Tuesday 23 March. I had dinner this evening in Nome with Matthew Sturm, Jon Holmgren and Tom Douglas, all colleagues in Fairbanks. They are about to begin a 15-day snow science expedition driving snowmachines from Nome to Barrow. They are repeating a trip that they made two years ago with a TEA teacher, April Cheuvront of North Carolina, as a member of the team. I mention this not only because what they are doing is a wonderful scientific adventure, but also because, in the nicest possible way, I would have preferred not to have been having dinner with them.

Matthew was at the Frontier Air Service counter at Fairbanks International Airport, checking in for the same flight that I was taking to Nome. With Knut Kjielland (UAF biologist) we had an unplanned, two-and-a-half-hour conversation as we waited for Frontier to fix mechanical problems with our plane. A very late departure from Fairbanks meant a late arrival in Nome, too late to make my connection to Wales. This was very frustrating, as the weather was perfect for flying: clear, sunny and calm (very unusual). So, I ended up staying at the Nugget Inn and eating at a Chinese restaurant with friends.

Wednesday 24 March. I was scheduled to try again for Wales this afternoon at 1 pm, but when I returned to the hotel after dinner last night there was a message from Sue Yates, whom I am visiting in Wales. She told me that if I was at Cape Smythe Air this morning at 7:45 I could travel to Wales aboard the Bering Strait School District plane. I didn’t know the district had a plane, but I was certainly glad that it would get me to Wales early so that I could spend the entire day with Sue and her students.

After dropping off a couple of school district officials in Shishmaref we reached Wales shortly before 9 am, unloaded me and a snowmachine (the school district’s) and went to school on another snowmachine. Later in the morning we were on the ice at Puvragik Lake making ALISON measurements under the sun but in a strong wind. Wales is a very windy location and the many bare ice patches on the lake are evidence of the wind’s ability to rearrange the snow cover.

The ice thickness gauges have not functioned at Puvragik Lake and we have only one ice thickness measurement that was made in early January when the gauges were installed. So, after lunch we were back on the ice drilling a hole by hand with my ice auger. Four or five of us took turns and we eventually punched through 1.375 m of ice. That is the second thickest ice in the ALISON network this winter. Only Barrow is thicker. We discussed this later in class when we met to talk about lake ice variability and change, and ALISON measurements and their value.

The ice is so thick here compared to other ALISON locations because of the wind and the cold. The wind keeps the snow depth on the ice to a minimum and makes it very dense by packing the snow grains tightly together. Consequently, the snow does not provide much insulation from the cold air: the conductive heat flow and ice growth rates are high, and the ice becomes very thick. The lack of insulation on the ice surface probably also explains why the ice gauge will not work: the ice is particularly cold and the resistance wire can not be heated sufficiently to melt the cold ice around it. I think a larger battery with a higher ampere rating might make the difference.

Taking a close look at the snow depth on the ice at Puvragik Lake, Wales. Note the wind generator on the right taking advantage of Wales’ windy location to reduce reliance on diesel generators for electricity production. This photograph was taken earlier in the winter prior to Martin’s visit to Wales.

Puvragik Lake is a good place to harvest greens in the spring. Perhaps the greens that I ate at Lena and Pete’s this evening were harvested at the lake. Lena and Pete are village elders and Sue secured an invitation to dinner to eat Eskimo food, in this case musk-ox ribs and greens. They were a delicious way to celebrate my first visit to Wales.

Thursday 25 March. The wind blew pretty hard last night as a cold front moved south across northern Alaska, but by this morning things had settled down and the wind was no worse than yesterday. That made it possible to go outside and enjoy the sunshine with the elementary students to explore the concept of snow as an insulator.

Kingikmiut School elementary students and teachers holding snow probes atop the snow drift at the front of the school.

Before we went outside we talked about air and snow temperatures in class, and the students predicted that the temperature inside the snow drift at the front of the school would be higher than the air temperature. First the students held their probes out in front of them in the shade to measure the air temperature (-19.5°C), then pushed them as far into the snow as they would go (1 m). After allowing a few minutes for each probe to equilibrate, the temperature in the snow was measured (-13.2°C). Back in class we discussed our findings and agreed that we had demonstrated that snow is a good insulator.

We also took a snow sample back to the classroom to weigh on the electronic balance. But first, everyone had to estimate the mass of the snow sample, with a 51.1 g calculator as the reference object. The kids’ estimates ranged from 40 g to 300 g, mine was 225 g, and the winner was Herman Seetook (Grade 5) who estimated
220 g, only 8.9 g more than the snow weighed (211.1 g).

Working with the elementary students was a nice way to complete my visit to Kingikmiut School. Full of energy and enthusiasm, they enjoyed going outside and participated fully in the discussions with plenty of comments and questions. They even know my age now.

Soon after 1:30 pm I was in an aircraft rushing down the Wales airstrip to return to Nome. The clear weather made it possible to take some good aerial photographs of Wales and the Diomede Islands (the first time I have seen Russia, i.e., Big Diomede Island), and frazil ice plumes on the Bering Sea as the cold, northerly wind swept offshore. I also enjoyed a conversation with Zachary and Kimberley, high school students in Wales, and learned a little about hunting whales, walrus and seals, how the meat is cooked and what it tastes like.

Weighing a calculator as a reference object to help the students estimate the mass of the snow sample that Lloyd is holding (left).