Haughton-Mars Project (HMP-2001 REPORT: 010628)
By: Dr. Pascal Lee
Snow conditions at Haughton Crater on Devon Island still do not allow
a safe landing by Twin Otter. There is too much snow on the airstrip
for a wheeled landing, too little for a landing on skis. The only way
in at this time is by helicopter. There is no helicopter available in
Resolute Bay right now, but the one chartered by the Noranda mineral
exploration company will be arriving tomorrow and we’ve arranged to use
it to fly a few team members to Haughton Crater at the earliest opportunity.
Currently, the plan goes as follows.
A First Air Twin Otter will be chartered to fly a forward team comprising
John Schutt, Joe Amarualik, Samson Ootoovak, Gordon “Oz” Osinski, Frank
Schubert, and a sixth person TBA to Thomas Lee Inlet, on the shores of
Jones Sound, a few miles from Haughton Crater. A Twin Otter should be able
to land safely at Thomas Lee on a snow-free gravel bar by the sea. There,
the party would be met by a helicopter flying in from the Noranda Camp
located one hour away on Grinnell Peninsula, in the northern part of Devon
Island.
The helicopter, an A-Star chartered from the company Guardian Helicopters,
will then shuttle the six-person forward team to the HMP Base Camp site in
two or three short roundtrip hops from Thomas Lee Inlet. The Twin Otter
would then fly back to Resolute Bay while the helicopter would head back to
the Noranda Camp.
John Schutt, Base Camp Manager for HMP-2001 and the designated field leader
of this deployment and Oz will then spend a day or two shovelling the
airstrip to clear it of wet snow, while Frank Schubert, leader of the FMARS
habitat construction effort, Joe Amarualik and Samson Ootoovak will begin finishing
work inside the FMARS habitat immediately. As soon as the runway is
sufficiently dry, Twin Otters will be sent in to begin the main “put-in” operations and
HMP-2001 will begin in earnest.
Such late departures of the snow cover are somewhat uncommon but not really
unexpected. Some years the snow is gone early, other years it lingers around
longer. The planning of our field activities take this possibility into
account and no substantial impact on this year’s research program is
anticipated.
