Upgrade Update #3

People in red parkas walking forward, away from parked plane behind them.
Vivian O’Dell, IceCube/NSF

As the season progresses, the IceCube Upgrade team continues to grow. Eight more arrivals last week brought the South Pole IceCube population up to 29. As newcomers acclimated, the “old-timers” kept up with the snow grooming around drill camp—things are looking good there. They continue to shovel out other structures and have been “harvesting” hoses, pulling them from storage and readying for use, among many other tasks. With much painstaking effort, they moved the installation towers to the drill camp site, standing tall with the IceCube Lab seen behind them in the background.
 

Upgrade drill camp with snow-groomed paths.
Kurt Studt, IceCube/NSF
Snow accumulated high between storage containers
Emmett Krupczak, IceCube/NSF
Bunch of large, yellow hoses laid out on the ice.
Chanda Sinsabvarodom, IceCube/NSF
Two drilling towers set up at the Pole with the IceCube Lab seen between them in the background.
Chanda Sinsabvarodom, IceCube/NSF