University of Alaska Fairbanks glaciologist Matt Nolan has just completed the second phase of an extensive study of McCall Glacier in northern Alaska, briefly returning to civilization after over two months on the glacier with heaps of ice cores and measurements of glacier dynamics, but also with some great panoramic photos, timelapse photography, and videos of his young son Turner skiing for the first time.

Matt’s daily documenting of what scientists (and his family) get up to on an glacier expedition has now been posted to www.IPY.org, with many new panoramas and video. You can read all of Matt’s entries, in reverse chronological order, but below are just some of the highlights:

Installing survey stakes on the glacier:


(Click on the panorama and drag to look around, press Shift to zoom in, Command (Mac) or Control (PC) to zoom out.) Enlarge this panorama

A panoramic view of the glacier:


(Click on the panorama and drag to look around, press Shift to zoom in, Command (Mac) or Control (PC) to zoom out.) Enlarge this panorama

Timelapse data of cloud formation on the glacier:



Timelapse data of the stream at the terminus of the glacier:



Matt’s son Turner learning to ski:



On the way back from the glacier, the posse encountered migrating caribous:



And the mosquitos came out in force:



Every post has something interesting and unexpected to relate, so do spend some time perusing them all.