Sunsets at Inigok

The sunset at Inigok always blows me away.   Summer or spring, it is equally awesome and being so far north it lasts and lasts.. takes a few hours to go down, and this time of year does not happen until about midnight- here are a few shots from the last couple days.

Like a painting

Inigok Dome-

Arctic entry porthole reflection-

Arctic entry porthole reflection-

Eric taking pics-

April 19-25, 2015- A few days around Umiat and then north to Inigok

We had a great flight from Fairbanks to Umiat and then hopped right into prepping gear and doing some work at local stations and remote cameras.  There were an abundance of ptarmigan in the area and we had some great weather to get the trip rolling.  We are at our Inigok camp right now hoping to head out sometime today, April26, to sites further north.  There are webcams we have deployed at Inigok available on the Umiat.com website- See below for some photos from the first few days of the trip.

Caravan charter from Fairbanks

Chatanika river just north of Fairbanks

Yukon river!

Eric prepping for a snow survey at the USGS Umiat climate station

Happy ptarmigan in the willows...

Built for the cold...

Working above the Colville river at the Umiat mountain cameras...

A radio repeater with bear fence

Gearing up the sleds

Ready to rock- enough science and survival gear for 5-600 miles and 2 weeks

Kunzville- near Inigok at sunset

Late night ride...

2015 Arctic Alaska Snowmachine Traverse

Well we are back at it again!  This will be the 9th consecutive year (minus 2013 due to funding issues) that Eric Yeager and I have embarked across the tundra to visit and service the USGS Climate and Permafrost Network Monitoring stations.  Each year has been bigger and better, visiting more stations, adding equipment and capability, doing additional science, and specifically - in recent years, focusing on snow based science completing many snow surveys along the way.  We started April 19th and plan to be out this year until May 5th, thus are part way into the adventure- we will post updates when we have time, and internet access.  You can follow our progress by clicking the "Live Tracker" photo of the map in the top of the blog-  We hope you enjoy seeing photos and hearing about our work along the traverse.   As in previous years, we will cover a large portion of northeastern NPRA stopping at multiple stations along the way.  We start the snowmachine trip in Umiat, travel north all the way to the Arctic ocean coast, around Teshekpuk lake and eventually back to Umiat.  We camp and stay in a few established cabins/facilities along the way and the trip will end up being 4-600 miles depending on routes.

Snow cover and Logistics Camera Maintenance- Umiat Mountain