Sebastian Szweda, Westminster College, gives a point-of-view look at a day spent summiting mountains in the Taku watershed for the global GLORIA (Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments) project.
he Llewellyn Glacier is retreating which provides an opportunity to view depositional glacial features such as recessional moraines, and to observe patterns of vegetative succession in newly ice-free areas. Perhaps future Round River students will one day have the good fortune of conducting a rain-free vegetation survey at the Llewellyn terminus, but we made the most of our rainy days, and were content to fondly recount this trip’s adventures from the comfort of Phil’s couch.
While the unrelenting daylight of Atlin doesn’t lend much to traditional nighttime pleasures, we’ve had the privilege of finally witnessing the beautiful British Colombia sunsets during Nighthawk surveys in the past two weeks.
The GLORIA project is a global project that maps out plant species on different summit altitudes. Sentinel mountain is the tallest mountain used for research in the GLORIA project. The data gathered from this four-day backpacking trip will be used to track and monitor species at different elevations which include Nival, high alpine, low alpine, and tree line.
By Ella Hiebert of Colby College As winter begins and May nears, the early transect mornings are growing colder, so I pulled on all of my long-sleeve layers before daring to exit my sleeping bag. After grabbing some fruit, chips,…
By Annabelle South of the University of Vermont “Lion! Lion! Out of tents!” Only a few of us, those sleeping in on our off day, received that unique and somewhat startling wake up call. The rest of our cohort had…
By Hope Sampson of University of Montana The infamous Mopane Camp…16 people, 10 days, 7 packs of baby wipes, 4 rainy days, 3 transects, 1 communal bathroom pit, and not enough cans of peaches. This concession was a real character-building…
By Kiera Cacioppo of the University of Vermont
When we’re little people always ask, “So what do you want to be when you get older?” For some it’s an astronaut, a doctor, a veterinarian, but for me, it was always a paleontologist. I was fascinated by the lives…
By Jodie Tsih of Colby College Remember when you were a child and an adult would pull a coin out of your ear? You might have been just in absolute awe with curiosity as to how they did that. You…
By Aden Ho of Bowdoin College Following a ~5 hour full body percussive massage complete with dust, back-sweat, and Choppies fried chicken, we arrived at Tau Camp, Khwai Private Reserve, NG18, Ngamiland, Botswana. Given our only shade at the last…
By Kilynn Groen of the University of Montana Backpacking up a steep mountain with a friendly dog is a good day for us Round River students. After settling into the Aysen region for the first two weeks of the semester,…
By Molly Jo Krupkin of the University of Vermont 2/12/2024 On a sunny February day we headed out to Naturaleza Publica, a native flora and fauna farm, in Puerto Guadal to plant and sort seeds and learn about native plants,…
By Tate Mullin of the University of Vermont After spending two weeks in the bush near Mababe, a small village 3 hours northeast of Maun, the vegetation has started to feel natural, and I sometimes forget about how different it…
By Lu Lobón of Colby College A set of names, universities, phone numbers, and emails were all we were to each other just a month ago. One hour-long zoom and some Instagram stalking only gives you so much information on…
By Kian Sia Su from the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University Our final surveying excursion of the semester brought the entire Round River crew to a small campo on a lake to the Southeast of Cochrane. The…