Caribou

ok, I'll try to post a picture...
This afternoon we went out for a short ride the the area where the caribou hang out. We see them every day on our way to the survey area, but I don't usually take my camera into the field, so didn't get any pictures until today. It was snowing quite hard and I used 400 ISO, so the image is quite grainy.

28.8 Kbps

No pictures today, I am on a 28.8 kbps dial-up connection.
Well I made it to Stephenville (Not actually Cornerbrook) The job here was described to me as a "tough job" and that it is! The grid is on the side of a steep hill, some sections are almost vertical. Our tactick has been to ride the Skidoo to the top by a less steep route then basically slide down the hill attempting to stop at the pickets and take our readings. The snow is very deep here, the pickets (1 metre long) were placed in snow that was over waist deep and now a lot of them are buried.
Today there is a wind warning and snowfall warning, We went up to the grid to continue our survey, but the weather was too bad, there was a lot of drifting snow, zero visability and parts of the trail had been filled by snow slides. The wind makes it hard to survey, but the blowing snow causes white-outs, which can be very disorientating, so it is the first time in my year as an operator with Crone that I have had to call a weather day.

And we're out!

After a day of digging we finally hit the road. In this image you can see the snow was up to Michelle's shoulder height, with even more piled up where we had to throw it. After getting al that shifted I had to go and remove the truck from the drift where I "parked" it the night before.

Getting there...

Digging out took a while, and several cups of coffee. This image is looking down the driveway toward the road which lies about 3 m from the shovel.

Supost to be going to Cornerbrook

I was supost to be going to Cornerbrook today for about a week of work, however, the weather had other plans.
I had been attending a metting at the GEO centre all day, so I didn't see how bad the weather was getting untill about 5 pm when I left. The snow flakes were about the size of ping pong balls, and there were lots of them falling. Usually large flakes are an indication that there will be little snow, but you could tell these fellas ment busines! The drive home was long and hard going, snow was already deep on the roads and drifting with near zero visibility in places. When I got home I beached the truck in a snow drift by the house and helped Michelle dig her way onto the drive way.