Second day of field work

On the second day of field work, we were going to get a real early start, of course that is if you get out of your sleeping bag. So we got a late start, but that was ok because it took only an hour reach Dome C (below picture).

We spent a good chunk of the day exploring Dome C, looking at enclaves and breaking rocks. Upon investigation, it was hard to tell what rocks were part Dome C and the Chaos Jumbles. It was also hard to find a fresh piece of the host dacite for Dome C, most of the rocks were highly altered. I did find all three types of enclaves, but the fine grained enclaves were not as abundant as the coarse grained and acicular enclaves. Then we headed east for Dome E (below picture).

Dome E was a fairly steep hike, but it was back in the tree line and did not have as many dangerous loose jagged blocks to hike over. There was still abundant enclaves, but many were smaller than a foot. Also this rock appeared harder, or maybe I was just tired from swinging my sledge hammer all afternoon. So we worked until late afternoon and started to head back, by then we over 4 challenging miles from the car. We had a decision to make, go back the way we came and have to climb up and over several large ridges to get back to the Chaos Lake Trail or make a straight line over the Chaos Jumbles and walk along road to get back to the car. So we opted for the last choice and that was still tiring.

This last photo was a beautiful sunset over Manzanita Lake, there was a bunch of people fishing, it was quiet and peaceful and it was a great way to end the day.

Heads up for the last day of field work, it involved the biggest elevation gain of the weekend!