Saturday, April 29, 2006
Snow Surveying
So, I've mentioned a few times that we've been out snow surveying but you might wonder what that is. For us it means we measure the depth of the snow over and over and over again to find out how deep the snow is in an area and then we also collect some snow densities by dropping a tube down over the snow and carefully removing the snow core for weighing back at the camp.
Our method is different from most people because the snow up here is so different. We normally make 50 snow depth measurements, 25 in one direction and 25 at a right angle. Sometimes the path looks pretty cool:
Here Ken is doing densities:
So, we drop the snow from the tube in a ziploc and drag it back to the lab where we measure it before it melts. 5 densities and 50 snow depths at each site. So far on the trip I've done 41 snow surveys but there are still quite a few to go. Once you get your rythmn though it's pretty fun.
Well, off for Deadhorse soon for the final leg of the trip. We'll be helicoptering out of there for a few days hitting sites along the coast.
Our method is different from most people because the snow up here is so different. We normally make 50 snow depth measurements, 25 in one direction and 25 at a right angle. Sometimes the path looks pretty cool:
Here Ken is doing densities:
So, we drop the snow from the tube in a ziploc and drag it back to the lab where we measure it before it melts. 5 densities and 50 snow depths at each site. So far on the trip I've done 41 snow surveys but there are still quite a few to go. Once you get your rythmn though it's pretty fun.
Well, off for Deadhorse soon for the final leg of the trip. We'll be helicoptering out of there for a few days hitting sites along the coast.
