Saturday 12 April

This is a bulletin by John based on satellite calls with  Sakari, Emilie and Venkata:

Venkata, Mike and Sakari flew in with 3 helicopter loads to Kinnvika on 9 April. Temperatures are -25 to -15C, but quite nice weather, some fog on the ice cap. Lost of digging needed to open up the garages and other buildings. So far only managed to get 1 snow scooter running.

Sauna building of the Kinnvika station in 2007.

The drill tower was too large to fit inside the normal Airlift helicopter, and on 11 April a different helicopter was used to transport the drill directly to the summit location on Vestfonna. this is not the
exact drilling site, a radar survey by Rickard Pettersen will be done quickly to find a good spot to drill within  a few kilometres of our initial drop off point.

Emilie and Laura flew in 11 April along with the rest of the spring first session crew. So quite a busy camp now. Lots of activity trying to sort out which equipment and food to be sent up to the summit, and the logistics guys continue to get the snow mobiles up and running. The main problem seems to be locating cargo that was sent in summer – so far several tents are missing, most likely packed in obscure boxes. But the guys can manage with what we have there already. All the science gear
was found after some investigation and confusion and satellite calls to Poland and Finland. Venkata notes that batteries discharge surprisingly rapidly in the cold weather, and recharging is painfully slow. Email is not yet working. – John