Ready to go!

Finally, with two days of delay due to mechanical problems with the skidoos, we are ready to leave the base. Tonight after dinner we will leave for a long, slow journey towards Derwael ice rise (~24 hours). We have several containers (2 kitchen containers, 2 living containers, freezing container (yes that is necessary, because it is not that cold close to the coast!), and a cargo container), and a sledge with a large ice drill on,  pulled by two gigantic, strong Prinoths (the machines you see in the evening preparing your fresh ski tracks). We will sleep in tents, in thick sleeping bags, and the station cook prepared all the food beforehand.

I am looking forward to finally leave, and start the real adventure. I will be offline for a few weeks (can't remember the last time I had that), but I will communicate with my BENEMELT colleagues via satellite phone once in a while. We expect to be back at the station in mid-december. Until then, you will receive some short, and hopefully happy, updates on this blog. Au revoir!

In the meantime, I was interviewed by IPF regarding our plans. You can read this interview here. 

Below some pictures of my first try with the brand new Kovack shallow firn drill that I will use in the field to drill firn cores. Interestingly, the cores showed that we had virtually zero accumulation this year at Princess Elisabeth.