In every direction, it’s ice and sky. Save for the camp itself–a few buildings, a loose scatter of science towers and bamboo flags–there’s not a landmark around. Instead, we look out on the ever-changing horizon. The interplay of weather, snow texture, and sunlight recasts the horizon with infinite variations. A crisp line, a subtle gradient, a broad sweep […]

With a ceaseless rustle, tiny snow grains tumble across the ice sheet. Dunes reach towards the building eves, footprints are obliterated, spindrift curls around corners and floods inside the moment a door is cracked. In the turbulent approach to the buildings, the wind-blown snow is chaotic and fierce, its energy concentrated, and the first steps into a […]

Far out along a flag line, movement. If it’s a bird, it’d be the first of the spring.  Couldn’t be our crew–all inside except me. The arrival of a polar bear is highly unlikely, however disturbing. Then what? I squat down, eyes still on the flag line, and watch in disbelief as the flag line itself warps […]

My fellow Summit science techs, Jason and Marci, have a basic grounding in my duties. And I have a few days experience with their tasks. This cross-training allows us some flexibility, in case one of us got sick or needed a hand during a busy period. On our cross-training days, instead of heading out to the TAWO lab as […]

With a few shorthand scratches, I logged the height of the last of 121 bamboo poles, then tucked away my clipboard and headed back towards my stash of gear. There had been no accumulation or scouring since last I’d measured–no change in the reach of these poles above the snow surface–and I’d skied out along perfectly crisp ski tracks from the […]