First day drilling

After days of high winds, the weather improved. Beautiful and cold (-20 C), so we managed to get out to the drill in the afternoon. We have 5 team members this time - Jack, Jason, me, and Delia are the drillers and Anna is the PI who is up to get informed on how things worked.

We got to the sled, dug it out, and then Delia towed it to the next hole. Unfortunately, due to fresh snow, the piston bully got stuck and we had to wait to be saved by Pat in his tractor. We spend the time trying to dig the piston bully out and I got acquainted with the rifle. Sturdy, but old.

Things were simpler after that. We moved the drill, got the tent raised, and got the drill hanging. We started drilling down to 6 ish meters and then came back for dinner. Sunday is the base weekend day, so Jason made me a quite delightful omelet.

Some thoughts - the drill has a spectacular number of steps and it will be a challenge to lower and raise with just 2 people when the other drillers leave, but the Science team has said they are willing to lend us a person on moving days.

Sun Dogs in the morning

Our snow buried drill rig

Pat saving our Piston Bully

Our drill tent - ready to go

Delia climbing the tower

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