As of November 2003, we have completed two successful field campaigns. The first was in May of 2003 and the second of August 2003. These pages describe some of the highlights from those trips.

First expedition: 16 May - 02 June 2003

Goals: This was our first trip to the glacier, and our main goals were to establish the mass balance and survey stake network, install several weather stations, and just generally get the feel of the place.

Field team: Matt Nolan, Bernhard Rabus, Bjorn Johns, Kristin Nolan, and Andy Ellsberg

Highlights:
- repeated about 200 survey measurements from 1972 and 1993 for volume change
- installed about 70 poles for mass balance and velocity (most at prior locations)
- installed two weather stations; one station located at 7500' catching regional weather and the other station located on the ice at about 5500'
- installed 13 m thermistor string at 1972 and 1993 site (at the glacier met station)
- installed 5 air temperature loggers at an elevation transect on the ice surface for lapse rates and snow melt timing
- installed a continuous gps station in an area suspected of sliding in summer (near the hut)
- completed d-gps survey of five other glaciers in the area for volume change

A quick review of the results thus far showed that McCall glacier is losing mass at roughly the 1972-1993 rate, slower than the '92-'95 rate; nearby Hubley glacier seems to be losing mass at roughly double the prior rate, possibly due to having lost most of its accumulation area (?). Strong winds (60+ mph) were observed on McCall which appeared to preferential scour snow (and occasionally people) from the eastern side of the glacier (below the confluence), down to the ice, suggesting that wind may be as important as shading in determining McCall's unusual equilibrium line.

The spring expedition team: Andy, Kristin, Bernhard, Bjorn and Matt, on Mt Ahab installing a weather station.

The installed weather station, with Okpilak river valley in the distance.

Using RTK D-GPS to locate prior measurement sites and place new poles.

Steam drilling holes for poles in a blizzard.

Drilling on a nicer day.

Dropping a 6 meter pole into place.

Recording snow stratigraphy.

Slogging uphill back to camp.

Our home away from home.

Midnight snacks.

Second expedition: 8-18 August 2003

Goals: Having established a research infrastructure, the main goals of this trip were to exploit that infrastructure, begin making comparative measurements, and start taking a broader, more qualitative look at the glacier itself to assess what local phenomena may be contributing to the changes we are observing. We also collaborated with a Japanese research group interested in taking ice cores from McCall Glacier for paleo-climate reconstruction.

Field team: Matt Nolan, Kristin Nolan, Ken Irving, Shuhei Takahashi, Makoto Igarashi, Takahiro Segawa, and Frank Pattyn.

Highlights:
- GPS and mass balance of about 70 poles
- over 10,000 roving kinematic GPS measurements of surface elevation (just left the thing on wherever we went, 5 sec intervals)
- Maintained and downloaded met stations
- Repeated the B1-B2 survey line, as well as the now defunct B26-B27 (all monuments still there!)
- Downloaded and redeployed 5 automated units to measure air temperature and snow temperature on an elevational transect (lapse rates and melt lines)
- Measured termini of 5 other glaciers, and pictures of many more

In cooperation with the Japanese/Belgium group:
- Took ice cores from about 15 locations in preparation of a deep drilling effort next spring
- Made many ice radar measurements around proposed coring location and 'sliding' area
- installed two time lapse cameras (a detailed one in front of snow ruler on the glacier, another up high looking down on the ablation area)
- Installed many snow temperature units to be buried by snow
- Many snow density pits

A preliminary review of reduced survey data shows that significant changes have occurred at the two most often repeated survey transects dating to 1969. The lower transect is now completely on rock -- the terminus has retreated past it. The upper transect is losing elevation at a rate that is faster than the increase in rate that occurred in the 1970s (this the Rabus et al figure that is copied frequently in many publications, which is largely used incorrectly (not by Rabus, but those who use it)). Elevation change at a cross-section can be a useful metric, but its analysis is complicated by ice flow. We have plenty of this information, but it has not yet been analyzed, though data reduction shows that the rate of ice loss everywhere has increased since 1993. This is interesting considering that the mass balance seems to be positive this year (more snow accumulated than ice was lost) for the first time on record. The positive balance seems to be part of a trend of increasingly less negative balances over the previous few years, but again this is preliminary and a much closer look needs to be taken at all of the older data. If this is true, it means that most of the ice loss in the past decade occurred between about 1993-1998. Our work measuring 10 m deep ice temperatures should reveal any shifts in mean annual air temperature in the past decade as well as lapse rates, as it did in the Rabus et al studies in the 1990s.

Our first day, and the best weather of the trip. From left to right, Shuhei, Frank, Takahiro, Ken, Kristin, Makoto, and Matt.

Measuring ice motion using differential GPS.

Re-measuring a transect that was first measured in 1969. There used to be ice here.

Studying glacier bugs.

Glacier bugs studying us. The tick marks are millimeters.

A large thermometer (left), waiting to be buried by snow.

Ice radar measurements over an area that is likely sliding on its bed.

Taking short ice cores in preparation for a deep core that we would like to take in the future.


Melting and storing ice samples without contaminating them.


Waiting for a helicopter to pick us up, for yet another day.

Glad to be back in 'civilization'.

McCall Glacier, worthy of its own coffee table book.