-40 deg C, wind 2 kts

Snow pits are a fundamental method used in glaciology.  They basically involve digging a fairly large, “human trap” sized pit, as John puts it, and looking at the stratigraphy (or layering), density, and snow grain sizes at different depths in the pit.  Other sampling can be done for chemistry, isotopes, and other snow physical properties—anything you might happen to be interested in, really.  In this pit, I was measuring thermal conductivity (how well heat is conducted in the snow) and air permeability (how easily air can move through the snow) for Mary Albert, and Tom and I collected isotope samples.  Measurement of the ratio of heavy isotopes of water in the pit give an indication of the temperature when the snow fell, since you tend to find heavier isotopes during colder periods.

So, as one of my close friends pointed out to me, I did end up going to school for a long time to end up digging ditches, basically, which is what his father had told him to go to school to avoid doing.  But, using this relatively low-tech and straight-forward method, we can gleam a lot of data about recent conditions at points we are traversing on the ice sheet. This pit was just the first of several I will work on this season. 

Snow grains from the pit I have been working on.  These grains are from a "hoar" layer.  Hoar layers form in summer months, and are characterized by large, faceted grains which grow from vapor movement in the snow pack.  They are my favorite to work with in the pit.  (Zoe Courville)