Kurt Studt, IceCube/NSF Last week’s excitement for the IceCube Upgrade project centered around moving the drill tower and operations structures into place. The location is over hole 87, which will be the first Upgrade hole (the IceCube detector has 86 holes). The installation team is also making progress on setting up the area for acceptance…

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…

Kurt Studt, IceCube/NSF After the first group of IceCubers spent a couple of days acclimating and reviewing the work needed to get the drill camp up and running, the crew went straight to work. The first order of business? Shoveling. And lots of it. They managed to shovel out most of the buildings in the…

Vivian O’Dell, IceCube/NSF The first week of the final field season for the IceCube Upgrade started out with delays. Figures. Of course, even though that’s not what you hope for, uncooperative weather at the South Pole is a fact of life, something to deal with in stride. The first group of IceCubers for the Upgrade…