Little Dome C - Beyond EPICA Drilling Site (75.29917 degS, 122.44516 degE)

Situation Report #23, 24. December 2021

Personnel @LDC: Saverio Panichi (ENEA, Camp Leader), Carlo Barbante (ISP-CNR, PI), Olivier Alemany (IGE), Romain Duphil (IGE), Matthias Hüther (AWI), Calogero Monaco (ENEA), Philippe Possenti (IGE), Michele Scalet (ENEA), Jakob Schwander (unibe), Thomas Stocker (unibe), Remo Walther (unibe)

Personnel @DC: Gregory Teste (IGE)

Weather at LDC: sunny, few clouds

Meteo at DC 6 pm: T = −35°C, Wind = 5 knt, Wind Chill T = −38°C

Another trip by PB300 to Dome Concordia took place today to stock up on essential food and exchange of Giacomo for Romain. Giacomo, thank you for installing the complex communication infrastructure consisting of satellite and VHS. Romain returned with a much needed piece for the drilling tower.

In the drilling tent, packing of reaming and casing tools and infrastructure was carried out and place was made available for the construction of the BEOIC drilling tower. Otherwise, preparations for the LDC-BEOIC Christmas Dinner took a good part of the afternoon.

Saverio and his assistants (Calogero and Philippe) prepared a stellar 7-course dinner: Cozze gratinate, Capesante al forno, Salmone affumicato, Gamberetti ai ferri, Insalata di polipo e patate, Zuppa di Pesce, Gamberoni al cognac. Drinks started with Champagne and Aperol Spritz, Burgogne Aligoté, and Caffè, and for desert: Zanzibar Torrone and Cannoli scomposti. Grazie infinite!

At RADIX, unfortunately we could not maintain the drilling pace of yesterday. The day was filled with hole cleaning, filtering runs, and removing some ice particles from the RADIX motor. In the words of Jakob: “Just a normal polar day.”

Radix drilling depth: 159.9 m

The entire LDC-BEOIC Team wishes our readers a Merry Christmas and relaxing festive days! Stay tuned to our reports. Thank you.

Thomas Stocker and Carlo Barbante