Fieldwork at Peyto Glacier

At the end of August, the Mountain Ice & Water Lab spent a week camped beside Peyto Glacier in the Canadian Rockies, investigating how water moves through the rapidly changing landscape exposed by glacier retreat.Our team installed water-level, temperature, and electrical-conductivity sensors across proglacial ponds and streams, drilled shallow groundwater wells, collected water samples for hydrochemistry and stable-isotope analysis, surveyed pond bathymetry, and measured glacier-surface albedo and sediment across the lower glacier.

We were lucky with some beautiful weather for data collection during the day, while the evenings were a little more eventful. Several thunderstorms, heavy rain, and even snowstorms meant a few nights eating dinner from the relative comfort of our tents. Despite the weather, morale stayed remarkably high.
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It was especially rewarding to see our undergraduate and graduate researchers work together, troubleshoot in the field, and take ownership of their projects. We came home with a huge amount of data and are very excited to spend the fall semester digging into it!