Today is the day. Two helo's took off already and mine will depart in an hour. The sling load flight was really cool...the helo hovered at 50-foot altitude and gently lifted the string of baggage gathered in two nets. Then they flew off across the sea ice toward the mountains across the bay. Before departing they ran through the emergency landing procedures (for Jordan/Bija/Kevin's flight). They included which switched to turn off if the flight crew are incapacitated to turn off the engine, fuel, and batteries. Three switches...lost in panels saturated with lights and switches...no problem. Bija will be our camp master and make sure we eat, stay alive, etc. Kevin is only there for a few hours to survey the area in case crevasses have appeared since last year. Since we are near the edge of the ice shelf relatively speaking, it's possible it can fracture and produce a deep crack called a crevasse and we want to be sure not to fall into any. Soon Joulien and I will fly out with Julia and Nathan who have volunteered to help us dig out the old station for a few days (buried in about 5 feet of snow). We're planning 2 to 2.5 weeks in the field before returning, depending on how things go.
up, up, and away...
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