It was dark when we left Fairbanks at 7:45 am on Wednesday 29 October, and the sun was shining when we arrived at Denali National Park and Preserve at 10 am. The highlight of the drive south on the Parks Highway was a clear view of the cloud-free Mount McKinley (Denali) as we passed the Anderson turn off.

We met Pam Sousanes, David Tomeo and Phil Brease at the trailhead by the Alaska Railroad crossing, and hiked down the hill to Horseshoe Lake. Pam and Phil work for the National Park Service. David works for the Denali Institute of the Alaska National History Association. They had volunteered to help us set up the observatory and learn about the measurement program. Patty Gallego (Tri-Valley School, Healy) would join us later once school had finished for the day.

As we walked out across the ice to find a good site for the observatory, the ice occasionally creaked and groaned as it fractured due to the stress imposed by our footsteps. The noise was a little disconcerting, but it was not a cause for concern. The ice was 0.18 m thick, quite safe, with a 6 mm thick snow cover.

While Kim and Pam measured the snow depth along the 100 m transect, David, Phil and Martin began installing the two ice thickness gauges. This was done entirely by hand, drilling holes and cutting slots with a saw, because National Park Service regulations do not allow us to use power tools. Installing the gauges manually was more time-consuming than it would have been with a generator and electric drill, and a chain saw, but we nevertheless succeeded with minimal difficulty. David was pretty adept with the saw!

As we installed the second ice thickness gauge, Pam and Phil began hand-drilling 21 holes through the ice every 5 m along the 100 m transect, while Kim followed measuring the ice thickness and then placing a wooden stake in each hole. The white-painted stakes mark the line of the transect and indicate where snow depth and ice surface temperature will be measured each time the observatory is visited. The reason for having two ice thickness gauges is to manipulate the snow cover and see if clearing the snow away at one gauge and leaving the snow to accumulate naturally at the other gauge will make a difference to the ice thickness. What do you think will happen?

As we were finishing the observatory installation, Patty arrived and we were able to give her a demonstration of the equipment and measurements that she and her 3-5th grade students will be making this winter. Meanwhile, David caught all the action on video for Patty and her students to make an iMovie. By 1:30 pm our work was complete and we hiked back up the hill, jumped in our assorted vehicles and drove on to park headquarters. There, in David’s office, we demonstrated computer data entry and file making as we ate a late lunch.

At about 3 pm we were on the road again heading north to Fairbanks, happy in the knowledge that we had established the first teacher/student-operated ALISON observatory of winter 2003-04. That evening Martin prepared for a trip the following day, Thursday 30 October, to Barrow, where he would set up an ALISON observatory with Tim Buckley of Barrow High School.