The time around the Equinoxes, both fall and spring, are our favourite here in Alaska. In March, we have longer days, warmer temperatures, but not too warm, and the full depth of our winter snowpack, to enjoy on our back-country ski outings, or for just nordic skiing on our local trail systems.
In September, the fast-waning sun, when it shines, shines in a clear, dark blue sky, framed by the beauty of our flaming aspen, birch, balsam poplar, cottonwood, and willow deciduous trees. This month has been particularly spectacular, because strong high pressure ridging has brought the entire mainland of Alaska clear, dry weather for over two weeks! After a very gloomy, cloudy, wet summer in most areas, certainly here around Anchorage.
This weekend past, we decided to head east to our good friend Erik Hursh's little cabin on the bluff, 200 metres above the Copper River. This beautiful yellow aspen frames the runway on his property, which he scratched in the dirt for his little Piper PA-18 Super-Cub airplane. Which is the main airframe for Nunatak Air Service, Erik's flightseeing, and instructing business.
We were going to do some hiking, running, and flightseeing over the beautiful Wrangell Mountains, the 3700 to 5050 metre high volcanoes, one still active (4318 metre Mt. Wrangell), that rear up inland from the coast ranges in far southeastern Alaska. In fact, the view from Erik's cabin on the bluff, of 3700 metre Mt. Drum, is almost as good as being in an airplane!
We did a beautiful 90 minute run from the cabin, along the bluff, with these views, down to the Copper River, then back up, on Sunday, after our flight tour of the Wrangells. What a spectacular place this would be for a marathon! Much more scenic than the Equinox Marathon in Fairbanks, or the Yukon Trail Marathon, in Whitehorse, which Erik and I have both done many times.
The original plan had been that Mattie, Homer, and I would drive up to the road to Nabesna, in Wrangell/St.Elias National Park, Saturday, after our arrival the day before, and do a short pack trip north of the road, at about mile 30, into this portion of the Alaska Range. However, when we got near Trail Creek, which was our planned route, our A.P.R. cruiser hit a deep hole in the rough gravel road, and must have landed on a sharp rock. The rear left tire blew out, and we had to put on the little spare. We decided to take no chances now, having no spare, and to back out and get to Glenallen, to see if the tire was fixable. It was dicey returning the 30 miles back on the rough road to the Tok Cutoff highway, without a spare, we went very slowly. We got to Glenallen and the tire was beyond repair, so we had to get a temporary old tire to hold us over until our return to the big city.
So Erik decided to take us up flightseeing in the PA-18 Super-cub the next day. He has been flying for many years now and is instrument rated, and has his commercial flight instructor license. With his years of flying around interior Alaska, down to Valdez, and all points between, he has amassed great skill and experience, in the worst of conditions. So we had complete confidence in this endeavour, and were greatly anticipating it.
This was our route, for the day. We took off from the 300 metre long dirt strip around 0900. For those not in the know, these little two-seat PA-18 Super-Cubs have amazing properties. They only burn as much gas as an average car, can take off and land in only 100 metres, and can be outfitted with either tundra tires, enabling landing on just about any area with fist-sized or smaller rocks, sand bars, or grass/shrubs. With wheeled skis, they can land on glaciers and any ice surface. Even with the tundra tires, they are good to land on snow/ice, as long as it's relatively hard-packed. After a short jaunt at 1-5 metre height (!) skimming the Copper River (after a steep dip and bank down and right from the bluff, which was a little hard on my coffee-full stomach), we stopped at the Gulkana airport in Glenallen to fuel up. It was a beautiful sunny day, with unlimited visibility, the Alaska Range was visible 100+ km to the north, the Chugach Range 100+ km to the southwest, and the Wrangells right in front of us to the east.
We were back up in the air by 1000, with full tanks, and made hard for the Wrangells. Erik has scouted out a few actual landing sites in different areas, and wanted to see if one potential spot could work. We first made for 3700 metre Mt. Drum, the lowest of the big volcanoes. It looks much like Mt. Rainier, to my eyes. On the way, heading up it's north slope, there were these beautiful little blue lakes below, above treeline, inset in the fall-coloured tundra, very nice. We could even see our shadow, skimming over the surface features.
As we flew further up Drum's north face, we hit the lower glaciers which are dirt/rock covered around 1500 metres elevation, and these had some melt-water lakes on them as well.
Erik took us right up the face of Drum, and we flew all around it's sheer glaciated rocks. The PA-18 has plexiglass overhead, as well as the side windows, so we had beautiful views through these.
One of my favourite views though were these big glacial chunks at around 2200 metres elevation, interesting patterns are formed as these masses of downslope-flowing ice are stretched and deformed by the underlying rocks. Looks like an image from a different planet!
Our first stop after fueling up was a flat area at around 1435 metres on the east face of Drum, in a saddle area between it, and the much taller, 5050 metre, Mt. Sanford. He found it earlier this year and had already landed there a few times. We dropped down quickly in the perfectly calm, clear conditions, and got out to explore. It was probably around +2 or 3C, with not even a puff of a breeze. Truly amazing, when you consider that August and September are the wettest months in this area, and at these elevations, are often socked-in for days with fog, rain, and snow.
Imposing Drum, just 10 km to our east was spectacular, as we walked around for about a half-hour, enjoying the views and amazing weather. You can see there are fist-sized and smaller rocks, all around, with some large ones. Erik was able to judge, when he first saw the area, that it was suitable, then would take several passes, dropping the wheels a little longer each time, before finally feeling comfortable, that it would make a suitable landing area, with a good safety margin, in case of wind changes.
It was hazy looking east to imposing 5050 metre Mt. Sanford (16,500 feet), the tallest of the Wrangell volcanoes. Both it, and Mt. Drum appear to have blown out their south halves in a vast explosion, similarly to St. Helens did (though it blew out it's north half).
Our takeoff was amazingly brief, as always, the PA-18 is almost like a helicopter in that respect, we are only cruising at 50-60 knots when we lift off after only 100 metres. We headed to the massive ice mass of 4318 metre (14,163 ft.) Mt. Wrangell, which is still active. In fact, I have seen it puff on occasion on our satellite imagery, in the 1 KM high-resolution GOES visible loops. Wrangell is a shield volcano, similar to Mauna Loa in Hawaii, a broad, gently sloping mass of lava floes. But in this case, topped with an incredible mass of ice, probably 1-2 km thick in places. It lies to the south, between Drum and Sanford. This is its highest point, right in front of us, with that massive volume of ice-cover. Erik had seen a small ice-covered shelf at 2264 metres on previous flights, on the north face of Wrangell, and wanted to see if we could land on it today, since we had such good weather. Even as high as nearly 3000 metres, we only had very light northeasterly winds, under the strong high pressure ridge.
Erik saw that there was snow cover on the shelf, that wasn't there when he last was in the area a few weeks previous. So we had to skim it three times, each time putting the wheels down a little longer, to make sure the snow was hard-packed, and wouldn't grab the tires and cause the plane to flip. The second of our three passes was a little un-nerving to me, since we went down the drop-off on the east side of the shelf. If you look real closely, at the edge of the snow, where the rocks begin, our tracks are visible, with one set dropping off.
But after three passes, Erik determined it was safe and hard-packed, and we dropped right down, at 2264 metres, his highest landing ever! We got out and explored, here it was still only about -1C, and with only a very light northeast breeze. Unbelievable, for the 18th of September!
We had to take a picture of the altimeter, to document this fact, 7425 feet (2264 metres).
Walking around at this elevation was beautiful in every direction. Off to our south, this volcanic feature called a dike, with its multi-coloured lava rocks attracted our interest. We walked a little up its lower flank, and behind us, on the snowfield. I stopped us though after a little bit, because it was a glacial surface, and had crevasse potential, and we were not equipped for safe travel on it, roped with crampons and ice axes.
We both have that equipment and training, but glacial traversing was not on our agenda this day, we didn't have the time.
Our takeoff from this little ice shelf went perfectly, as expected, and then we headed south and west, back to the bluff, and the Nunatak Air Service base. On the way though, there was still more to see.
Every so often when traveling around in fall, we see one or two more orange or even red, clumps of aspen, which give us our most vibrant fall colour. These clumps of orange and red ones caught my eye very quickly.
We were even fortunate enough to pass over a ridge where some wood bison were congregating. These fairly elusive animals are few in number in the Alaska interior and are somewhat protected. Only limited numbers are allowed to be hunted, and a tag for one, which is drawn by lottery, is highly sought-after.
This is the first time I had ever actually seen any.
Our flightseeing trip ended after five hours with our smooth, quick drop to the dirt strip, five hours after our start, in the clear, blue 15C weather. A September to remember, no doubt about it!
If you ever want to take a flight tour around this area, north into the Alaska Range, or south to Valdez and the wonders of Prince William Sound with its massive glaciers, be sure and check out Nunatak Air Service. You'll be glad you did!
http://www.nunatak-air.com/JUST SO YOU KNOW,
It seems like we are often two to three weeks ahead, here at the Alaska Progressive Review, in presenting you important information. Case in point: this article, from today's Common Dreams website. So stick with us, you'll be glad you did.
UXBRIDGE, Canada - The carbon dioxide emissions from burning such fossil fuels have now melted the Arctic sea ice to its lowest volume since before the rise of human civilisation and dangerously upsetting the energy balance of the entire planet, climate scientists are reporting.
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The carbon dioxide emissions from burning such fossil fuels have now melted the Arctic sea ice to its lowest volume since before the rise of human civilisation and dangerously upsetting the energy balance of the entire planet, climate scientists are reporting. (AFP/File/Martin Bureau)
"The Arctic sea ice has reached its four lowest summer extents (area covered) in the last four years," said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in the U.S. city of Boulder, Colorado.The volume - extent and thickness - of ice left in the Arctic likely reached the lowest ever level this month, Serreze told IPS.
"I stand by my previous statements that the Arctic summer sea ice cover is in a death spiral. It's not going to recover," he said.
There can be no recovery because tremendous amounts of extra heat are added every summer to the region as more than 2.5 million square kilometres of the Arctic Ocean have been opened up to the heat of the 24-hour summer sun. A warmer Arctic Ocean not only takes much longer to re-freeze, it emits huge volumes of additional heat energy into the atmosphere, disrupting the weather patterns of the northern hemisphere, scientists have now confirmed.
"The exceptional cold and snowy winter of 2009-2010 in Europe, eastern Asia and eastern North America is connected to unique physical processes in the Arctic," James Overland of the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in the United States told IPS in Oslo, Norway last June in an exclusive interview. ' Paradoxically, a warmer Arctic means "future cold and snowy winters will be the rule rather than the exception" in these regions, Overland told IPS.
There is growing evidence of widespread impacts from a warmer Arctic, agreed Serreze. "Trapping all that additional heat has to have impacts and those will grow in the future," he said.
One local impact underway is a rapid warming of the coastal regions of the Arctic, where average temperatures are now three to five degrees C warmer than they were 30 years ago. If the global average temperature increases from the present 0.8 C to two degrees C, as seems likely, the entire Arctic region will warm at least four to six degrees and possibly eight degrees due to a series of processes and feedbacks called Arctic amplification.
A similar feverish rise in our body temperatures would put us in hospital if it didn't kill us outright.
"I hate to say it but I think we are committed to a four- to six-degree warmer Arctic," Serreze said.
If the Arctic becomes six degrees warmer, then half of the world's permafrost will likely thaw, probably to a depth of a few metres, releasing most of the carbon and methane accumulated there over thousands of years, said Vladimir Romanovsky of the University of Alaska in Fairbanks and a world expert on permafrost.
Methane is a global warming gas approximately 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2).
That would be catastrophic for human civilisation, experts agree. The permafrost region spans 13 million square kilometres of the land in Alaska, Canada, Siberia and parts of Europe and contains at least twice as much carbon as is currently present in the atmosphere - 1,672 gigatonnes of carbon, according a paper published in Nature in 2009. That's three times more carbon than all of the worlds' forests contain.
"Permafrost thawing has been observed consistently across the entire region since the 1980s," Romanovsky said in an interview.
A Canadian study in 2009 documented that the southernmost permafrost limit had retreated 130 kilometres over the past 50 years in Quebec's James Bay region. At the northern edge, for the first time in a decade, the heat from the Arctic Ocean pushed far inland this summer, Romanovsky said.
There are no good estimates of how much CO2 and methane is being released by the thawing permafrost or by the undersea permafrost that acts as a cap over unknown quantities of methane hydrates (a type of frozen methane) along the Arctic Ocean shelf, he said.
"Methane is always there anywhere you drill through the permafrost," Romanovsky noted.
Last spring , Romanovsky's colleagues reported that an estimated eight million tonnes of methane emissions are bubbling to the surface from the shallow East Siberian Arctic shelf every year in what were the first-ever measurements taken there. If just one percent of the Arctic undersea methane reaches the atmosphere, it could quadruple the amount of methane currently in the atmosphere.
Abrupt releases of large amounts of CO2 and methane are certainly possible on a scale of decades, he said. The present relatively slow thaw of the permafrost could rapidly accelerate in a few decades, releasing huge amounts of global warming gases.
Another permafrost expert, Ted Schuur of the University of Florida, has come to the same conclusion. "In a matter of decades we could lose much of the permafrost," Shuur told IPS.
Those losses are more likely to come rapidly and upfront, he says. In other words, much of the permafrost thaw would happen at the beginning of a massive 50-year meltdown because of rapid feedbacks.
Emissions of CO2 and methane from thawing permafrost are not yet factored into the global climate models and it will be several years before this can be done reasonably well, Shuur said.
"Current mitigation targets are only based on anthropogenic (human) emissions," he explained.
Present pledges by governments to reduce emissions will still result in a global average temperature increase of 3.5 to 3.9 C by 2100, according to the latest analysis. That would result in an Arctic that's 10 to 16 degrees C warmer, releasing most of the permafrost carbon and methane and unknown quantities of methane hydrates.
This why some climate scientists are calling for a rapid phaseout of fossil fuels, recommending that fossil fuel emissions peak by 2015 and decline three per cent per year. But even then there's still a 50-percent probability of exceeding two degrees C current studies show. If the emissions peak is delayed until 2025, then global temperatures will rise to three degrees C, the Arctic will be eight to 10 degrees warmer and the world will lose most its permafrost. [in other words, we're screwed, because a corporate-controlled World is not going to phase out fossil fuels until it is far too late, eds].
Meanwhile, a new generation of low-cost, thin-film solar roof and outside wall coverings being made today has the potential to eliminate burning coal and oil to generate electricity, energy experts believe - if governments have the political will to fully embrace green technologies.
Copyright © 2010 IPS-Inter Press Service
So there you have it folks. Important, but depressing news. We'll try and bring you more uplifting information, when we can. Your lead editor will be traveling for the next month, but still staying abreast of current affairs. We'll try and keep you updated with our unique Alaskan commentary, when we can. Cheers.
