By afternoon the day after moving to our new location, the drill was set up and the first cores taken. Unfortunately it was great, warm weather – nice for us, but not for the drilling as the cold cores kept freezing in the core barrel. So, having convinced ourselves that everything was functional, the Bella, Terry, Darek, and Ryo took naps so that they could begin drilling again after dinner when the air temperatures dropped. By about 9PM drilling recommenced, and at a rapid pace. The work flow was well thought out and everyone knew their role. By 4AM, ice at 25 meters depth had been extracted. At this rate, we’d be at the bottom in five days, and ready to move to our next site.


Erecting the mast.


Terry chainsaws a pit to hold the core barrel, while Ryo keeps him from cutting the power cord in half.


Bella guides the outer-barrel over the core barrel in preparation for the next run, while Terry slowly lowers it down.


With the barrels secured together, Bella and Terry lower it down into the hole.


Once it comes back up full of ice, the next step is to spin it to shake loose as much of the cuttings as possible.


Ryo helps move the core barrel to the processing table.


Ryo clears cuttings from the top of the barrel, with the ice core visible at the bottom.


Here come the cuttings.


Terry pushes the core out of the tube, while the others hold on.


Ryo hits the core with a blowtorch to clear the remaining the cuttings and make the ice structure within more clearly visible. Since we’re not saving the core, it doesn’t really matter what we do to it.


Darek cuts some of the cores into sections to measure density.


They have to work fast, because the cores come out quickly at the start of a hole.


Their office is a little breezy, but the view isn’t bad.