Trav's Travels: Happy 4th of July from the Arctic Circle

6/30/16

Today was windy, but with north winds, meaning my ski out on the runway was very difficult for 2 miles, but then the return 2 miles felt like going downhill. Normally winds blow from the south so you get the easier ski at the beginning and have to fight the winds to head home.

Lunch today was amazing gyros with lamb and all the fixins. Dinner was thai beef coconut curry and steamed kale to prepare for bollywood night. I didn't join in bollywood but instead worked on my project. I had a good and helpful stats skype with Kath during my lunch hour

7/1/16

Nothing super out of the ordinary today. Did another north wind ski, which made for a fun downhill feeling on the way back

I don't know if I've explained the North Wind/Clean Air & Snow Sectors at all. Something like only 10-15% of the winds that come here come from the North. They predominately come from the south or the east and west. This means they built the station so that TAWO is South of the station. TAWO is collecting a lot of atmosphere and air samples so you want the wind to be blowing from TAWO towards the station instead of from the station (where there is a diesel generator and tractors) towards TAWO. TAWO is in an area known as the clean air sector. No vehicles can be driven out there (unless in a medical emergency). South of TAWO is still the clean air sector, and then even further south is the clean snow sector where absolutely no one is allowed to walk unless you are sampling snow or digging snow pits. So if the winds do happen to come from the North (which they have been for a few days now), then, to avoid contamination of air to TAWO, no equipment can be run. So no tractors, no snowmobiles. Water gets quite lot during these periods b/c we can't run the tractor to bring snow to the melter. North winds makes a lot of people grumpy (the carps who have to carry everything instead of using snowmobiles) but some people happy (the heavy equipment operator can't work so just watches movies). It doesn't affect Elissa and me much since we just ski and bike places, but we do have to keep a log of it for the scientists.

Today we had fish tacos with all the fixins and then steak for dinner with fresh blueberry pie crumble.

7/2/16

Today at TAWO we found a little bird, frozen and half dead under TAWO. Occasionally birds get lost and come out here. Some people think they follow the planes, but I'm not sure. Robin (true to her name) was famous for feeding some of the larger birds that would make it out here and would be flying around (like petrels). This bird has little chance of ever making it back, but I brought it into TAWO to warm it up, gave it some water and made a tasty bird treat (sunflowers seeds, oats, granola, dried blueberries, and peanut butter all together). So now we have a TAWO pet for awhile!! Though I really wish we could ship the Kayser's new cat Gizmo out here!

Today after work, Hannah and I took Cargo Andrew out for a ski to teach him how to ski. He's from South Carolina and it was his first ever ski! Hannah is a much better instructor than I as she used to nordic ski collegiately at St. Lawrence college.

The group watched Top Gun (biggest cheer came now when Maverick knocked shot down the communist but when Tom Cruise walked around in his tighty whities) in honor of the 4th of July. I got to see some of it, but missed a good chunk b/c of the balloon launch and then we had an instrument break, that I had to rush out to TAWO.

I worked on my statistics most of the night, but came back to the big house to help K-dub and Elissa brew some beer, which I think should be called Clean Air IPA. They have some other mixtures for ambers and lagers and such and I have proposed some other names for beers for our Greenland microbrewery: Ozone Amber, SOB Stout, TAWO trippel, North Winds Lager. Maybe the brewery should be called Big-House Brewery.

Lunch was yummy grilled avacado, turkey, and fancy cheese sandwich. Dinner was artisan pizza and strawberry-coconut chocolate truffles.

7/3
An absolutely gorgeous day. 17F with no wind and a hot sun. So I did my weekend ski in shorts out into the blue and white vastness

7/4
Happy 4th of July!

No day off for us at Summit today. We worked hard as usual. I did organize a quick 4th of July photo shoot for our group after lunch

I did feel pretty good on my ski today. Feel like I'm getting stronger.

The crew watched Independence Day today, but I continued working hard on my statistics as I have a meeting with Kath again next week.

For dinner Kathy made fried chicken with her special breading recipe. She also made a very yummy blueberry and raspberry dessert.

7/5

Today Elissa and I skied out to the skiway approach flags, which are about 3 miles from camp and raised the flags. It was a tough job b/c the bamboo poles were buried 6 feet into the snow and often frozen in place. But it was a rewarding job

For lunch we had pistachio encrusted salmon with green chili soup. For dinner was pork tenderloin with a balsamic and brown sugar glaze to drizzle on it. Kathy also made a walnut, goat cheese, and squash pastry thing. There was also a fancy kale salad and a pear cobbler

7/6
I ate dinner next to John the ex Nols trip leader. He was telling me all about Alaska and really making me want to go there badly. He's done some sweet things in the mountains, rivers, and oceans up there. Dinner was a tasty chicken pesto pasta and delicious berry tart thing

7/7
I had a skype chat with Kath today. I had stayed up til 2am the previous 4 nights preparing for the talk, so it was nice to get it over with. Making headway on my statistics but still not there yet.

To relax from the week of hard work, I watched my first full bollywood movie tonight with the crew. It was very good!

Lunch today was meat and vegetable lasagna. Dinner, in honor of bollywood was butter chicken masala, palak paneer, dhal, indian cauliflower (forgetting the Indian name), sweet coconut rice pudding, and mango lassi.

7/8

Lunch today was pulled pork and dinner was beef tenderloin steaks and pad thai. We also had steamed kale, and a great spinach salad. Kathy made cream puffs, but I didn't indulge.

I had another long talk right after dinner with John about Alaska. We pulled out the map and he helped give me some ideas for a loop trip from N. Idaho and back.

Today we had to have special Polar Bear encounter training. The reason is that East Grip Camp, which is the same distance from the ocean as we are (but 300 miles from us) had a polar bear wonder into camp. There is a possibility that one would make it here, but it's EXTREMELY unlikely. It would basically have to travel some 600 miles and climb 10,500 feet to get here. Bears are amazing at traveling, but pretty unlikely. They did, a few years ago, find some polar bear tracks 60 miles from here. And a couple of years ago, they had an arctic fox wander into camp.

There's still some people I haven't talked too much about.

Bo. I deployed with him. He's a carpenter here and in his off time, he's a sports photographer. I think I've mentioned that before. He's been to super bowls, word series, stanley cups, and olympics for photography. He's also a good nature photographer. He and his wife recently moved to Montana. They live basically inside Glacier national park near Apgar. He does lots of cool outdoor adventures around Montana and the Southwest and South America. He and his wife have a cool vw van that they used to live in before getting their new house in Montana. Bo is very nice and super funny in a quiet way. I like him. He invited Elisha and I to come visit him in Montana sometime.

You should check out his instagram page to see some sweet nature photos. He also has a lot of good Greenland photos, and I'm in a couple of them

https://www.instagram.com/bobaumgartner/

Danny Gregory. I knew Danny from McMurdo b/c he liked to play volleyball. Danny is an interesting guy. Very nice. He loves to tell stories that go a bit long. He has so many stories. Danny has a huge lumberjack beard and is really the only other person on station who exercises. But he does the the spinning bikes, jump roping, and weights, the indoor stuff. Danny was a ski bum at Steamboat for a long time and has also ski bummed at A-basin

My niece Tia (Conrad and Whitney's daughter) absolutely loves the movie Frozen. Her birthday was coming up and Whitney wrote her this letter (from Elsa) that included me. I thought it was funny. Teddy is what I am known by in Idaho and by my college friends
"Dear Tia, I was in Greenland making snow and I met Uncle Teddy. He said you have a birthday today. I'll be passing through Coeur D'Alene on my way back to Arendelle. Maybe I could stop by your party real quick? Will you please ask your parents and write me back. I'll be in Montana by 12 o'clock, so send your reply there. Happy 4th Birthday. Love Queen Elsa." Whitney ended up hiring an actor to come be Elsa for her party