I left Washington at 11:10 on Monday night. Six days, four flights, two airport meat puffs, and a multiple night layover later we have arrived in Cherskiy. The flight from Yakutsk was eventful, the Russian pilots allowed us to enter their cigarette smoke-filled cockpit en route and everyone seemed to be happy to finally be on our way to Cherskiy, but the excitement came to a head as we spotted the Kolyma for the first time. Meandering through the lake-covered terrain served as a reminder why I just spent 6 days flying across the planet, and why I’ll subject myself to mosquitoes and black flies over the next month – this is a special place.

(As an aside, we didn’t let our layover in Yakutsk stop us from thinking about science though. Max ensured we were at least thinking about DOC and CDOM as we tromped around the largest permanent settlement on permafrost).

Exploring the environment around Cherskiy

Arriving in Cherskiy felt a little surreal after a week in transit. The weather was a stark contrast from the 80 degrees (F) in Yakutsk. Cold winds and freezing rain welcomed us as our enthusiastic host Nikita helped us load our bags into the trucks. A short drive through the Siberian town and we got our first view of the notorious Orbita.

Orbita lab

After a delicious lunch of borscht and meat pastries, it was time to get to work. All across the station, bags were being unpacked, bottles put away, and first samples taken. By now most of us have a pretty good idea of what we’ll be looking at here in our short time in the arctic. I”ll be focusing on the lability of carbon from different sources – both the fresh, active organic matter freshly leached into the streams and rivers from melting snow as well as the old (~25,000 years) carbon stored away in the permafrost layer. While both sources may be labile (tasty to microbes) in their own right, the combination of the two sources may result in a priming effect that would ultimately allow more carbon to be consumed and more CO2 to be released.

As said in almost every blog post thus far, spirits are high. Last night I took a moment to stand outside and survey this place I’d call home for the next three weeks and came to the only possible conclusion – this is pretty cool. I’m living on a barge thousands of miles away from anything familiar in the NE corner of Siberia with 30 other excited, interesting, and scientifically enthusiastic people. And even though it’s cold outside, the fire is roaring and the mosquitoes haven’t shown up. Who could complain?

Home sweet home