The clouds are low over the Saint Elias Mountains, to the west. From their staging camp on the shore of Kluane Lake, the ICE2001 team scans the weather bulletins for a forecast of a clear sky in their future. It doesn't look promising. The staging camp is actually the Kluane Research Station of the Arctic Institute of North America and the AINA is well represented on the ICE2001 team by Gerry Holdsworth from Calgary.

For a day or two, any bad weather is not a serious factor. The team still has some necessary preparations, in particular organizing equipment to make the deployment on the mountain as efficient as possible. The team can also identify and pick up the odd item of equipment. For instance, some small sleds (pulkas) were late arriving and are being fitted with towing and tie-down ropes. Fuel is being distributed among containers to reduce unit weight for handling and flying.

The teams destined for the high drill camp at Prospector-Russell Col and the intermediate camp at King Col will soon be ready for the fixed-wing flight to the third (and lowest) camp on the Quintino Sella Glacier. There will be a third team, that will eventually occupy the Quintino Sella camp, but it is not scheduled to arrive at Kluane for a week, at which time it, too, will be flown to the Quintino Sella site for scientific studies on the lower part of the Logan massif.

And all the time at Kluane, there are discussions on fine tuning the scientific activities and particularly on anticipating the hundred and one unplanned events on the mountain that are part of the way of doing business in one of Canada's most remote and inhospitable locations.