Skip to main content

BBC film crew

On Saturday morning I hiked the high route to Lake Bonney. My pack was full of meteorological sensors, warm clothing, a sleeping bag, pee bottles, and lots of high calorie food. My path went up Andrew's Ridge, across the upper valley, over to the Marr Glacier lakes, then down through the ventifact gardens to Lake Bonney camp. My favorite part of this hike is coming off the high route where you can opt to walk along a thin black dike protruding from the granite. The view of Taylor Glacier winding its way up toward the polar plateau is spectacular.

My purpose to head up to Lake Bonney was to meet with a BBC film crew. The group was shooting footage for a bit on climate change and the role of Antarctica. Two other LTER groups were already busy at work when I arrived at camp. The BBC crew were interested in what we were all doing, but were most interested in collecting footage to tell their story. I was interviewed while working on the L. Bonney weather station. Then again that evening in the ventifact garden. I think it went well, though I was thoroughly knackered in the evening and trouble constructing logical sentences. Afterward I still needed to head over to the west lobe of the lake to swap a storage module. I rode the ATV for about 20 mins on the frozen mote. The sun was reflecting off the lake and I thought about what I was doing and where I was on the globe.

After completing my work I made my way back to the camp for a 2 muffin dinner, then retired on the helicopter pad steps for some sleep.

Popular posts from this blog

White River Glacier Station 983

The deep canyon below White River Glacier is the product of fire and ice. Volcanic eruptions, bulldozing glaciers, and lahars have created a raw and dynamic landscape on the southeast slope of Mount Hood. How fast is the landscape changing? Glacial moraines, often used to indicate past glacial extents, are heavily eroded or completely absent. Repeat historical photographs offer a view to how the canyon and the glacier has changed over the past 120 years. Harry F. Reid took two photographs from either side of the White River Glacier in 1901. These photos have the potential to assist with mapping the historical glacier perimeter but finding the location of the eastern photograph, frame 983, had vexed me during two previous visits. The photograph features the glacier terminus as viewed from the east with the top of the mountain obscured by clouds. In the foreground are two tree stumps, likely remnants of the ghost forest that formed by the Old Maid eruption in the late-1700s. The ty...

Glacier Rephotos from Mount Rainier

I posted a new batch of glacier repeat photos from Mount Rainier . Mount Rainier was quite an undertaking as it’s glaciers have been studied for a long time and there were many established photo stations.  Last September I traveled to the mountain as part of the Glacier Rephoto Database Project to document the photo stations and acquire new repeat photographs to record the changes. Last year was focused on the Glacier-clad Volcanoes of the Pacific Northwest. Nisqually Glacier, Station 5 Mount Rainier is a big mountain compared to the other volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest and equally big is the quantity of ice. The grandeur of the mountain and expanse of ice has attracted numerous glacier studies over the past century  including a number of  repeat photography projects. Perhaps the most studied is the Nisqually Glacier.  The glacier has undergone many changes over the past century. The three comparison photos from Station 5 illustrate the glacier a...

Rephotos of Mount Shasta Glaciers

I visited Mount Shasta on September 7, 2012 to reoccupy glacier photo stations established by Phil Rhodes in 1974. Phil is an expert on Mount Shasta’s glaciers and photographed the glaciers for several decades. I was fortunate to meet up with Phil for the first day of photographic surveys on Hotlum Glacier. Phil was invaluable in describing routes to stations and sharing his observations. I visited 10 of his stations at Hotlum, Bolam, Whitney, and Wintun glaciers over several days to record the station locations and rephotograph the scenes. Bolam Glacier: 1977 to 2012 The photo comparisons reveal the complex changes that have been occurring on Mount Shasta since the 1970s. Bolam Glacier receded, the Lower Wintun Glacier advanced, while others appear fairly stable. Past research has shown Whitney Glacier advancing since the 1950s through the early 2000s. The surface of Whitney Glacier appears to have lowered over the past 30 years from a photo station at 10,000 ft eleva...