16 June 2012 Off to the Aufeis!

Journal

Aufeis near Galbraith Lake off the Dalton Highway — chunks of aufeis, see the layers and blue hue

Aufeis tonight! Meet at the dining hall at 7:30. I've seen it on the announcement board and missed it several evenings, but this past Thursday after dinner everything fell in place for me to join the group to see the aufeis! Another "wow" hike!

We drove south on the Dalton Highway down to the turn-off for Galbraith Lake. What a treat to get to see a red fox hunting in the tundra alongside the road!

Finally, we were all set to go for our walk

a happy group ready to see the aufeis! Pictured L to R are Chelsea Smith, Christopher O. Sferra, Andrew Miano, Mallory Ladd, Alex Krichels, Kaity Fisher, Susannah Michael, and Elissa Schuett

Aufeis is a German word meaning "ice on top". Ice forms on top of the stream as winter begins, and new water continues to freeze over throughout the winter. The result is a thick blanket of ice, layer upon layer, with a beautiful blue hue! The ice towered well above us in many places where we could weave in between the cracked chunks and walk alongside the stream.

Kaity Fisher and Chelsea Smith at Aufeis near Galbraith Lake off the Dalton High — Katy and Chelsea with aufeis towering above them

It rained on us a little bit, which seemed to make the colors really stand out

and created a wonderful rainbow

Rainbow near Galbraith Lake off the Dalton Highway — a double rainbow over the tundra

In this photo you can barely make out the double rainbow; at one point in the evening it morphed into an amazing but photographically elusive triple rainbow!

We were able to fit under some of the ice formations and look up at the blue sky above

and with a little help from some friends, crawl up onto an ice shelf

I even made it!

PolarTREC teacher Susan Steiner on an ice shelf formed from the aufeis — With a little help, I made it onto the ice shelf!

We finally needed to start heading back to the trucks, and I really enjoyed the evening light and clouds across the aufeis surface

Back in the Smokies, my friends can attest I'm not often this active at 10 pm at night!

Most recent visitors to the aufeis have come back reporting sightings of a wolf. Nick LaFave, PolarTREC teacher, got a great picture of one just last week on his trip there. You can check it out at his link at http://www.polartrec.com/. I was a little disappointed to not see one, too. Fortunately, a fellow researcher's tundra cam caught this amazing picture of a wolf, so that will certainly do for now!