ice cap--and delays the departure of the GPR team.

Robin Davies sent a note this morning with some pictures from yesterday’s GrIT efforts near Thule Air Base in Greenland.  Windy conditions, especially at the transition to the ice edge, have been cramping the GrIT team’s plans. But today, the GPR team looking for crevasses and other dangers on the first part of the route are hoping to make a long trip out on the ice sheet, “if the weather holds,” as Robin wrote.

A couple of miles from Thule, ground drifting obscures the road to the transition. Terminal moraines (rocky deposits showing the maximum advance of a glacier) are barely visible at the ice edge.

GrIT traverse lead Brad Johnson uses the Case Quadtrac to push snow off the road.

Kevin Emery (GrIT medic/mountaineer) uses the Tucker to groom the surface. The ramp (built long ago to ease access to the ice sheet) can be seen in the distance at left.

The Greenland Inland Traverse is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). CH2M HILL Polar Services and Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratories are working together with the NSF to develop the traverse infrastructure and route. The 2010 spring traverse has several foci: find a safe overland route to Summit Station to help reduce logistical costs and environmental impacts of conducting research there; provide a research platform for scientists conducting field work in Greenland; optimize mobility by focusing on the sled/snow interface.  For more field notes coverage of GrIT, click here. 

Jay at polarfield.com

Comments (0) Mar 30 2010

Hunters, festivals, and lots of dogs

A rare and special breed, the Greenlandic dog. All photos: Robin Davies

Still waiting for conditions to improve up on the transition to the ice sheet, the GrIT team spent another day around Thule on Sunday. Fortunately, it’s a lively place to hang out these days, as GrIT project manager Allen Cornelison wrote in an email:

A few days ago some Greenlandic hunters and families arrived by dog sled from Qaanaaq to the north and Savigsivik to the south. It took them four days to get here. Along the way they hunted polar bear and muskoxen. We hear that over at Dundas Village, there are heads and skins from the hunt. I sure wish a polar bear would wander by here for us to view.

A hunter takes his dog team for a spin out on the sea ice with Saunders Island in the background.

There are a dozen or more dog teams gathered about the sea ice here near the base. They are here for the First Light Festival which has been celebrated in Thule for years. Then, next Saturday is Armed Forces Day.  Dog sled races will be held on the sea ice. One can actually enter a drawing to ride along in one of the hunter’s sleds during a race. Prizes will be given away. I am not sure what all the prizes are, but one is a rifle.

This is last light: a sunset view of the Thule heavy shop. But the point is, look at that light!

I see some new faces around town–hunters and some Greenlandic women and children.  It is wonderful to see kids around.

About the dogs

The Greenlandic sled dogs are called Eskimo dogs and they are beautiful.  Some of the dog’s guard hairs and hackles are like none I have ever seen. The hairs are long, wavy and multicolored. Some dogs have these long guard hairs or hackles covering almost their entire body. The dogs seem less excitable than the Alaska huskies which I am used to and they seem more socialized around humans. While we were alone with the dogs, they barely took notice of us. When a hunter came walking over from the village (about two miles away) the dogs perked up and took notice of him even when he was as far out as 100 yards.

Robin's approach seems of little concern to these composed Greenlandic dogs.

The Greenlandic government has recognized that the Eskimo dog breed is rare outside of Greenland.  Because the Greenlandic government does not want their dog line to have outside influence, they rarely permit foreign dogs entry to Thule.

About Dundas Village

Robin took this photo from the Thule jetty with a telephotographic lens.

People began living at Dundas over 900 years ago. The Greenlandic name is actually “Uummannaq.”  In about 1910 a mission and a trading post were established.  Danes lived in the framed and painted houses and the old framed houses that used sod for insulation were for the indigenous people, the Inuit. These sod homes were a more modern version of the sod home prior to dimensional lumber and nail availability. You can see the small (and long) entrance just like an igloo or an ancient sod home.

Remains of a sod house, showing the long, low entrance. Robin took this shot on a summer visit a few years ago.

In the 1950’s when Thule Air Base was being built, the Danish government moved the people living in the village north to Qaanaaq and other established villages.

Now, Uummannaq is mostly abandoned. The Danish government has given the village back to the Greenland government but no one person owns the land where the houses sit. Danes and Greenlandic hunters have fixed some of the houses up for use. Currently some of the hunters are staying over there in one of the hunting cabins.

Here is some more information on the area if you are interested. http://www.thuleforum.com/jette/greenl1-5.html

That is all from Thule. I’ve gotta go sign up for a dog sled ride.–Allen Cornelison

Comments (0) Mar 30 2010

Weather can be a big blowing deal in Greenland. Photo: Robin Davies

Weather is the Joe Biden of field work in the polar regions:  you never know what it’s going to do (or say, in Mr. Biden’s case). Regardless of how we plan and rehearse, if nature decides to “let-‘er-rip,” we have to stand by and watch it blow, and begin again when the storm passes. 

Though hoping to light out for the ice sheet ahead of a gathering storm, the Greenland Inland Traverse team spent the weekend at Thule Air Base, waiting out another mighty blow. 

“Unfortunately it’s been another day in town for all of us,” Robin Davies wrote on Saturday. ”Here in Thule the weather has been quite reasonable but up at the transition the clouds are down and it’s blowing hard. We are thinking that the first break in the weather, the GPR team will head out for one more long day trip whilst the others get the wannigan, cargo and fuel sleds sorted and hooked up for us so that, weather permitting, we can leave the following day.” 

This is very different than last Sunday, when weather was so relatively fair the team took a few hours off and visited the old village near the air base. 

Jen Mercer, Jim Lever and Kevin Emery check out old Inuit timber and sod huts at Thule village near the air base. Photo: Robin Davies

But that’s the way it goes. They’ll get out when they can. 

“Keep your fingers crossed for us,” Robin writes.  And restrain from the colorful language if you can.

The Greenland Inland Traverse is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). CH2M HILL Polar Services and Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratories are working together with the NSF to develop the traverse infrastructure and route. The 2010 spring traverse has several foci: find a safe overland route to Summit Station to help reduce logistical costs and environmental impacts of conducting research there; provide a research platform for scientists conducting field work in Greenland; optimize mobility by focusing on the sled/snow interface.  For more field notes coverage of GrIT, click here. 

Comments (0) Mar 29 2010