Blame it on the Tetons...

Blame it on the Tetons...

In addition to the incredibly vivid dreams I've been having (sound sleep from the exhaustion?), I have been noticing many similarities between this ice sheet experience and my first summer in the Tetons.

To start, the excitement and mild anxiety of heading off into the unknown. An adventure. I had been to the Tetons before, just like I had been to Greenland before. But not as an employee living in Employee Village of Jackson Lake Lodge and not to the ice sheet. A small concept of the surroundings to ease the void of the unexpected.

Strangers from a wide geographic range coming together to spend large amount of time together in close quarters. The Tetons has New Zealanders, Russians, and residents from AZ, PA, MT, WY, CA, LA, etc., etc. The original five here on the ice sheet hail from France, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, and the US. The four 'new' arrivials are three Danes and one more from the US. A few more cultural differences than the regional differences that were realized in the Tetons. All meals are together. When it was just the original five, breakfast was at 7, lunch at 12, dinner anywhere between 9 and midnight. Now that we have a cook, it is very much like the Tetons and the Elegant Elk, with a hearty meal waiting for you. Breakfast at 8, lunch at 1pm, dinner at 7pm. Meals bring the different working groups together, just like the Tetons. The first ten minutes of any meal is without speech. Only the sound of voracious appetites restocking on calories zapped by the cold. After the initial feeding frenzy, conversation, joking, and plans for what’s next are discussed. The meal concludes slowly, with everyone staring at each other hoping for another discussion or inviting topic to delay the return to work and the cold.

Next, the relative isolation from the outside world galvanizing a social group. Even though Jackson Lake Lodge was only 40-50 miles from Jackson Hole, there was a definite feel of isolation. ‘Isolation’ has a more negative connotation than I’m intending. Perhaps the term is secluded. Email addiction hadn’t afflicted society too severely yet (and computer time at the Whistle Pig was hard to come by anyway), cell phones didn’t work at the Lodge, and there was no TV. Few summer employees had vehicles, so for the most part, Jackson Lake Lodge was an island. On the ice, the field leader calls via satellite phone to the home base in Kangerlussuaq once a day to give a report. The first five days in the field there wasn’t any time to set up the special internet connection. Now that the internet is set up, it works only half the time, and there is always a queue to use it. We are only able to access text based email. No surfing for news or pleasure. Much like the Tetons, the evenings are spent sitting around conversing with each other or turning in early to read. Working, eating, and living on top of each other, we’ve established multiple running jokes and themes of discussion: food, cultural differences, U.S. politics, religion, and movies. (The world is definitely more concerned about the upcoming U.S. elections than the U.S. itself. And yes, I realize that there is more interest in the US than normal this year. But the world is even more intrigued.) The camp moral is great and the humor of the people and positive attitudes towards the work makes the days enjoyable.

During the working day, we are now like a small ant army, each with their own roles and specialties. Again, using the Teton analogy as you cruise around camp on a snow mobile you see the different ‘crews’ at work (1st summer: George and Brett at the bellhop station, the Griswold sisters at the front desk, Camelia in the giftshop, Erin & Levi in the warehouse dungeon, Wayne with the maintenance crew, Sarah with the convention thugs. etc., etc.). On the ice sheet: Jim grooming the skiway, Klaus and Hans Christian doing carpentry for the domes, JP messing with the communications, Gäel and I snowblowing trenches, Sebastion helping out where he is needed, and Sverrir moving mountains of snow and fixing everything he touches. The big projects (raising the domes, building the garage, etc.) bring all the person-power together, and then we scatter back to our specific projects.

Days off are also similar to the Tetons. But I should say hours. In the Tetons you had one day off a week. Here we are free from working duties from 5pm Saturday evening to 10AM Sunday morning. Saturday evening is a big party with shirt and ties. And dresses if there were any girls here.

More to come…