Video
Sperry Glacier Mass Balance Research: Spring
Descriptive Transcript
[Audio description]: Caitlin, a woman with dark hair in a braid wearing a USGS ball cap and polarized sunglasses, takes a video selfie panning across the snow-covered Sperry Glacier.
Narrator: I'm Caitlin Florentine and I'm a glaciologist for the U.S. Geological Survey.
[Audio description]: Photo of a team of researchers with skis and backpacks in a snowy, high mountain landscape.
Narrator: Our field work here in Glacier National Park is part of a 20-year mass balance study on Sperry Glacier.
[Audio description]: Photo of a researcher pushing a long, thin tube into the snow.
Narrator: We go up to the glacier every spring and fall to collect measurements at the time of maximum snow accumulation,
[Audio description]: Photo of a researcher walking across the snow covered surface of the glacier.
Narrator: and at the end of the summer melt season.
[Audio description]: Photo looking down the rippled crevasse surface of Sperry Glacier.
[Audio description]: A man stands on a footbridge across a rushing creek in a pine forest laden with fresh snow.
Narrator: The spring of 2024 was a lesson in perseverance.
Narrator: On May 17th, we hiked as far as the cabin below the glacier basin.
[Audio description]: The roof of a cabin sticks out above a snow covered clearing in the mountains.
Narrator: But a late spring snowstorm made the avalanche danger too high to continue.
[Audio description]: Caitlin shadow showing, skis strapped to her backpack. The cabin is now mostly melted out of the snow.
Narrator: We tried again on June 6th, only to find the daily melt-refreeze cycles of early summer made for very hard packed snow that was too firm to allow for safe skiing and climbing.
[Audio description]: Skis move in short, careful steps across hard packed snow in a shaded mountain basin. Snow-covered slope of Sperry Glacier from Caitlin's point of view. She shows us her smiling face.
Narrator: Finally, the third time was the charm. On June 25th, the glacier was still blanketed in snow, even as wildflowers bloomed down in the valley.
[Audio description]: A forest trail with bright green vegetation. From the vantage point of the hiker who was wearing shorts.
[Audio description]: A researcher holds a long black tube, one end attached to a motor at the other end, drilling down into the snow.
Narrator: My USGS colleagues Zach Miller and Adam Clarke measured snow depth and snow density to see how much new snow the glacier received over the winter.
[Audio description]: A deep hole in the ice with steam swirling up.
[Audio description]: Time lapse footage of Adam and Caitlin drilling a thin, deep hole in the ice and inserting long white stick sections.
Narrator: Adam and I then installed stakes on the glacier that we will check in the fall to measure how much snow and ice the glacier loses over the summer. These records give us direct insight into the physics of how glaciers change.
[Audio description]: gear strewn across the carpet. Caitlin holds up her watch. Time reads 6:14 a.m. on May 17th.
[Audio description]: Adam wears a hooded coat, gloves and large backpack on a snow covered trail with flurries falling.
[Audio description]: Caitlin's shadow on a sunny trail shows her carrying bulky gear on her back.
Narrator: It takes dedication to get these data, but they are incredibly important, because these data provide the factual basis for our response to the consequences of climate change.
[Audio description]: Photo of a hiker perched on the bottom edge of the ice at Sperry Glacier. A pile of white stakes for mass balance research. Sit on bare rock in the foreground.
Description
Come along with USGS Glaciologist Caitlyn Florentine as she deals with avalanche danger and slippery skiing conditions to see how much new snow Sperry Glacier received over the winter. Her fieldwork in Glacier National Park is part of a 20-year mass balance study that helps to assess the health of Sperry Glacier.
Duration
1 minute, 29 seconds
Credit
NPS / Renata Harrison & Kylie Caesar
Date Created
11/05/2024
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