Six hours after leaving Fairbanks we arrived in Wasilla to visit Cheryl McDowell and her ecology students at Wasilla High School. The rather dull, grey weather as we drove down the Parks Highway was somewhat compensated for by sightings of a moose, a fox and a bald eagle. But where are the caribou?

At 7:15 am on Wednesday 11 December we were in Cheryl’s classroom preparing to talk to one of her classes about ALISON and the snow and ice measurements they would be making this winter, 2003-04. There was almost a sense of déja vu, since we visited Cheryl and her students to do the same thing only eleven months ago in mid-January 2003. This time we are visiting earlier in the winter as Lucille Lake has frozen over and the ice cover has become well established earlier than it did last winter.

We are staying at a hotel that sits right on the shore of Lucille Lake and we can see the location where we will set up the study site later today. We are waiting for the arrival of Marc Swanson, who is driving up from Seward this morning to help lay out the sampling transect and install the ice thickness gauges this afternoon. In this way he will learn how to set up his own study site once Bear Lake has frozen over and the ice cover has become well established.

Marc arrived at noon, we ate lunch and were on the Lucille Lake ice at about 1:15 pm. Working in a very light breeze and an air temperature of ­1°C, we completed the work and left at about 3:30 pm. In between we installed the ice thickness gauges and flooded the ice surface because the mass of snow was sufficient to depress the ice surface so that water flowed vigorously up through the drill holes. There were 3-4 cm of standing water by the time we had finished. We hope that all will be frozen up by tomorrow morning when we show the students how to make measurements and record data.

Snow depth and the temperature at the bottom of the snow cover on the ice surface were measured at 5 m intervals, and three snow samples were obtained along the sampling line. We finished off by putting in wooden stakes. Normally we would drill holes all the way through the ice, measure the ice thickness and then put a wooden stake in each hole. This time, to avoid flooding the whole study site, we drilled holes only part way into the ice cover, put in the stakes and backfilled with a combination of slush and snow to hold each stake in place.

Cheryl arrived as we were staking out the line. She had been to Anchorage with one of her classes to see a dinosaur exhibit at the Anchorage Museum. After showing Marc and Cheryl how to use the ice thickness gauges and take a couple of photographs, we returned to school to show Marc how to measure the mass of each snow sample and then enter all the data into the computer. Now we have one last activity to complete ­ meet two classes of students on the ice tomorrow morning between 7:45 and 9:15 and show them how to make measurements.

In the dark, but aided by the light of the moon, we met the students on the ice. In the short time available to each group of students they obtained an initial experience of making snow and ice measurements at an ALISON study site. I am confident that Cheryl and her students will have a successful winter. My immediate concern is the state of the study site due to the flooding of the snow cover that we caused yesterday when we drilled through the ice. I hope that the air temperature will decrease during the next few days and freeze up the morass that we created.

Marc, Cheryl and Kim (left to right) after the study site had been set up on Lucille Lake.

Students eagerly depart for school after visiting Lucille Lake in the morning darkness.

Our work over in Wasilla, we headed north, stopping briefly at Willow Elementary School to visit Pam Horton’s 4th grade class and talk with them about lake ice and snow. Pam and her students have been visiting Willow Lake this fall to make air and water temperature measurements as part of the OLCG program. They want to expand their program by making ALISON ice and snow measurements beginning in autumn 2004.

We talked for about 35 minutes to a bright and inquisitive group of students. Then it was back in the vehicle to resume our northbound drive. Soon after leaving Willow we had our first view of the Alaska Range, the south-facing slopes bathed in sunshine and Mt. McKinley looking huge and impressive. We enjoyed sunny skies until we reached Broad Pass, where the clouds were gathering and the sun was setting. Driving in the dark on winter roads is not much fun and we were happy to arrive home after another successful ALISON trip.