John, Great to see you've made it into the field. I am definitely jealous! Growing up in the Idaho snow I always wanted a dog team, but that's not much of an option in North Carolina. We're getting into the mid-80's here - another reason I'd like to be in cooler climates!
Anyway, I'm curious about what gets measured in the process of determining carbon exchange and what sort of base-line data is out there that might be usable for a multi-year picture of the changes that are going on. You may not have answers for this right now, but as the work progresses keep this in mind - maybe it can become a lesson plan or student activity on researching and graphing the change versus temperature, snow depth, etc.
Keep sending out the journal entries. And happy birthday too - enjoy the shower!
Mike