Northern snow is constantly moved by the wind in the tundra, nine months a year, which makes it stiff like an emery grain. Which one, now with a gusts of wind, began hit my face and knock out involuntary tears. The same time wind began to whistle and to howle in a theodolite tripod, generating small and gray whirls above the surface of the snow. That is famous and widespread phenomenon in the polar regions. After than snow whirls increasingly began to come off the surface, rising higher and higher, to the theodolite's optics, so now in tube not a single dark spot was already visible. Also for a quolity job, there were not enough light, from the tiny bulbs, which the Senior worker Badretdinov fixed on top of each topographic pole, together with frost-resistant batteries. That is why, just gray haze filled all the view of the optic’s device.
I swore mentally: «Black Blizzard is coming! Damn the weather!». Now I need to stop work in order to get to the CUB before the gusts of wind lift into the air a suspension of the impenetrable snow. I do not want again to hide myself in the Partridge's igloo! Becouse once in my life, i already sat under the snow, in a ravine, more than two days. When i was trembling with cold and damp, in the wet clothes. Also, i constantly cleaned the breathing hole in dense snow so as not to suffocate from suffocation. In addition, all the time I had to fiercely fight drowsiness. That time i felt what it means to be in the Partridge's igloo and this unpleasant experience, was enough for my whole life.
After a few minutes, I finally gave up. Therefore, I closed the theodolite with a special tin lid and folded the tripod, securely placing the instrument on my back, holding the strap over my shoulder. Then I put the accounting journal in my pocket and fastened my feet in the ski bindings and moved to catch up with the detachment. I was annoyed because, due to the pre-storm weather, for almost two hours I took measurements on only one theodolite move! So during this time, the guys made more than three kilometers of clearing and now, was waiting for me, they simply stood idle next to the frozen lake, at the end of the planned route.
Perhaps the reader already understood that the snow on the Taimyr Peninsula is different from the mainland. This snow is heavy and compacted under its own weight and turns into a snow stone. What turns the surface of the tundra into a strong crust, like a sandpaper, on which skis do not go. In the topographic detachment, we do not use ski, like athletes with ski poles. Because everything that we need for work, we carry in our hands. I mean that we keep in hands sawn wooden lath , batteries and bulbs for lighting pickets.