Colorado, Part 2

Sadly, our field season is almost at an end. Before I fly back to Williamstown on Wednesday, I have just one day left of collecting data (Tuesday), and one day of presenting my preliminary data to a committee of professionals at the CU Boulder Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (tomorrow). Real training time comes and goes out here, but really every day I'm doing something active, and anything extra I can do at the end of the day is a bonus. I've been getting a good mix of aerobic stuff (hiking a lot) and strength (digging soil pits to see how deep saporolite—essentially weathered bedrock—is).  I feel super fit, so I'm excited to return and see how hard I can push an interval week at lower elevation. The one downside of digging is that I have developed a healthy collection of blisters. As Prof. Dethier says, "perhaps they'll translate well to skiing when they heal?"

Also, I've been told I'm featured in the new Williams calendar. Can anyone confirm this?

There's a lot of cool stuff to share, but I'm going to have to limit it to a few pictures because I've got to work on this presentation. Enjoy. Phil, get ready to rock some intervals.

Our humble abode

Measuring discharge

My Office

Pondering life on the Divide 

Just another day at the office 

My favorite running trail, Sourdough. No skiing this time of year, though.

The result of several hours of pit digging. Amazingly, this was only the second-deepest one we dug.

Band of Horses and My Morning Jacket at Red Rocks, August 4, 2012

Band of Horses

Overlooking Lake Isabelle

Williams Geology poster children 2013, with an earth-shattering thunderstorm in the background

Keck Geology 2012, plus some. LtR: Juliane Huber (PhD candidate, Technical University of Munich), Julia Reich (Carleton), Ian Nesbitt (Williams), Tim Boateng (Amherst), Hannah Mondrach (UConn), Claudia Corona (Williams), Annette Patton (Whitman), Gabe Lewis (Williams), Ben Purinton (Wesleyan), Neal Shea (Masters' candidate, UConn), Chris Halcsik (Beloit), Dr. David Dethier (Williams). Not pictured: Dr. Will Ouimet (Williams '01, UConn), Dr. Matthias Leopold (Technical University of Munich), Dr. Jörg Völkel (Technical University of Munich)