Kim Reasor and David Lipson here. We have split our residency into two visits, one in winter, one which will occur in late spring. We spent last week at the field station establishing 6 study sites along an elevation gradient. David collected snow and water samples for further analysis, while I made some sketches and took photos. Our project involves collecting impressions, photos, drawings, snow samples, and sound recordings of the landscape focusing on water in both its frozen and liquid states.
Last Thursday, the weather was spectacular, sunny with no wind. An excellent day to spend outdoors on the lake.
David spent three hours drilling a hole through the ice of the lake:
He collected water samples from the lake, and then lowered a waterproof microphone into the lake. He picked up some underwater sounds of the ice shifting, at about the same time I felt the "earth" move subtly. Very similar sensation to mild earthquakes I have felt in California.
I found a comfortable spot to sit and sketch:
There was beautiful reflected light in various shades of blue bouncing off the snow-covered lake and mountains. It was great to sketch; this will be an invaluable addition to my photos.
I wound up drawing with Conte crayons which was a good choice. They held up pretty well until the end of my sketch session, when they started to get really cold and harder to work with.
Now the interesting part will be combining landscape images with scientific data in a meaningful and visually compelling way. We will be in Jyväskylä until we return to Kilpisjärvi in June, so we have time to work on this.