Snow Cornice 1949 : A Preliminary Report

Abstract

On July 8 a telegram was received at the Institute headquarters from Walter Wood, leader of the 1949 Snow Cornice Expedition, which reads: "Mount Vancouver climbed fifth July by Odell, Hainsworth, McCarter and Bruce-Robertson. Party returned to station seventh." Mount Vancouver, 15,850 ft., in the St. Elias Mountains on the boundary between Alaska and Canada, towers above the 1948 base camp of Snow Cornice. In 1948 Walter Wood, Director of the Institute's New York Office, led an expedition to the Seward Ice Field and its distributary, the Malaspina glacier. Project Snow Cornice, as this expedition was known, laid the groundwork for the 1949 season, both in establishing a semi-permanent research station on the Seward Ice Field and in initiating a long-range glaciological programme. ... In 1948 all transport was by air and this plan has been followed in 1949, with the same pilot, and the Institute's Norseman. The aircraft is fitted with combination ski-wheels to enable take-offs from the hard runway at Yakutat airport and landings on the snow of the Ice Field. ... In 1949 advantage has been taken of the 1948 experience to adapt and improve equipment and techniques .... A number of improvements have been made to the ski-wheel combination for the Norseman. ... In 1948 the St. Elias Mountains and the adjacent coastal fringe enjoyed the finest summer weather on record, but this was followed by one of the most severe fall, winter and spring sequences in the history of meteorological records. ... When Snow Cornice left the field early in September 1948, a cache of supplies was left on the surface of the basin, marked by a wind direction indicator rising about 18 feet above the surface. On June 15 ... only about four feet of marker was visible. Later measurement showed that, at the time of our arrival, there had been a net accumulation of some 14½ feet of snow during the winter. ... Fortunately the Institute's research station, perched on a nunatak at 6100 feet, did not suffer the same inundation as the cache. ... Eight hours after our return the hut was in running order. The seismic and radar studies begun last year will be continued and long-range sledge journeys for the collection of geological evidence and stereophotogrammetric mapping operations are planned. Studies of glacier movement await, at least in some phases, the reappearance of movement stakes set and measured in 1948. Standard meteorological observations commenced with the reopening of the station and continue to be fed by radio to the stations within the Alaska forecast network. Finally, the inhabitants of nunataks emerging from the ice, small coneys or rock rabbits, are being sought for comparison with less isolated representatives of the same species. Collections of moths and insects are also being made. ...