Unloading the Twin Otter at Quintino Sella Glacier.

Four team members spent last night on the mountain, at the base camp on Quintino Sella Glacier. The other five members (Mike Demuth, Chris Zdanowicz, Steve Bertollo, Kaplan Yalcin and Hċkan Samuelsson), and the remaining two-thirds of the equipment were flown up today. During the breaks in the weather on Tuesday and Wednesday, it took the Twin Otter five round trips to ferry the ice core drill, other scientific gear, the drill hut, shelters, fuel, food, skis, sleds, personal gear and, of course, the nine team members themselves up to Quintino Sella Glacier.

In all, about two and a half thousand kilos were lifted from 800 metres to 2,600 metres elevation.

ICE2001 gear laid out on the snow at Quintino Sella base camp.

The people at Quintino Sella Glacier are now establishing the base camp and soon will begin the slow trek on skis to set up the higher camps, one at King Col for scientific studies and the other at Prospector-Russell Col for scientific studies and to extract the 200 metre long ice core. But before the base camp is left behind, the heavy equipment must be organized and stored for pickup by helicopter in two or three weeks, when the two higher camps are occupied.

An interesting note is that the skis used on the Twin Otter are the same skis that were used by a different Twin Otter, the one that made headlines in April by rescuing an American doctor from the Amundsen-Scott Station at the South Pole. The transfer of the skis was made not long before the aircraft used by ICE2001 was dispatched to Kluane.