Saturday, January 17

“heavy” snowfall last night. Flights are delayed. No one remembers such weather in bull pass or wright valley this time of year. Normally sunny and clear, sometimes warmer and milder, sometimes colder and windier. But never so many clouds, and for sure never any snow like we’ve had.

Ziggy made a couple of rock “steps” for us to clean our boots off before entering tent. It helps a little, but still a lot of sand is tracked in. So, Ryan made a large rock threshold, which worked even better. Ziggy also capped off our first 5-gal poop bucket, so a fresh one is ready.

The speakers are running off of solar power, and Ziggy just switched from B.B. King to Nepali music. Last night Paul’s iPod was connected, and everyone took turns choosing songs.

Everyone is reading or writing, Ziggy is still manipulating data on his ToughBook. Paul has made several Sat phone calls, and will explode soon. The snow has mostly melted off the sand in camp, but has made a mess of things. Helo’s are still on weather hold, so we are waiting until they cancel for the day before we make local contingency plans.

It takes a camera battery more than 1 hour to charge from the solar panel under these overcast conditions.

I took some photos of my boots with mountains in the background, and a couple turned out, but I may re-try again later. Paul said to send in to Red Wing.

Ryan and my tent is getting pretty stinky. It is tall enough to stand up in, but then you have to deal with the sock forest. There are cords around the top of the tent to hang things from. Excellent for drying socks, but not so much for aeromatic experiences. Also, when I unzip my jacket or take off my jeans to reveal the odor of my long underwear underneath, it is very bad – immediately obvious. Even worse, the smell when I open the fleece liner inside my sleeping bag. I sleep with that odor all night.

Yesterday while hiking one of the lenses fell out of my glasses. Luckily, into a pocket of little red. I’ve been using my back up pair, but Ziggy was able to repair last night in the Arctic Oven. Always bring a Polish repairman to every field camp. In Poland, one has to be able to repair everything.

We sat around the tent all day, reading, eating, headphones. Very cold, because it was heavy overcast and very windy. Some people slept in their tents for a few hours. Ryan and Pat went up a slope to investigate some features Ryan saw from the air, but turned out to be nothing. However, they found a cross fashioned from scrap wood and wire that had fallen from it’s base, so Ryan brought it down to camp and declared himself ruler of Ryantology.

Around dinner time, the sun came out, so we were able to run an iPod and speakers from solar. Pat comments on DF being wonderful dinner music, and Paul immediately replaces with his iPod and car talk.

Meetballs, Ragu, Rice, and mixed vegetables with peanut sauce, and for dessert, brown bread from a can. BFC Kate had sent a survival card game we felt obligated to play, so we did so wouldn’t embarrass Kate, but it was lame...