Arrival

Yesterday, the 25th of March, Steve and I arrived on the world's largest island, Greenland. The sun was shining and the sky was blue with only a few broken clouds high overhead. The temperature was in the high 20s F'. The granite face of the cliffs glimmered in the sun. Ravens soared. The snow on the ground is barely deep enough to fill ones boots. I watched three children play on a giant mound of plowed snow; they were immitating dogs. Clothing hangs brightly on the lines outside the cheerfully painted homes.
Stepping off the plane we all went straight to work. Steve and I helped Ed with the cargo while Sparky drove the rest of the crew over to the KISS building. All told there are twelve of us here right now; three carpenters, four science support, two specialised mechanics, two camp staff bound for Raven, ( a remote sight up on the ice cap) and one project manager overseeing the carpenters.
The carpeneters are busy assembling a weather port, this is a large tent set up ontop of isnualted plywood flooring panels measuring about 40 feet long by 10 feet wide with an apex of about 6 feet. The weatherport gets set up every year prior to "put in" in order to detect any major issues or missing parts. Once erected, it will be taken down again and stored away in boxes for shipment on to Raven.
The mechanics are working on repairs to the two grooming machines a Pisten Bully and a Spryte, which will go out with the Raven crew in a couple of weeks.
Some of today's tasks for the science support crew (Ed, Sparky, Shannon and Steve) included helping Lou and Mark (the Raven bound camp staff) sort, repackage and store thier frozen food, shuffel cargo around the warehouse, make minor reapirs to a front end loader, do paper work, assist Ed with IT (information technology) repairs to our network and shovel out an old truck that was shipped back to NY aboard one of this morning's 109th flights.
We are all moved in and quite pleased to be here. The crew is a fine bunch of people, mostly the usuals, a couple guys from the South Pole Antarctic program and the mechanics, no strangers to either pole who hail from their homes in the Sates.
The sun rose this morning around 0600 and set just after 1800 this evening. The length of daylight will increase by leaps and bounds untill the solstice. The auroral activity is high though tonight is cloudy. Steve just returned from a ski. Aafter almost 10 days on the road between Oklahoma City and Schanectady NY it is wonderful to have a kitchen again, though figuring out the food thing here in Greenland is challenging. Our resources are so varied and interesting, this is the best way I have to say that Kangerlussuaq's only grocery store is not the sole provider; still, it will take a week or two before we are trully settled in with a decent larder.
Greenland potatoes grown in the far south western region are some of the world's best. Greenlandic shrimp, cod, turbot and char can be purchased locally as well. Tonight we dug into the provisons we brought up from NY as we have yet to procure a well rounded menu. Steve made buckwheat pancakes which we enjoyed with yoghurt, bluberries, walnuts and maple syrup.
Two long days and a landscape of muteable scilence cause me much pause. I hope to write with much more of an introspetive style blending the daily life with the feel of the sky and the cold clean hills that sweep away like the wind.
As I walked over to one of the warehouses this early morning, I stopped to watch the distant hills capture light. In a sky full of clouds, down through which a very tiny soft snow fell, I saw the rolling hills turn a shy blush of gold as if there was a light within, but it was only some of the sunlight's rays brushing long agaisnt the yellowed winter grasses far far away.

Itinerary

The packing has begun. I boxed up both of our single speed mt bikes which Steve sent off for Scotia NY today. The big huge warm boots, skis, cod liver oil, yoga mats, climbing gear, long underwear and carharts (thanks Mom) lay in piles ready to go in our kits.
We leave our home this Monday, the 17th. Our first flight is out of Bellingham at 905 am. We are bound first for Oklahoma city via Denver where we will be engaged in a 4 day long training course for Hazardous cargo shipment and documentation. We will be staying at the Wingate Inn on S Meridian Ave. We hope to get some climbing in during the evenings at the old grain silo climbing gymn in downtown Okie city, which toutes a 125 foot high wall and 90 feet of roof.


On march 22 we fly from Oklahoma city (via Cleavland) for Albany NY. We will be staying in Schenectady at the Nott Terrace Holiday Inn until the 25th. On the 25th we will get up at 4 am for transport to Scotia, home of the air guard. Here we will lay around for about 5 hours while the crew gets ready (read, drinks coffee). There will be 4 of us flying North to Greenland (along with a lot of cargo) aboard one of the LC 130 Hercules cargo planes; the same planes that support the Antarctic during the Austral summer.

Normally the flight is direct from NY to Kangerlussuaq and takes about 7 hours. Sometimes the winds will be too strong and we will have to stop in Goose Bay Newfoundland, which breaks the trip in half. This also offers us all the mandatory deboarding of the aircraft while the ground crew re-fuels. The reception in Goose Bay is always pleasant. We are herded into a waiting area with bathrooms, and offered hot chocolate, coffee, tea, doughnuts and ice cream cups.

Once we land in Greenland, we will go straight to work, as its our job to unload the airplane and deal with the cargo. The weather is currently pretty fair, with temperatures in the low to mid teens (Fahrenheit) with snow. There will be 12 hours of daylight, but with much more intensified dusk and dawn aspects. Snow machines and dog sled teams will be out and about around "town".

Here in Welcome valley, the crocus are popping up along with the tulips and the rhubarb. Our fruit tree's buds are swelling with the wild salmon berries and the spring frogs can be heard peeping in the swamps, though there is still a low snowline in the hills.
The change of environments will seem incredible, even a bit shocking upon first inhalation, but will merge rather quickly into the familiar. Then, we will watch silently as spring comes bounding into the arctic tundra with its own quiet rushing blush.

Blogging.

Steve and I were sitting around the dinner table with our friends, Carl and Lorena when I uttered the word, "blog". I was not choking.
(Blog, by definition means, weblog).
A weblog allows one to broadcast their journal over the world wide web (privately or publicly) for anyone that is interested.
As those of you who know me know, I was once a prolific letter writer but this has faded completely away with the era of email. However, I have not stopped writing journals. This brings me back to the dinner table;
"Blog" I said.
Carl said, " I could help you set up your own blog account in less than one hour".
This afternoon I rode my bike over the river and through the woods (rain, hail, skunk cabbages just beginning to emerge from the ick) to the Homestead where Carl logged on to blogger.com and in less than an hour had me up and running.
So, I am now in the throes of learning to blog.
My hopes are that through this cyber portal, you may be able to follow along with us as Steve and I prepare to embark once more for our working adventures in Greenland.

Tonight's picture is of Kangerlussuaq, (pronounced ; kanger lu shu ack) Greenland as we left it last November. Kangerlussuaq is the Greenlandic name for this long fjord which the Danes re-named, Sondre Stromfjord. Since Greenland declared home rule from the Danish colonists it has been officially re-re-named , kangerlussuaq, though many older Danes, and most American military lovingly refer to the place as "sondre-strom" or, simply "Sondie".

The shot is looking west down the fjord toward Davis Straight in the North Atlantic. Of course, it is frozen most of the year round.