A shovel marks the toilet at Greenland's Swiss Camp. Photo by Louis Frei, ©2007 Endeavors; click to enlarge.
Endview
by Jason Smith
Survival by shovel.
At the three-tent Swiss Camp on Greenland’s ice sheet, a shovel marks the toilet — but it can also save your life. Greenland’s low temperatures and harsh winds can quickly become hazardous, so researchers use shovels to dig for shelter during storms and cold winds. “The shovel is a symbol of survival,” says geologist Jose Rial.
“You don’t travel around without one or two of them.” (See “An Ominous Rumble of Ice”.)
Louis Frei, a surveyor who accompanied Rial to Greenland, took this picture around midnight as the sun dipped to kiss the horizon and the wind began to gust.
