Working on the Glacier Options

[Robert_Oddo]

Working on the Glacier

Today we hiked up to the glacier to make a number of measurements. Round trip we hiked around 26 km or about 16 miles. So we had a busy day. It was a beautiful day to go up to the glacier. It was about 60 degrees with very little wind. Most of us dressed for real cold weather and we all ended peeling off a whole lot of layers. Once we got up to the moraines we downloaded temperature data at various weather stations. We then measured the height of the snow on the 8 ablation stakes that were on the glacier. These help us monitor how much ice is being added or subtracted from the glacier over a defined period of time. This helps us determine if the glacier is shrinking or expanding. Water was pouring off the glacier as we were working on it. We also installed level loggers to see if these can use these to determine the how much of the glacier is melting.


Steve showing that the level of the snow has gone down about 3 meters since April 2004


Carlos installing a level logger


here I am measuring the ablation stake


here we all are working around the glacier