Guest Blogger
Please welcome one of the Sliding Glaciers team members, and my roommate for the trip, as a guest blogger today. I asked her if she would be willing to talk about her role as the team meal planner. I think I speak for the whole team that after a long day in the field, we are all super grateful for the time and effort she has put into tackling these logistics.
Anna Thompson and I pause to take a selfie in our matching PolarTREC hats.
Hi everyone! My name is Anna Thompson, and I am a graduate student studying glaciers with my advisor, Dr. Neal Iverson, at Iowa State University (ISU). I study some pretty intricate details of how glacier ice slides over rock, which is why I am here in Switzerland, where we can look at many different rock surfaces that were slowly shaped by the ice that once slid over them. When I am on the rock in front of a glacier, I am looking for clues about the ice, even though it hasn’t been around for a very long time. I pair my measurements from the field with experiments run at ISU where we replicate glacier sliding by rotating a block of ice in a giant freezer that simulates the conditions of a real glacier as closely as possible.
Graduate student, Anna Thompson, poses in front of the ice ring apparatus she uses at Iowa State University to replicate glaicer sliding.
Lauren has already covered how I take my measurements in the field, so now I get to explain the less glamorous but still extremely necessary task of keeping everyone fed!
We have been working really hard here in Switzerland. The days are long and we wake up early, eat breakfast, pack our lunches, drive to the site, and hike up to 12 miles or more each day getting to and from the glacier forefield. By the time we return, it has sometimes been nearly 12 hours since we left, and we are more than ready to shower, sleep, and most importantly eat.
While all members were doled some portion of logistical responsibility, i.e. making reservations, organizing equipment, and planning our routes, the task of menu planning landed on me.
Anticipating an urgent desire to fill our stomachs, and in acknowledgment of our limited cooking talent, meals are designed to be made quickly with maximum satisfaction. I attempted to include Swiss staples like cheese, bread, sausage, and potatoes, with a large helping of vegetables (perhaps a few more than generally observed in Swiss cuisine). Classics from home such as chili and spaghetti, and a few American “necessities,” like peanut butter, are also included. Individuals opt to supplement with drinks, snacks, and of course, Swiss chocolate.
The Sliding Glaciers team all pitches in to find all the items on the shopping list.
We buy three to four days worth of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners for six people at a time. Our shopping lists usually include about 40 items and are flexible enough that we can quickly adjust our meals when an ingredient can’t be found. For example, we went to two different stores in search of black beans before we had to settle for a substitute.
Following several obstacles like finally locating the eggs in an unrefrigerated aisle, remembering the French translation for mustard, and navigating the vast selection of cheese, the result is a brimming shopping cart that we hope covers the contents of the list and will sustain us for the following few days.
Checking out is quite the ordeal with the mountians of food we buy.
When it comes time to cook, we split into teams of two that switch off each day. So far, everyone has proven their worth in the kitchen by keeping everyone happily fed. As it turns out, satisfaction is pretty foolproof when there’s ample food on the table you can end the day on the couch with a bar of Swiss chocolate.
At the end of a long day, it is nice for all of us to sit down to a nice meal.
PolarTREC Poppy
Everyone needs to prepare their food that they will be taking into the field each day. Poppy is helping me make a PB&J sandwich as part of my daily field “rations”.
PolarTREC Poppy helps me prepare for a day in the filed by making a PB&J sandwich.
Daily Haiku
How much calories
does the Swiss Alps help burn off?
Insert chocolate now.
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