Hard frost

It's always interesting to read the comics to compare the weather in Alaska to the rest of the U.S. This Sunday we learned that the leaves are changing colors... Funny, since there aren't many leaves left on the trees here! Yesterday morning we had our first hard frost, the kind that covers everything with a thin layer of white that sparkles as the sun is rising. Ahh, winter! Soon it'll be time to wax my skis and pull my down jacket and bunny boots out of the closet.

In the meantime, we are having a beautiful fall. It feels as though we've had to wait until fall to have summer. Unfortunately I've been too busy to fully enjoy it. We held a glaciology meeting in Fairbanks the week after I returned from Greenland; I was partially responsible for organizing it and making sure things went smoothly. I had no idea how stressful that can be, but everything went smoothly and the meeting was a success. I'm also taking two classes this semester, one of which I have no business taking (a graduate level course in Partial Differential Equations, in case you were wondering). And then of course there is always the persistent insecurity that goes along with being a graduate student - am I really capable of doing good research? I shouldn't make it sound soo bad, though, because there is always time for fun (hockey, drumming, and Carcassonne), and part of the reason that I'm so busy is because I need to make some progress with my research before I leave for New Zealand in two months.

Harvest season

Sunday was a day of harvesting. In the morning Inari picked vegetables from our garden (a plot in the community garden) while I took photos of flowers. It was a tough year for us amateur farmers, but we did manage to get large crops of potatoes, carrots, and peas.




In the afternoon we went to the local raspberry farm and came home with 7 pounds of raspberries for $21. That doesn't count the pound of raspberries that found their way into my stomach! Its really easy to get greedy and take more berries than you need, but then again, blueberry and raspberry pies are a much needed treat during the cold winter days.

Fall colors

I told Inari in an e-mail the other day that the plants in Greenland don't exhibit fall colors and that they just fade from green to brown. I was wrong, I just didn't realize it when it was cloudy and the light was bad. Though not as spectacular as places that have large oaks and maples, its still quite beautiful. I snapped these photos today in Kangerlussuaq; we have a two-day layover and will fly back to the states on Wednesday.

Rapids

There is water everywhere in Greenland. As my friend pointed out, there isn't really a coastline, its more like a gradual transition from land to water. Traveling from the inland ice toward the coast you see bedrock with lots of lakes, that gradually changes into ocean with lots of islands. This means that there are lots of streams, such as this one located 2 km east of Ilulissat.

The ocean at night

One night I decide to take a walk to take some photos of the sunset. While walking down the road a stranger started talking to me. I ended up following him and two of his friends to a bar to listen to some musicians from Uummannaq. The music was okay, the bar was smoky, and the conversation was spoken in broken English. Anyway, it was an interesting experience. I didn’t manage to take any photos of the sunset, but after leaving the bar I managed to snap a couple of nice photos of the ocean at night.

Dogs and Icebergs

A photo album of Ilulissat wouldn't be complete without photos of sled dogs and icebergs. Lots of them. Though these photos aren't great I feel obligated to post them anyway.




There are over 5000 dogs in Ilulissat; the majority of them are kept on short chains for most of the summer (sad). Only the females that are in heat and the puppies are not on chains. They're actually allowed to roam freely throughout the town. Of course the puppies are quite cute and I always had to play with them, so on many occasions I had a small troupe of dogs following me around town.

Base camp

We decided that it would be cheaper and logistically simpler to stay in Ilulissat instead of camping out by the ice stream. The result is that I now know my way around town - not that its very difficult. Here are a few pictures of the city.


Ilulissat viewed from a helicopter. The town center is to the right of the picture near the water front. Most of the green areas between the neighborhoods are large dog yards.


Looking north from our hotel (towards the harbor).


Soccer seems to be the most popular sport, at least in summer. This dirt soccer field is almost always being used.

Images of Greenland

On this latest trip to Greenland I've had lots of free time, much of which I've spent walking around taking photos. I thought I'd post some of my favorites - though they're not exactly a "best of the best" collection. Besides, I'm not really a good photographer - yet. I took 500 photos over the past two weeks. If I keep up that pace maybe in a couple of years I'll actually know what I'm doing.


This first picture I took in Kangerlussuaq the same day that I saw the cormorant (see the previous post). I found a nice rock outcrop that had large ripple marks on the surface; many of the small depressions were filled with water. I wonder if this is what the moon would like if it had an atmosphere?

Mystery bird

I was just out testing my new camera in Kangerlussuaq when I stumbled across this cool bird. I haven't been able to figure out what it is - any ideas? For scale, that pipe next to the bird is about a half a meter off the ground.

Sweet corn and puppy dogs

I've forgotten how miserable life can be in Minnesota during the summer. Sure, the temperature is only in the 70's (20's C), but the humidity is awful. I'm becoming a true northerner - a person who thinks that Minnesota is a southern state. I must also admit that I've forgotten how beautiful the countryside is near Maple Grove (my home town): rolling "hills", farms, and many different deciduous trees. It's nice to see something other than spruce, aspen, or birch. And the constant sound of crickets brings back childhood memories of summer.

One great thing about Minnesota is the sweet corn. Minnesotans are serious about their sweet corn, especially in rural areas. They know when and where to buy sweet corn from Farmer A, and when and where to buy it from Farmer B. They discuss it much in the same way that Alaskans tell friends where are the best places to pick blueberries and catch salmon. Lucky for me, my visit corresponded with sweet corn season. You can't describe how good fresh sweet corn is, you just have to try it.

The second highlight of my trip has been meeting my sister Carrie's new dog Frankie. He's a morky - half yorkshire terrier, half maltese. I wish I had a dog, though I'd rather have something larger than Frankie, who weighs in at a whopping 5 lbs (2 kg) and will probably be less than 9 lbs (4 kg) when he's fully grown.

The first signs of fall

On my ride to work today I noticed that the leaves on a few trees were just turning yellow. I even saw one small plant (a dwarf maple?) that had already turned completely red. And the nights are rapidly getting darker - its now possible to sleep like a normal human being! I'm returning to Greenland tonight (and stopping in Minnesota on the way) for about three weeks; I realized last night that by the time I'm back in Fairbanks the leaves will be in full color and there will be almost 12 hours of darkness. It feels like green up just happened. Thankfully I'm not dreading winter; I'm starting to look forward to it - and skiing and the stars and the aurora.

Enjoy the rest of your summer. I'll be back blogging in three weeks.

Anaktuvuk Pass: "place of caribou droppings"

The highlight of the trip, for me anyway, may have been the finish. Hiking into a remote village at the end of a two week trip is exciting. You can almost smell the non-dehydrated food and feel the warmth of buildings from miles away. I felt like I was racing to the finish line as we approach the village.


Yet I was a little nervous, I wasn't sure what to expect of Anaktuvuk. At first I felt like an intruder, and I knew that many of the villages in Alaska are known as being rough and not very accepting of outsiders. That was certainly not the case here. The people of Anatuvuk were incredibly friendly. I lost track of how many people on the street came up to us and started talking, asking us about our trip, talking about the upcoming caribou migration, explaining how to make Eskimo band-aids. Caribou soup was being served at the community hall and we were invited to eat some. We were also told that we could come back any time, that they always like having visitors. If only I could get a glaciology position in Anaktuvuk...

The people of Anaktuvuk are Nunamiut Eskimos (inland Eskimos) with a culture very different from the Inupiaq Eskimos (coastal Eskimos). They were a nomadic group that subsisted primarily on caribou and other small game. Supposedly they were the last nomads in North America to "settle down" - Anaktuvuk was not formed until the 1950s. Its amazing to think of the changes that have occurred to these people during the last 50 years. They now have indoor plumbing, oil heating, and regularly scheduled flights bringing mail and food. They still maintain much of their subsistence ways, but have sadly all but lost their language. Very few people younger than 50 speak Eskimo. Even though almost everybody there speaks English as a first language, they do so with an accent that makes you feel like you're talking to people who speak English as a second language. We were told that the children learn Eskimo in school, but they have little incentive to use it on a daily basis, so what they learn is quickly lost.


Anaktuvuk is isolated, but the people living there certainly are not. Many visit Fairbanks a few times a year, and some are quite worldly. One person we met said that he went to boarding school in Oregon during the 1960s (it used to be that all Alaska natives were sent to boarding school far from home, to Mt. Edgecumbe in southeast Alaska, Oregon, or even Oklahoma!). After boarding school he enlisted in the military because he had a low draft number and would have been drafted anyway. He just narrowly avoided being sent to Vietnam (he loved Nixon because of that), but instead spent several years in Germany. During that time he traveled around and saw many places in Europe. I could sit and listen to him tell stories for hours. Actually, many of the people there were good storytellers; telling stories is an important part of their culture, as they didn't have written language until recently.

From the Haul Road to Anaktuvuk Pass

Last Friday we (me, Inari, Jason S., Elvira, and Syosaku) returned from our hiking trip in the Brooks Range. We had hiked some 60 miles (100 km) in 12 days from the Haul Road - the supply road for Prudhoe Bay - to the village of Anaktuvuk Pass. We went over several passes and past several prominent features: Kinnorutin Pass, Mount Doonerak, the Gates of the Arctic (Frigid Crags and Boreal Mountain), the Valley of the Precipices, and Ernie Pass. As Syosaku said, the scenery there isn't majestic like Denali National Park, but its very beautiful in its own arctic way.


At times the trip was quite difficult - heavy packs, wet feet, too much rain, mosquitoes, bushwhacking. And even though those things are too be expected on a hiking trip in Alaska, we were all still happy to reach our goal of Anaktuvuk Pass. After returning home we went through our photos almost immediately, and I think its safe to say that I wasn't the only one contemplating my next arctic trip.


Keep an eye on Elvira's blog (the link on the right). Rumor has it that she's planning a "Brook Range Blogging Extravaganza".

Changes at NASA

Maybe this isn't news anymore, but I just learned that NASA quietly changed its mission statement to align more closely with the goals of the Bush administration. The mission statement once read: "to understand and protect our home planet; to explore the universe and search for life; to inspire the next generation of explorers... as only NASA can". The statement has been rewritten to read: "to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research". This is very disconcerting to researchers who are studying climate change, as it means that a major funding agency is changing its focus away from a potential disaster on our home planet. Was this change an attempt to draw attention away from global warming, or was it just an honest attempt to more clearly seperate the various funding agencies (e.g., NASA, the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmosperic Administration)?

Whirlwind summer

Since moving to Alaska my summers have always been busy with field work, trips, gardening, fishing, and blueberry picking, but this summer has been exceptionally busy. Since returning from Greenland a little over two weeks ago I've been to Gulkana Glacier twice - once to be a witness for a wedding ceremony (in the pouring rain) and once to teach a glaciology field course (also in the pouring rain). Now that I've been in Fairbanks for a total of two weeks this summer its time to hit the road again. This time Jason S. and Elvira are coming up from Oregon to join Inari, myself, and Syosaku (another glaciology student) on a hiking trip up in the Brooks Range. The plan is to hike west from the haul road into Gates of the Arctic National Park about 70 miles to the the town of Anaktuvuk Pass. From Anaktuvuk we will catch a smallish plane and fly back to Fairbanks. The one catch is that the other Jason had a very untimely bicycling accident a week ago and initially thought that he had broken his ankle... At the moment its not clear how that will affect our trip, but I'm sure we'll figure something out. At any rate, we're excited to have our first visitors that aren't family and aren't named Take. Photos and stories to come.

United 93

Inari and I went to see United 93 last night. Wow. It was much better and more powerful than I expected. It's definitely not for the light hearted. Watching the movie was probably the closest that I've come to having a heart attack. And I wasn't alone - the theater was completely silent after the movie ended, everybody was speechless. Maybe it was still too early to watch a movie about 9/11, still too painful, though the movie was very well done. I was worried that it would be a typical heroic Hollywood movie, but they did a really good job of just tellling the story - or showing it.

Schweiz

I ended up spending a little more than 5 days in Switzerland with Tinu and Elsbeth, and their 1-yr old daughter Lena. (Tinu and Elsbeth used to work in the glaciers lab in Fairbanks). They were very hospitable and really went out of their way to show me around. We did several hikes in the mountains, even spending one night in an alpine hut. Though not nearly as remote as the mountains in the U.S., the Alps are definitely impressive - and very accesible. Its very easy to travel by train to a trail head, and then hike up and over the mountains to a different town where you can catch the next train home. And of course the mountains are incredibly steep and beautiful. Its no wonder that hiking is the Swiss national sport. The huts make hiking a lot more enjoyable. You could easily do a week long hike or ski trip and only need to carry some extra clothes and lunch food. The huts have everything else you need - food, water, and beds. Here are a couple of photos from my time in Switzerland:


Eating fondue in the warm sun with Keith, another glaciologist from Fairbanks who also happened to be visiting Tinu and Elsbeth.



Can you spot the hiking trail in this photo? (Hint: it starts in the lower left corner and zig zags its way up the steep mountain.)

The coolest thing

We happened to be in Ilulissat during Greenland's National Day, which, maybe not too surprisingly, falls on the summer solstice. There were many festivities, including traditional drumming, singing, and dancing. The highlight, though, was the outdoor rock concert near the ice fjord. Somehow it was very Greenlandic - most people were carrying around bloody plastic bags full of seal meat that they cooked over small fires made of heather. The music was sang in Greenlandic and in between acts the mayor gave out cultural awards to people who were doing something to maintain Greenlandic culture. (The whole thing was in Greenlandic, so I'm not really sure what was going on.) But in other ways the atmosphere was very European or American. The kids had clothes on that made them look they could have been from southern California. The music varied from pop to grunge to alternative rock. The first band had a 60 year old lead singer (a woman) who started the show by yelling "Hello Ilulissat!". At that moment I knew this was going to be a great afternoon.

During the last act (the Mike F. Thomsen Band) there was a little kid dancing next to the stage who really knew how to dance. I and just about everybody else there with a camera started filming him, and that made him even more excited to dance and show off his moves! Click here to see for yourself - once you open the page download kiddances.mpg. The video is 7 Mb, so it might take a while to download if you have a slow connection. I've watched it about 100 times and I still find it hilarious.

Scoring bohemian points

While I was in Kangerlussuaq waiting to return home, Martin went on to Nuuk, the largest town in Greenland, to give a talk about our research. The woman who invited him to Nuuk thought that it was ridiculous that Air Greenland was refusing to change our tickets to Copenhagen, so she stormed into the office and demanded that they change our flights. They gave in and changed Martin's ticket, but they weren't able to change mine since I wasn't there.

Martin flew back through Kangerlussuq en route to Copenhagen. I met him at the airport, thinking that he'd be spending the week with me. It was then that I learned that he was flying on the next flight to Copenhagen, which was scheduled to depart in one hour. I ran back to my room and packed everything as quickly as I could. Then I came back to the airport and "stormed" into the Air Greenland ticket office and asked a third time if they might please change my ticket. But this time I had the name of somebody important and the knowledge that they had just changed Martin's ticket. 10 minutes and a couple of phone calls later I had my boarding pass and I was cruising through security and up the stairs onto the plane. I had made it! But how would I spend the next week? I was becoming skeptical that I would be able to change my return flight to Fairbanks to an earlier date, and besides, I thought the best thing to do would be to take advantage of a free flight to Europe.

Martin and I arrived in Copenhagen Monday evening (June 26) and found a place to sleep. The next day we met with one of the most well-known Greenland geologists (who is Danish and lives in Copenhagen) to discuss recent changes in the Greenland ice sheet and also to try to track down some old aerial photos. No luck with the photos, but it was an interesting conversation that culminated with cake and coffee. Yup, I'm learning how to drink coffee. I figured that all Ph.D. students have to drink coffee. Besides, its pretty good with a little bit of sugar.

Later that afternoon I returned to the airport to figure out how I'd spend the rest of my trip. I called up my friends in Switzerland and asked if they'd be around over the weekend - they said yes, and that'd be happy to show me around. 10 minutes later I had a ticket to Zurich, but the flight wasn't leaving for two days. That gave me time to see a little bit of Copenhagen.

Copenhagen is a really nice city with lots to see and do and its easy to get around. Everybody speaks English (better than I do), so there's really no point in asking somebody if they speak English. In some countries, people are offended if you assume that they speak English. In Denmark, people seem to be offended if you think that they don't speak English. The streets are very lively - you can sit and have a drink at one of numerous outdoor cafes while you listen to a street musician or watch some other performance. But you have to drink slowly, because Copenhagen is expensive and most people probably can't afford to drink several beers in a row.

Greenland: Killing time in Kanger

Its looking more and more like I'll be spending the rest of this week in Kangerlussuaq. I can imagine worse places to be stuck, though it would've been nice to visit friends or family in Europe. I've managed to keep myself busy reading, watching the World Cup (soccer is actually an interesting sport after all!), and exploring the local surroundings. Actually I would've like to do a solo backpacking trip, but it wouldn't be so enjoyable without a tent, stove, cook kit, or even a water bottle. So instead I'm limited to day hikes and biking - the research center has a bike that I can borrow. On Friday evening I climbed up the hill behind town in search of musk ox. I found one.


Today I went for a long, beautiful bike ride. There is a road that is about 25 km long and takes you from town to the inland ice (the ice sheet). I didn't make it all the way to the inland ice, but I was close. I could've made it, but I'd have been incredibly sore, hungry, and thirsty, and I may not have made it back in time for dinner. I'm maybe not as stubborn as I used to be. I think I would've biked the entire distance five years ago.