On today’s adventures, we traveled to the Col du Geant. Crossing into Italy and traveling via the gondolas in order to reach the top and begin our hike. One of the goals for the day was to see how the glaciers are being not only affected by climate change but the differences between the top and bottom of the glaciers. Using the Mer de Glacé as our specimen, we got to observe the differences in climate, weather, and conditions!
There were many things that differed from our glacier hike in the previous blog. One of the main differences was we were now on the accumulation area of the Mer de Glacé rather than the ablation area. This meant that we encountered a lot more snow when hiking, which lead to many within our group to sink waist deep in snow and occasionally get a foot stuck and had to be dug out by either our ice axe or friends.
Another one of the main differences between the two sides of the Mer de Glacé we observed was the type of cover that was on the glacier. On the bottom and it was mainly debris and rock cover, which both helped insulate and warm the glacier, as the rocks color helped absorb the UV rays from the sun. Whereas the top was covered in snow, which reflected the snow and acting as more of an insulator! Notice the difference colors in the second picture! Another difference between the two with regards to the type of cover it has. The rock debris allows for more visibility on it and you can see the open carvaces, whereas on the top where it is snow covered, those same carvaces are hidden and have to be more careful!
Overall it was our second hike on the Mer de Glacé that lead to not only pop quizzes about glaciers, but allowed for awesome photo opportunities and putting our glacier traversing skills to work.