From The Field

November 21, 2003

5:54 AM

Brian Grigsby

SUCCESSFUL EXPEDITION!

After 4 weeks of intense studies, and training, the team is now headed back to sea level. ALL of the team goals that were established by the team were successfully accomplished. As they head back to Antofagasta, planning is already occuring for next year, and how they are going to analyze the new data.

That is the task of each scientist and the goal of scientific exploration itself. To find out new information, and extend the knowledge we already have about our environment. This year was a first on many accounts:

(1) Successful free diving at the one of the highest lakes on Earth,

(2) Successful transmision of live vital signs from 20,000 feet from the CPOD units; team members were monitored to understand more about the affects of high altitude on the human body. This information will assist other scientists studying in similar environments, as well as astronauts that will fly on the International Space Station,

(3) A full year of scientific data was gathered to evaluate the effects of extreme environments on organisms and,

(4) continued data gathering of the geothermal properties of this unique environment.

Video, pictues and further field updates are on their way, and will be posted as they arrive from the field.

Continued...

November 19, 2003

8:52 AM

Gregory Kovacs

To the Summit and back...

First things first - a lesson learned. Do not try to boot up your laptop at 19,000+ ft at well below freezing! Mine got fried. At first, I thought it was the hard drive (had to be, right?, something mechanical), but no, it seems to be something on the motherboard. In any case, I was unable to send email.

One thing I forgot from the last update... On the the evening before we climbed for real, we were treated to an amazing display in the sky. As far as we could tell, we were looking at lenticular clouds (the kind that form on the leeward sides of mountains) that had separated from their origins and drifted right over to our refuge.

Things were uneventful overnight on the 12th at Camp 1, but the winds on the tents were impressive, and only a tiny fraction of what we would encounter later at Summit Camp...

On the 13th, climbed to Summit Camp, set up the tents, and got ready for an exciting day on the 14th - exploration of the summit crater. That night, the tents were really blown upon, but stayed in place. Not easy to sleep at this altitude and with all of the racket, but somehow we got a few Z's.

On the 14th, we clambered over the top to view the summit lake - the highest lake in the world. What a sight! It is not all that large (maybe 100 m or so across), but a beautiful color. Before we put the divers in the water, I took some underwater shots by hand, to show how clear the water was. The visibility was over 30 feet.

Then I wired up Nathalie Cabrol so we could measure her heart rate and oxygen saturation while diving. In her dry suit, she reported hardly any notice of cold, and an enjoyable high-altitude aquatic experience (about 19,200 ft). You should have seen the ice that formed on her dry suit after she emerged from the water....

With the water work safely over, we retreated to the Summit Camp and I carried out an experiment that was a key mission objective for the medical side of the expedition - live transmission of vitals from a high-altitude, remote location to NASA (Palo Alto and to a group at a conference in Monterey).

That night, the winds again whipped the tents to an amazing level - winds were estimated at 50 - 60 knots at peaks.

On the 15th, a smaller team went back to the summit lake to finish up some science work, and the remainder of the crew packed up the Summit Camp. We hooked up after a few hours, and descended together to the refuge altitude of about 14,300 ft in approximately four hours.

In the coming days, we hope to be able to analyze and comment on the data we collected.

Continued...

November 18, 2003

10:02 AM

Rick Fitzpatrick

Great science continues, with the team completing testing at the Lagunas before returning to the United States at the end of the week.

Much work remains to be done, with the team already thinking about next years return to the mountain. Setting up experiments which will stay through the year on the mountain, and gathering data from this years expedition keeps the teams day full, with much great science still going on.

Record keeping being critical to good science, the team is taking notes, pictures and samples to document their findings.

Extreme environments require extreme equipment! While spending almost 3 full days on the volcano at the lake and summit camp, temperatures became very cold and winds were severe, reaching 55 miles per hour at the tent camp.

One of the computers literally froze; and did not recover, proving that as tough as laptops can be, they are subject to the harsh conditions of this incredible mountain. No data was lost, as the findings are uploaded daily.

More to come!

Continued...

November 17, 2003

12:05 PM

Brian Grigsby

The team made it back to the refuge safely, and all are doing well, but exhausted. On Sunday November 16th, the team participated in a LIVE webcast with a classroom at the Exploratorium. The webcast archive can be found here.

You must download the free version of real player in order to see the archive footage. Students in the audience were able to interact with Dr. Nathalie Cabrol as she described the team's studies not only in the surrounding lagunas, but high atop Licancabur.

After spending 2-days at the top of the 20,000 foot Licancabur, the team has brought back some amazing pictures and video of the climb. In the coming days, we will be posting some of these pictures, and field updates as they come in....stay tuned!!

Continued...