One small step...

One small step for a man and his dog
(Photo: Haughton Mars Project/Sarah Thompson)


Sea Ice 1
(Photo: Haughton Mars Project/Sarah Thompson)


Salute
(Photo: Haughton Mars Project/Sarah Thompson)


Yesterday, I took part in a moderately nontrivial traverse from base camp to the coast and back again. It was a 14-hour round-trip, truly punishing, across mile after mile of boulder fields by ATV. We'd cross a boulder field, then a river, then some mud, then another boulder field, then another boulder field with bigger boulders, then a boulder field with steep slopes... yeah, hard work. When I got back my hands were sufficiently sore from holding the handlebars that I had to get dangerpudding to put a plate of food in the microwave oven for me because I couldn't pick it up. But... the view at the other end was astonishing. As usual, I'm feeling the lack of Photoshop here, so these three are just really intended to be a taster, but I shot something like 800 frames, so hopefully There Will Be More later.

Today and tomorrow I'm not due to leave camp. Wednesday/Thursday there is a planned two-day megatraverse, but since I'm supposed to be flying out to Resolute on Thursday I don't know yet what I'll be doing in relation to the traverse.

Weather is getting noticeably worse, now. Night is almost dark, and it's much colder. This field season is the longest ever at HMP, and there is now a nonzero chance of being snowed in, which would be a problem since the Twin Otters won't be able to land. Maybe NASA will spring for heli pickup...