Journey to Himalayan Field Site

Alexandra is on her way to the remote field site in the Khumbu Region. She only has intermittent internet access and managed to email us some photos of her journey. Scroll down for a sight of Mt. Everest!

Morning in Khumjung

On the trail

Another trail shot

Me at our first view of Everest (on the left!)

 

 

 

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A Brief Journey Stateside

After three fantastic weeks at Summit, our group of four (IGERTeer Ben Walker, Allison, Jim and I) will return to the US tomorrow. Our last week was very productive and full of radar surveys! Thanks to our colleagues at the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS), we have a spectacular, cutting-edge radar system that we are using to look at ice layers in the snow. We pull the radar across the snow using a snowmobile so that we can cover lots of ground at a set speed. We had hoped that our friend the Cool Robot would be able to tow the radar, but weighing in at over 400 pounds, the CReSIS radar system proved to be too great an adversary, and the Cool Robot could not quite make the cut on the softer snow.

Might look like a smurf, but that’s me running a radar survey with the CReSIS Snow Radar. (Photo: Allison Morlock)

The Cool Robot was able to do a special radar survey for the camp by taking a look at an old freezer trench (where food and ice cores were once stored) that had been buried several years ago. The robot drove over the freezer trench pulling the smaller radar system to see if any cavities remained where the freezer once was. Check out the glamor shot below of the Cool Robot with the Summit “Big House” in the background.

Cool Robot running a radar survey of Summit’s old freezer trench. (Photo: Tom)

In our journey homeward, we had the great fortune of catching up with Ruth, Christine, Jess and Zach in Kangerlussuaq for dinner. We enjoyed some food from the local “Polar Bear Inn” and swapped stories about our trips –ours coming to an end and theirs just beginning. The Kanger crew headed back to their camp to get ready for another big day of science on the tundra tomorrow. Our agenda for tomorrow includes a flight back to Scotia with the Air National Guard. Once I’m back in Hanover, I’ll be pulling together the data I gathered during our trip to make plans for our next visit to Summit in mid-July.

I can’t thank the Summit Station crew enough for all that they did to make our visit go so smoothly. Though a few days late at this point, the sentiments are still there–wishing everyone a happy solstice and the best of luck for the rest of the field season. Greenland, I’ll be back soon!

The crew at Summit wishing a happy solstice to all! (Photo: Katie Hess)

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Thule, Round III

Greetings from the International terminal at Baltimore Airport! I’m currently waiting for my 2:00AM flight to Thule, Northwest Greenland and am excited to begin my third season there (and my fifth trip to Greenland!).

In 2011 and 2012, I blogged about our scientific ventures in Thule (click here to see my older posts). In a nutshell, our work there focuses on unraveling past climate changes, constraining both how temperature has varied and how the ice sheet has responded.

Now, I’m on my way up to Thule to continue our work. For the next three weeks, I’ll be primarily focused on mapping the surficial geology of the landscape, and collecting rock samples in order to determine the age of the landscape. This season is particularly exciting since the team consists solely of myself and Everett Lasher, a PhD student at Northwestern. We’ll continue to provide updates as our work progresses, so stay tuned!

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