"Go Time"

The team reports some good news. After 3 days of snow storms and being stuck in the same place, hey have been given a forecast of good weather for the next few days!  It cleared up this afternoon and they spent about 3 hours digging out camp and packing as much as they could to enable a 4am wake-up, with the intent that they will pack and hit the "road" by ~6am, get to ACT11-A by the afternoon, and start drilling ACT11-C by late afternoon.  

Further, it has snowed enough that the debilitating sastrugi are covered and it is smooth driving.  Evan said there is a chance the ACT11-A cores could be picked up on Sunday, so he states it is "go time."  Needless to say they are motivated to... move. 

Staying Put

The team is staying put for a day or two as a big snow storm has rolled in.  They are actually rooting for this storm to dump a lot of snow as it could cover some of the sastrugi and make driving a lot easier.  Also, they were able to haul all 18 core boxes from ACT11-C, which means they won't have to do any shuttling between sites... which they are quite happy about given their pokey pace!  All still sound great and in good spirits!.

Team makes it to ACT11-C!!! (Despite what the tracker may have us believe)

Great news from the ACT Team - they have made it to ACT11-C.  The core locations noted on the tracker are actually a bit...off.  We have alerted the tracker company and hope the core sites will be updated soon. Evan was very happy to report they had made it to an actual point on the map after several days of very slow driving.  They found their cache of equipment at ACT11-C, but are on the move again today as they will start drilling at their lowest elevation core site ACT11-A first.  It should take them at least 2 days to arrive at ACT11-A.  The team all report high spirits and are excited to be amongst their core locations!

High winds keep the team in place.

Evan reports that the team is staying put for the day because of high winds that arrived this afternoon.  The team spent the morning reinforcing the tents so they were able to hunker down when the wind came in.  They again stressed how the 2 ft - 3 ft stastrugi have really slowed them down, so even with calm winds, they'll be moving quite slow.  All are still upbeat and feeling well.

Holy Sastrugi!

The team reported slow driving today as they navigated through 2 ft. sastrugi on their route to the core sites.  They report sunny skies and COLD temps.  Despite the slow moving (only about 10-15 km/hr) and chilly temps, they all seem to be in good spirits.


Update on "Sastrugi" from Nancy Bryant:

"Are you kidding?  What average aquaintance or family member knows the meaning of that word?  I, of course know of these having read the troubles that Shakelton faced navigating these troublesome snow ridges and ripples that run, oddly enough, parallel to the wind direciton.  The singular form, zastruga, may be more familiar to our friends."

Team makes steady progress.

The team went ~90 km today averaging 25 km/hr. Temps are currently -36 C, with -30 C this morning and around -20 C mid day with light winds around ~8 kts.  The plan is to drive 100 km tomorrow,which leaves 50 km to their first core site, ACT11-C. They are also happy to report that the 48m of Raven core drilled yesterday is already in the freezer at Kanger!

ACT11 team is on the move!

Evan returned to Raven yesterday morning to rejoin the team after his week-long bout with bronchitis. He reports feeling well and is excited to be back with the group.  Clem, Brian, and Terry had remained at Raven and got a head start on the GLISN core, drilling 48 meters already.  The team was busy packing last night and this morning was able to leave Raven and move to their core sites, follow them at: http://www.datatransport.org/act/monitor .