JNP 2008/2009 The Interdimensional Adventure
Week 1: This year's LN and FH challenge
While poking around in the debris before the kids arrived, Eli (Little Nords coach) stumbled across an envelope. Inside was a letter from Lyra Belacqua, a middle school student in the Jordan Prepatory Middle School for the Mystic Arts and Interdimensional Sciences. She explained that she is from a parallel universe. Her father Lord Asriel (an evil scientist) is conducting experiments to connect our world with hers. When these gates are opened, the interdimensional fabric folds and melts, creating cracks in each world. The first gate was opened last Wednesday and she predicted that we should have seen a crack form in our world. This indeed was the case. She enlisted the kids help to find the interdimensional gates and help close them. Everyone was on board despite being informed of the possible dangers involved--armoured polar bears being among them. In the afternoon, Eli's group accousted a man with a dog daemon. He was muttering something about gates and crystals and 'must tell Lord Asriel', and the kids quickly realized that he was a spy from Lyra's world. The Speeders (Eli's group name) attempted to intercept him by heading to the Iron Horse trail, but he got away.
Lyra and Lyra's parallel world have been written about in the book and movie 'The Golden Compass'. Here is the trailer:
Week 2
Dear friends,
Shortly after my last message, I got the first solid word of my father's location and where he is building the double pentagon interdimensional iugoiameter. Iugo means connect in Latin and meter means measurer. He is in Svalbard, land of the white bear. I left immediately for Norway where I caught the freighter. The tourist office had nice things to say about Svalbard.. "Offering some of the wildest and most dramatic nature and wildlife experiences one can imagine, Svalbard can truly be the peak of your visit to Norway. With its majestic mountains, mighty glaciers and exciting fauna, this archipelago in the Arctic Ocean will leave you breathless, winter and summer alike." Pshaw, it is minus 40 degrees. Well it leaves me breathless … and frozen. But I digress. My father is building the iugoiameter in Nordenskioldland in the South of Svalbard. I am now writing from the deck of an arctic freighter in Isfjorden just north of Nordenskioldland. Attached are instructions for building a iugoiameter receiver. Set them out in a large triangle. You will use this to triangulate your parallel location in Svalbard. When you have the receivers in place, send back a message in the receiver and I'll send one back to you. Be careful. I heard that my father has sent spies into you world. They are probably not dangerous but don't reveal anything. Oh, avoid the polar bears.
Lyra
Shortly after my last message, I got the first solid word of my father's location and where he is building the double pentagon interdimensional iugoiameter. Iugo means connect in Latin and meter means measurer. He is in Svalbard, land of the white bear. I left immediately for Norway where I caught the freighter. The tourist office had nice things to say about Svalbard.. "Offering some of the wildest and most dramatic nature and wildlife experiences one can imagine, Svalbard can truly be the peak of your visit to Norway. With its majestic mountains, mighty glaciers and exciting fauna, this archipelago in the Arctic Ocean will leave you breathless, winter and summer alike." Pshaw, it is minus 40 degrees. Well it leaves me breathless … and frozen. But I digress. My father is building the iugoiameter in Nordenskioldland in the South of Svalbard. I am now writing from the deck of an arctic freighter in Isfjorden just north of Nordenskioldland. Attached are instructions for building a iugoiameter receiver. Set them out in a large triangle. You will use this to triangulate your parallel location in Svalbard. When you have the receivers in place, send back a message in the receiver and I'll send one back to you. Be careful. I heard that my father has sent spies into you world. They are probably not dangerous but don't reveal anything. Oh, avoid the polar bears.
Lyra
So began another great day on the mountain! Great weather and perfect skiing conditions. The Freeheelers and the Speeders (Ben and Eli's group) piled into the shuttle vans and jumped on the Silver Fir high speed quad to the top. While the Freeheelers and Speeders searched for iugoiameter recievers in the upper area, the rest of the Little Nords cased the lower area. Alan's group discovered an iugoiameter off the Cold Creek trail, successfully deactivated it and found pamphlets from Oxford, England inside! Oh, and some magnetic amplifying beads. Ah, Lyra's interdimensional atomic transmitting experiments continue to work. The Dimension Monkeys (Shannon's group) also found an iugoiameter and found more pamphlets and magnetic amplifiers inside. Glenn and Tin's group did a great deal of spying work and reported back that many of Lord Asriel's spies are lurking in the area. Some of them even saw a spy with a dog daemon!!! While Karel and Ben's group searched unsuccessfully for the iugoiameter receivers, Eli's group found theirs and Eli semi-successfully deactivated. I say semi-successfully because she was blown backwards 15 feet by a sonic explosion. Fortunately Nathaniel was filming, but I haven't had a chance to upload it. In anycase, the Speeder's found more material from Oxford and more magnetic amplifier beds. I think there may be been some doubt about Lyra among the JNPs, but with the arrival of the material straight from Oxford, all doubts were banished.
Check out PICTURES of our parallel world, Svalbard which is up near the Artic circle. Longyearbyen where Lyra is is in lower part of the map. Click on the red and blue arrows to see pictures of Nordenskioldland and the village of Longyearbyen. Our own world is right on top of this part of Svalbard in Lyra's world; we are separated only by a thin interdimensional fabric. Though we can't get to their world (we don't fit in the iugoiameter receivers), I was able to set up an interdimensional WEBCAM so you can watch Longyearbyen in real time in Lyra's world. If you watch it long enough, you might see Lyra or Iorek (that's her friend the polar bear). Why does it always look like night in the webcam? Svalbard is above the arctic circle and it is winter there so the sun never really comes up this time of year.
Week 3
We split up to cover the whole mountain. The V7s, the Interdimensional Magnetic Crystal Finders (aka Crytals), the Speeders the Bens and the Dimension Monkey's squeezed in the shuttle vans and headed over to Silver Fir to head up top. The V7's helped the Dimension Monkey's on their first trip up Silver Fir lift. Then the V7s took off to do reconnosence on the Mt. Catherine loop (video of V7 recon mission). The Ben's group headed up Rockdale to try to get to the EISCAT Svalbard Radar Station. The Speeders investigated the woods around the Silver Fir lifts and found a large number of suspicious animal tracks. While the Speeders were working down low, the Monkeys investigated a snow transport vehicle in the upper area. They found numerous magnetic amplifier crystals and strange green snow.
The Speeders, Monkeys and Crystals met up at Grand Junction for lunch, and the Crystals had an alarming report--one of the Crystals was jumped by a Golden Monkey. Fortunately, the other Crystals chased it away. After lunch, the groups discovered more evidence of work by Lord Asriel's workers---multiple magnetic amplifier crystals were found in the snow behind Grand Junction. All crystals were delivered to Karel who carried a lead box to contain the magnetism. The groups also found a note by the workers saying to meet at 1:30 at Union Station. Enroute to Union Station, the Speeders made a discovery while exploring the iugoiameter sites. At each site, they found melted interdimensional fabric (see photos). The workers are entering our world by ripping the fabric, slipping in and then slipping out. As you may recall from week 1, when the interdimensional fabric rips, it leaves behind a strange melted metal-like substance. At 1:30, the Speeders advanced on Union Station, but the Crystals and Monkeys were nowhere in sight! Suspiciously a large group of skiers appeared. They acted nervous and kept looking in the Speeders' direction--even though the Speeders were remaining out of sight by crawling on their bellies and hiding behind trees. The skiers left mysteriously, and later the Speeders found a bizarre diagram on the snow with many magnetic amplifier crystals in it.
Down below, Alan, Glenn, Tin, and Doug's groups (who really need team names, btw), did reconnosence out the Cold Creek trail. Their mission was to check out the Svalbard Global Seed Bank --or the parallel to that in our world, which looks suspiciously similar. They discovered more signs of work at the Seed Bank and large numbers of magnetic amplifier crystals. They also found signs of strange red snow and more crystals along the road. What can Lord Asriel be up to? The kids did a great job of noticing suspicious activity and reported numerous persons with daemon dogs.
Week 4
Webcam into the operations center
Webcam into the garage and storge area
Here is a video of some Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) activity that was recorded from the camera we put in at the EISCAR Radar station. It is a little dark, but then it is still night most of the time in Svalbard, Norway.
Week 5
Week 5 began with a postcard from Lyra that she sent from Oxford:
Dear friends!
Excellent work with the Interdimensional Fiberometer! You were able to insert spy cameras into Lord Asriel's headquarters in two places. Wow. Please keep watch on the headquarters and report back on how many henchmen are at the headquarters. I am sorry to hear that some of your party were gotten by Lord Asriel's henchmen, but luckily the dopamine accelerators worked!!
As for me, I am stuck in Oxford!!! It is exam week at Jordan Prep and my principal said that I would be expelled if I skipped exams. I told her that the future of the universe depended on me, but she said that could wait a week. Fortunately, there is a huge storm in Svalbard now and Lord Asriel is pinned down and can't work. This will give you a chance to insert more spy cameras near the NASA ground station and Telbreen Glacier. I'll be back in Svalbard next week!!
LYRA
Excellent work with the Interdimensional Fiberometer! You were able to insert spy cameras into Lord Asriel's headquarters in two places. Wow. Please keep watch on the headquarters and report back on how many henchmen are at the headquarters. I am sorry to hear that some of your party were gotten by Lord Asriel's henchmen, but luckily the dopamine accelerators worked!!
As for me, I am stuck in Oxford!!! It is exam week at Jordan Prep and my principal said that I would be expelled if I skipped exams. I told her that the future of the universe depended on me, but she said that could wait a week. Fortunately, there is a huge storm in Svalbard now and Lord Asriel is pinned down and can't work. This will give you a chance to insert more spy cameras near the NASA ground station and Telbreen Glacier. I'll be back in Svalbard next week!!
LYRA
This week Tin, Alan and Glenn's groups joined forces to do recon work out to the yurt. On the way, they found a stash of magnetic amplifier beads and some strange orange designs in the snow. They all made it out to the yurt and returned tired but pleased with their accomplishment. Meanwhile, the V7, Monkeys, Speeders and Crystals went up top to insert the spy camera at the NASA ground station. Along the way quite a few Crystals were attacked through the interdimensional fabric, but were saved by the Monkeys and Speeders using the dopamine accelerators. After lunch, the groups split up for all-mountain recon. The V7s went just about everywhere and thoroughly tired out their coach. The Monkeys headed off to Hidden Valley. The Crystals and Speeders headed off to Union Station for a big game of capture the flag. At Union Station, the Crystals and Speeders found an ominous message from Lord Asriel! "I WILL GET YOU! LORD ASRIEL". What does it mean? Is he going to "get us"? Or perhaps some of his henchmen are trapped in our world and the message is for them, not for us. Maybe we'll find out more next week....
Here are the spy camera pictures. They update every 1 minute. Remember that Svalbard is 8 hours ahead of us and that it is only light around noon since Svalbard is above the arctic circle. 8am our time is 4pm their time; 5pm our time is 1am their time. Best time to look at the cameras is about 4am our time (for you early birds).
Tin and Alan's groups spy cameras into Lord Asriel's headquarters
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Week 6
Week 6 Lyra wrote another postcard reporting that she was back in Svalbard and had discovered important new clues about her father's work:
Dear friends!
I have finished exams and I am on a boat to Svalbard. The postcard shows how I feel!! Good work installing the camera at the NASA ground station. I was able to keep track of Lord Asriel, and... I have have almost solved the mystery of the magnetic amplifier beads and the double-pentagon. Each bead type concentrates a different type of atomic particle. Lord Asriel will put the particles together to create a worm hole. We must collect each type of bead and reverse the process. Oh, by the way, the white beads are Svalbard money. Traders will come and trade gifts for those.
I have also discovered that the double pentagon is a Peterson Graph.
This is a famous and mystic mathematical figure. LYRA
I have finished exams and I am on a boat to Svalbard. The postcard shows how I feel!! Good work installing the camera at the NASA ground station. I was able to keep track of Lord Asriel, and... I have have almost solved the mystery of the magnetic amplifier beads and the double-pentagon. Each bead type concentrates a different type of atomic particle. Lord Asriel will put the particles together to create a worm hole. We must collect each type of bead and reverse the process. Oh, by the way, the white beads are Svalbard money. Traders will come and trade gifts for those.
I have also discovered that the double pentagon is a Peterson Graph.
This is a famous and mystic mathematical figure. LYRA
This week, half the Freeheelers joined Doug and Paul to learn telemarking and cut up the new snow. Meanwhile the Crystals helped the Speeders and Monkeys in their quest to stop Asriel's spies from getting back to Svalbard. The kids found and disrupted two large magnifier bead depot. The Monkeys headed to Froglegs and installed a spy camera there. The Speeders and Monkeys also found quite a few of the precious white beads to trade with the Svalbard traders on March 14. Tin brought up a group for their first trip up top! Next week, another Little Nord group will head up for their first time to the upper area.
Alan and Glenn took their kids out to the yurt for lunch and discovered some activity by Asriel's spies along the way. They found beads and a note "Come help us". The note is certainly from the spies who are trapped in our world. Be on the look out for more notes.
Week 7
Week 7 Lyra is now in Longsyearbyen and reports that we are slowing down Lord Asriel's work considerably. We have only three more bead types to find!
Dear friends!
You have been doing great work disrupting Lord Asriel's work. I've been watching his headquarters from your spy camera. Here is what he was saying on Sunday: "Three magnifier bead depots destroyed?! In one day?! and you are STILL trapped in their world?! Double your work!! We MUST have the Peterson pentagon activated by March 14!!!" Lord Asriel is clearly being slowed down by your activities. Keep up the good work!! You only have 3 more magnifier bead types to find. We have now: electron, proton, bozon, meson, lepton, positron, graviton and moron amplifier beads.
I have been based in Longsyearbyen as of late. The Svalbard traders are gathering items to trade with you on March 14th so don't lose those white beads.
I keep staring at the Peterson pentagon. It reminds me very much of an atom:
But I am puzzled because the double pentagon seems to be a cross between Helium which is explosive and Lithium which is not explosive. What can Lord Asriel be up to???
LYRA
You have been doing great work disrupting Lord Asriel's work. I've been watching his headquarters from your spy camera. Here is what he was saying on Sunday: "Three magnifier bead depots destroyed?! In one day?! and you are STILL trapped in their world?! Double your work!! We MUST have the Peterson pentagon activated by March 14!!!" Lord Asriel is clearly being slowed down by your activities. Keep up the good work!! You only have 3 more magnifier bead types to find. We have now: electron, proton, bozon, meson, lepton, positron, graviton and moron amplifier beads.
I have been based in Longsyearbyen as of late. The Svalbard traders are gathering items to trade with you on March 14th so don't lose those white beads.
I keep staring at the Peterson pentagon. It reminds me very much of an atom:
But I am puzzled because the double pentagon seems to be a cross between Helium which is explosive and Lithium which is not explosive. What can Lord Asriel be up to???
LYRA
Wow, what a weekend! We had a full-blown blizzard for week 7. But all the groups got out and enjoyed the fresh and abundant snow. Alan's group stayed down low and explored around the Cold Creek area. They reported finding a few more types of magnifier beads. The rest of the Little Nords and Freeheelers headed up top. By the time we reached Grand Junction, the snow storm was going full blast. This didn't stop the kids, and they found a few magnifier bead caches in the woods -- after 3-on-3 keep away game in front of the hut. Afterwards the Monkeys, Speeders, Cobras, Glenn's, and Crystals split up and criss-crossed the upper area.
While the other groups searched the trails, the V7s and Doug's practiced their tele turns in the deep powder. What a day!
Check-out the Speeder's webcam at the NASA ground station. The days are getting longer fast in Svalbard! By 6am their time (10pm our time), it is now light.
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Final Week: The Jamboree
The kids saved the universe as we know it by delivering magnifier beads to the Peterson Pentagon in the field. This would destroy Lord Asriel's pentagon and prevent the inter-dimensional wormhole from forming. The beads were dangerous to each skier was accompanied by a medic carrying a dopamine accelerator. After a taxing hour of saving the universe, the kids relaxed with games of sharks-and-minnows and the annual Tug-of-War, FH vs LNs. Afterwards the Svalbard Traders came and traded the white beads for gifts. Fun was had by all and swag was acquired to boot.