busy busy bad weather...

Yes, I have been busy for the last couple of days. the weather has been crap here.
on the 26th the werather was fine here but it closed down on Daneborg. the twin otter with the visitors to Daneborg stranded here due to bad weatehr at daneborg. from then on we have been 25 people on the station. My new partner until august , Hansi ariived.
this means a lot of work and a lot of people hehe.
forskolen started their 100 km race at 1857...
on the 27th we finished the runway and the apron and clearing the road to the water lake.
The weather was still bad on Daneborg, so everyone had to stay here again.
it was light snow and wind most of the day, but fairly good weather.
on the 28th we got the bad weather from Daneborg. the wind peaked between 72 and 74 knots and heavy snow.
5 minutes before the peak the pilots had just finished turning the plane into the wind. it was a bit exciting to see if the plane was still there when the weather cleared again. YES, it was!!!
most of our roads got covered in snow and we got some snow drifts on the runway.
this morning the weather was still bad, but we started clearing the roads, only to be hit by even worse weather, snow and wind and -4 degrees. it was impossible to keep the roads clear so we drove the vehicles into the garage just waiting for the weather to settle...someday ;0)
the rest of the day we have spent maintaining some of the vehicles and putting up a new radiator in the Vappe-house.
cheers

more snow

i put out some more pictures from today.

we had to put on our skis to move around on the station...

the weather is a bit better, but still bad enough...

it´s supposed to clear up this evening or night???

work work

this morning we had to go out in the snowy weather. the whole station is burried in snow. first we had to dig our way over to the generators. remove snow from the generator room. then we had to clear the air shaft from snow and finally we had to remove 3 metres of snow on the garage, before it gets to heavy. so we are pretty nackered right now. i wish it would stop snowwing...

forskolen is stuck in the middle of the fjord, the winds out there was between 30 and 40 this morning, covering everything in snow. one of the tents even got burried, sp the students had to move in to an other tent...

i put out some more pictures

just another day...

the weather is still bad here. we have 25 knots and lots of snow coming down on us.
the roads we cleared yeasterday are completely covered in snow and the runway is burried...arggg
some places where there wasn't snow yeasterday we have snow drifts more than 3 metres high.
there will be some digging when it stops snowing...
it's -4

cheers

more bad weather

Last night it started blowing and snowing. this morining it's still snowing heavilly and we have a bit of wind.
it's really annoying with all this snow, since we have to clear the roads and the runway again. this will be the third time in 3 weeks. i just hope it will not take 4 days like last time.
today we will try to clear the road out to the water lake, so that we can get some water for the station. we need around 8 000 litres!

forskolen is lying in their tents 3.5 km from the cabin in Vælddalen...

an other day on the move...

the morning light had just broken the clouds, Hugger and i were on the move to find forskolen, somewhere in the fjord. after some driving with our snow scooters we found them. the had just broken camp and where heading for Vælddal which is a cabin across the fjord. the going was tough and the cold was biting at -30. it was decided that Hugger and I would make a tack to the cabin, some 18 km away. in no time and with a great scenery in front of us, we pushed the throttle and flew across the snow, occasionally breaking to avoid the treacherous peaces of ice hiding below the surface.

at the cabin we dug out the door and had a look inside. everything was in order.

we went on a short sigth-seeing  before heading back the same way as we came.

after some video and pictures of the man-hauling party we hurried back home, due to cold fingers and some unstable weather heading our way.

there are 7 new pictures out now... 

on the move...

at 10 o´clock this morning the 3 instructors strapped their pulks on and headed towards the fjord ice.  I took my snow scooter and made a track in the deep snow. last night we got 20 cm of snow. 

This moment we are having heavy snow and wind, meaning that our runway is covered in snow. meaning a lot of work for Hugger and me, again again...CRAPP

During my trip to the fjord, a fog appeared. the temperature dropped 9 degrees. the only place without fog was around the station.

After driving around the students taking pictures  i went back home. Hugger and I then made a ski track and went for a ski trip. the weather this afternoon has just been getting worse.

Forskolen only made 12 km in 6 hours, but they will learn from it. it´s not the distance that counts! some of my dogs looked a bit tired and unhappy about their new job, since they are used to be running around freely. hehe

I put some more pictures on my gallery

 

Departure of Forskolen

This morning Forskolen left Mestersvig station on 4-5 days pulk trip around the fjord. they spilt up into 3 teams, where 2 of them went to the cottage Hamna and the last one to skida. here they will stay for the night. tomorrow they will merge together on the fjord enroute to Vælddal Depot on the other side of the fjord. the 3 instructors will join them tomorrow.
each pulk team has 2 dogs aiding them. the pulks are heavy. loaded with a HF-radio, a riffle, a sirius tent of 15 kg, dog food, fuel, and food for 7 days. Each member is also carrying a rucksack with a sleeping bag and personal kit. this week they will get enough to eat and drink and they will have to use everything that they have learned so far on the winter course...

the weather is a bit unstable, with clouds and a temperature around -18. the forecast says it will be bad weather tomorrow, lots of snow and a storm. not good for them or fore our runway...

news from the Arctic outpost...

I made time for writing and putting pictures on the blog!!!

On sunday the bad weather ceased and we could start clearing the runway of snow. we got 1 metre of snow, so the clearing was quite difficult. some of the snow drifts were

almost 4 metres high. the speed on the runway with the snowblower was very slow. it took between 30 and 50 min to reach the other end of the runway. during the 4 days it took to clear the runway and the apron we managed to drive an iron pipe throug the snowblower. this gave some hours of delay, but didn't cause any severe damage to the drum!

The Sirius Forskole had their survival week. it started with them going through an hole in the ice and thereby getting all wet and loosing their equipment. during the next days the survived with what they had in their emergency bag. they dug out an snow cave and shot a musk ox and found some drift wood. during the days the made a few orientation marches. the last night out, they moved to Hamna (Cottage) which was 8 km away. they built a pulk of the musk ox skin and spent the next 4 hours reaching the cottage. at the arrival they found the cottage full of snow and without coal. after removing the snow and getting in the lea of the wind. the found some gas and some wood and some old cans of food, therebye surviving the arctic.

On Friday a Challenger plane (jet) from the airforce, landed with some people from the office. they were making a 3-4 hours inspection of the station and the surroundings. too all luck for forskolen they where "seen" and later rescued by an Twin Otter ( in this case a snow scooter with Vidar).

the 4 journalists left with the challenger and sledge team 5 the day after...

clearing the runway...

since yeasterday we have been clearing the runway of snow. there is an enourmous amount of snow on the station and on the runway. some of the snow drifts are 4 metres high. this creates a problem for the snowblower that can't cut more than 1,5 - meters of snow. then we have to use our hydrema to pull down the top layer of snow. this takes time...

on monday a c-130 hercules was supposed to land but due to the bad weather and the snow it wasn't possible to clear the runway.

yeasterday we had a Bell 222 helicopter here with a doctor. they came to supervise the exercise where the sirius trainees went through the ice into the cold water. it was -18 in the air and around zero in the water...brrr

today the trainees have been out hunting for some food and last night they dug out a snow cave with their mess kit!

Hugger and I have been clearing snow all day. we finished at 2200

tomorrow is another day...

snowing snowing

it just want stop snowing. very morning we have to dig out the generators both indoors and outdoors. the whole station is drowning in snow. february is supposed to be the coldest month, but instead it has turned into the most snowing month...

on monad a C-130 is suposed to land here, but if this continues we are not able to clear the runway in time!

fore 3 days a twin otter has been trying to fly from iceland to Danmarkshavn weather station, but due to the bad weather it's not possible...yet

still crappy weather...

Yeasterday morning there was a break in the weather. SH2 packed their sledge and prepared for departure. Hugger and I prepared the scooters and loaded 50 kgs of dog food on them. then we drove across the fjord to Sporvognen depot. there is a cabin which is quite nice.

we made the 30 something km in one hour. on the way the weather closed in on us, so we just dropped the dogfood in the cabin and hurried back home.
later that afternoon SH2 made it to the cabin.

In the mean time forskolen was doing an orientation march and hill training. Running up and down of a small hill to practise and encrease their skills of skiing.

Hugger and I had to dig out the markers for the runway so that we have something to line the snowblower in when we start excavating the runway...

in the afternoon the bad weather picked up again, with heavy winds and heavy snow.

we broke the wind record from october. yeasterday it peaked at 48 knots.

Today the wind settlede, but it's still snowing heavy. this evening the weather is supposed to get really bad with more snow and between 40 and 50 knots wind.

We have huge problems with the snow on the station. there is snow everywhere and we can't start clearing it before the weather gets stabile...

Forskolen on the move...

the weather has been absolutely crappy today, it will not stop snowing or blowing. we managed to clear some of the roads so that we could get some water for the station. now that we are 18 instead of 2 the water supply doesn't last for long...
the snow was drifting so fast that we almost got stuck on the road on our way back.
we got a new rowing machine, concept 2, it's a beauty!

forskolen has been unpacking their gear and mounting ski bindings on their skis. now they are on a little walk on the runway in tha bad weather...

have a look on my pictures!

Sirius forskole arrived at Mestersvig

At 1409 Z the C-130 Hercules from the Danish Air force landed here at Mestersvig. during the morning the weather had changed from good to worse...

We emptied the plane of 4 pallets of goods, altogether 7 tons. suddenly we were 18 people on the station.

Due to more incoming bad weather we decided to bring everything indoors and finish unpacking during the evening. This was a good move since the weather continued on a worsening course during the evening and the night. today we have -7, 20-30 knots of wind and huge quantities of snow. Later we have to clear some of the roads to get some more water. this will be interesting!

It's quite strange to have all these people here, but good to see them. the last time we saw people was on the 15th of November we a cargo plane landed and stayed here for an hour...

more news will follow...