A topic I have considered writing about for a while is simply a dedication and thank you to everyone who helped us reach this field season after nearly ten years of effort. The primary NSF grant providing finds to extract the ice core was given to three professors, Erich Osterberg (Dartmouth), Karl Kreutz (UMaine), and Cameron Wake (U New Hampshire). It is based on a significant amount of work by 22 other people who have participated in the fieldwork over the past six years, several other small funding sources, thousands of hours of volunteer time, and even money out of our own pockets. Cam and Karl dreamed up this project almost ten years ago after working in the coastal mountains of Alaska. Their thought was to study differences in precipitation, pollution, temperatures, and other variables between maritime and continental Alaska as a representative of the Arctic.
Several proposals were submitted and denied the first few years, but in 2007 NSF funded a small reconnaissance effort to commence in 2008. In 2007, Karl and Cam poured over topographic maps and other available spotty data for the Alaska Range. They flew a few recon flights with Talkeetna Air Taxi over the Alaska Range to look at potential sites they had identified. In 2008, Karl, Cam, Erich Osterberg (recently graduated from UMaine with a PhD in 2007), myself, Ben Gross (now a M.S. graduate from UMaine), Eric Kelsey (a current U New Hampshire PhD Candidate), Mike (our ice core driller), and Ron Lisnet (a UMaine media expert who was video/photo journaling our recon efforts) traveled to Kahiltna Base camp for the first time. The original plans were quite grand. We looked at Peters Dome which is on the north side of Denali originally but quickly realized access to it was almost impossible and the glacier is significantly declining considering it is in the rain shadow of Denali. So, we first skied to Kahiltna Pass where we collected a shallow 24 m long ice core and some preliminary GPS and radar data. We also caught a flight to a glacier off the flanks of Mount Russell in the extreme southwestern region of Denali National Park and collected similar data. From this field season we figured out that the Russell site was not appropriate for collecting a core, but Kahiltna Pass (KPass) showed promise.
Despite a lack of significant funding in 2009, Erich Osterberg, myself and some new student participants were able to come up with enough resources to return and collect additional data at KPass. Kevin Volkening, a friend of mine and undergraduate student then at Montana State and Max Lurie, a UMaine undergraduate student returned and collected a significant amount of data at KPass. We also started discussions with the park about a potential site we all had noticed near the summit of Mount Hunter, although there was no easy way to reach that site without air support. Some data at KPass was promising but there were also some troubling data that we questioned, requiring another field season scheduled for 2010. In 2010, funding was entirely up to all participants who had an interest in going to the site. I pulled together personal funding via some small grants which covered myself and another student researcher. I teamed up with Kevin again (who acquired his own grant funding), Dom Winski (a UMaine M.S. student; yes the same Dom who is now starting his PhD at Dartmouth and with us now) Austin Johnson (a past UMaine undergraduate and current M.S. student at UAlaska Fairbanks), and Loren Rausch (a climbing buddy of Kevin's who turned out to be fantastic help). As a team we collected more data in 2010 than the previous two years combined. In fact, KPass was ruled out as an appropriate ice core site despite three years of effort. This said, we had been in the good graces of Denali National Park and Preserve and they kindly donated four helicopter flights to fly Kevin and me to the Mount Hunter plateau at the end of the season for a 24 hour whirlwind study of the site. In 24 hours, Kevin and I collected a few miles of radar data all over the ice divide and a 14 meter deep core. We worked through the night and finished within minutes of the helicopter picking us up to return to base camp. This 24 hours set the stage for the next season’s plans and the current NSF proposal that is funded.
In 2011, I returned as part of a smaller field team with Dom and a new undergraduate student I taught in a wilderness first responder course the previous year at Dartmouth College. John Thompson was a freshman when I met him and his performance in the class as well as his involvement in the earth sciences with Erich Osterberg (who had received an assistant professor position at Dartmouth the previous year) led us to invite him. John, Dom, and I arrived at KBase in early May 2011 and spent the first couple weeks acclimatizing on the West Buttress of Denali similar to this year. The Park then graciously again donated several flights to transport the three of us with gear to the Mount Hunter ice divide where we stayed for nearly a month, collecting more radar data, ice flow velocity data, shallow ice core samples and other information. It was this year of effort that really increased our knowledge of the current drill site and provided the basis for our funded NSF proposal.
In 2012, with our core site selected and the NSF proposal submitted and funded to commence in 2013, we set sights on some other research efforts throughout the Alaska Range with the goal of expanding the research help and data to the National Park Service while expanding our own knowledge of the entire Alaska Range glacier system. We technically did not have funding from NSF in 2012, but obtained modest funding to cover some expenses. I had grand plans for this year which covered almost 45 days of field time. I cycled through some participants who could not spend the entire time in the field. 2012 participants, mostly on their own dime minus food and some travel expenses, included Curtis Marston, Lyndsey Marston, (both UMaine graduates) Brad Markle (a UWashington PhD student and with us this year), Dave Silverstone (a past Alaska Pacific University graduate and with us this year) Adam Toolanen (Lund University student), Josh Plourde (UMaine undergrad student), Hazel Shapiro (Dartmouth College undergraduate student), and Kristin Schild Campbell (Dartmouth PhD student); YEP I even persuaded my wife to come help in 2012!
You all know the participants helping this year. This certainly does not be-little our appreciation of all those participants who helped in previous years. The same goes for many others involved over the years. Talkeeta Air Taxi decreased their fees to us nearly every year to help us accomplish the work. Denali National Park and preserve provided thousands of dollars worth of helicopter support over the past few years to help out. We even had shallow ice core and snow pit samples stored in Nagleys Store and The Roadhouse freezers in Talkeetna prior to transport back to Maine and New Hampshire. I remember moving their food out of the way with owners and employees to make whatever room they could spare. It was a group effort with employees calling around to different places in town to see if we could come up with more freezer space. The local climbing guides, park rangers, towns-folk, pilots, and business owners in Talkeetna have been absolutely amazing and Talkeetna has turned into a home away from home for me after 6 years of returning every May-June. Finally, the people at CH2MHill, UNAVCO, and NSF who have provided tons of support hours of time helping us plan and prep for this year are certainly not unnoticed. And of course this year, PolarTREC has provided quite an exciting outreach opportunity that we all have embraced with enthusiasm as a team.
All in all, I bet several thousand hours of volunteer time, much personal money, and help in various ways from people around the country have made this field season a reality. We thank you all so very much for your time and effort and are very sorry if we missed anyone in this short dedication blog.