Arrived at Summit, already collecting data!

One never knows, and I approached this morning's flight with a healthy dose of skepticism.  But our flight went off without a hitch, and we arrived at Summit in time for lunch!  I feel like that almost never happens. 

Flying from sea level to over 10,000 feet, I always feel a bit winded for the first day or so. And indeed, the camp manager, Phil (with whom I'd spent the winter here in 1997-1998), told all the new arrivals that the main job right now was to take it easy and get acclimatized. 

But we had some things we could do, in spite of the need to go slow.  Our first survey site is very close to the main camp, and so as soon as our gear arrived from the plane, we were able to take the short walk out to the site and get our GPS station mounted up. 

 Joanna, getting the GPS survey system ready.  It's powered by the small brick-like battery in the corner of the box.

 The system installed and logging.  This pole is right next to the casing for the GISP2 borehole, drilled years ago over 3000 meters to bedrock to collect an ice core record of past climate.  GISP2 is really the reason this camp is here at all.

Our primary goal on this trip is to make precise GPS survey measurements of the locations of a network of stakes, installed last year.  The motion of these stakes over the course of the year will tell us about how the ice sheet is moving in the region.  More on that tomorrow!