Local Columns
Stay close to home this summer, visit the glacial grooves
As gasoline prices continue to climb and summer road trips become more and more expensive, why not take a short trip to an interesting piece of Ohio history?
The glacial grooves on Kelley's Island are the largest, most accessible glacial grooves in the world. The awesome power of the continental ice sheet more than 18,000 years ago carved across the Lake Erie Basin to not only dig out the Great Lakes and scrape Kelley's Island, but also to flatten most of northwest Ohio.
The southern-most reach of this great ice sheet was about at a latitude just north of Columbus. The great pile of debris the ice sheet pushed along was deposited along this southern boundary known as a terminal moraine. In fact, Ohio's highest point above sea level, Campbell Hill (1,549 feet), rests on this ancient terminal moraine.
The Kahiltna Glacier that has its beginning high on the slopes of Denali is nowhere near the size and scope of the great ice sheet that once slid across Ohio. However, it is the longest glacier in Alaska at more than 45 miles in length and is more than two miles wide in some places. It begins just below the 14,000 feet camp on Denali and terminates at 1,000 feet elevation giving rise to the Kahiltna River as the ice calves off and melts.
The first 10 days or more of our June climb of Denali will be spent on this glacier starting at base camp at 7,200 feet. Living on a moving sheet of ice is not without its challenges. The slow but steady peregrination of the ice downhill causes the surface of the ice to crack -- especially on curves and steeper sections of the glacier.
These cracks are called crevasses, which are a constant danger to climbers who travel on glaciers. Sometimes the cracks can be seen and avoided, but often snow bridges develop and these bridges can conceal the crevasse.
The depth and strength of a snow bridge varies greatly. Also, as the temperature rises and the snow softens, the snow bridges weaken. A large crevassed area can be a little like the proverbial mine field. Dangerous areas can be completely hidden from view and snow bridges can collapse.
Crevasses on Denali are huge. They can be hundreds of feet deep and hundreds of yards long as well as dozens of feet wide. A climber who falls into one of these massive cracks risks injury, damage or loss of gear, and even death.
Consequently, mountaineers take great care to avoid a crevasse fall, but they also prepare for a fall in several ways. First, climbers travel on glaciers in rope teams where the climbers are all tied together. If one falls, the others are there to stop the fall and rescue the fallen climber. Each climber typically rigs a system that helps them climb up the rope and out of the crevasse. The other climbers on the rope can haul the fallen person up and out as well.
Climbers also probe the snow for weaknesses with ice axes or ski poles without baskets. This probing can detect air pockets under the snow and indicate thin snow bridges. Risk of a crevasse fall also can be reduced by traveling when air is coldest so snow bridges are the most solid.
Much like crevasse danger, the weather is a constant danger for mountaineers on Denali. Seasonal weather patterns and long-range forecasting for the Tiffin area make predicting the weather remarkably accurate in general. On Denali the forces at work are quite different than in northwest Ohio.
On Denali, as with all mountains, orthographic lift produces rapid changes in the weather. Orthographic lift occurs when an air mass travels over terrain that is rising (like a mountainside). As a result of the increased elevation, the air mass cools as it rises and the moisture in the air condenses into clouds. An excellent example of orthographic lift producing weather in Ohio occurs in the northeastern corner of the state. Lake effect snows can be quite heavy in places such as Mentor because the land rises more than 100 feet above the level of Lake Erie and when the moisture-laden air traveling across the lake from Canada is lifted over this higher ground, the clouds form in the same way they do on Denali.
The massive vertical rise of Denali, almost 18,000 feet from its surrounding lowlands to the summit, produces rapidly changing and powerful storms. Moisture from the Pacific Ocean and arctic air combine to further exacerbate the changing weather. Storms on Denali can last three continuous days or more and dump many feet of new snow. Winds can reach 80-100 mph during these powerful storms. The mountain literally creates its own weather.
Unlike in Tiffin where fronts travel across the U.S. or drop out of Canada and pass over the city and then are gone, Denali weather often is created right on the mountain and it stays on the mountain until its energy is exhausted.
Our climb starts June 3 and ends sometime later in the month, but unlike Mentor in June, Denali will be covered in snow and storms will be snow storms and blizzards. June is a month of never-ending daylight and warmer temperatures on Denali. But "warmer" is a relative term. Wind chill values routinely drop to 30 below zero or more in these storms. Wise climbers hunker down in tents and igloos to wait out the tempests.
As the residents of Tiffin enjoy the splendor of June days (school is out and the sun is finally shining), think about making a trip to Kelley's Island to marvel at the huge grooves cut by a glacier that no longer exists. As the sun sets on a warm evening, gaze out over the amazingly-flat land surrounding Tiffin that lends itself so well to agriculture, and visualize a sheet of ice hundreds of feet thick scraping the land.
And be glad we are living in a warmer world than the one that spawned the continental ice sheets.
By Bernie Hohman
A brief blog of our training and trip is located at www.denaliin2008.info and there is more information about our mountain adventures at www.thesummitridge.com.
The glacial grooves on Kelley's Island are the largest, most accessible glacial grooves in the world. The awesome power of the continental ice sheet more than 18,000 years ago carved across the Lake Erie Basin to not only dig out the Great Lakes and scrape Kelley's Island, but also to flatten most of northwest Ohio.
The southern-most reach of this great ice sheet was about at a latitude just north of Columbus. The great pile of debris the ice sheet pushed along was deposited along this southern boundary known as a terminal moraine. In fact, Ohio's highest point above sea level, Campbell Hill (1,549 feet), rests on this ancient terminal moraine.
The Kahiltna Glacier that has its beginning high on the slopes of Denali is nowhere near the size and scope of the great ice sheet that once slid across Ohio. However, it is the longest glacier in Alaska at more than 45 miles in length and is more than two miles wide in some places. It begins just below the 14,000 feet camp on Denali and terminates at 1,000 feet elevation giving rise to the Kahiltna River as the ice calves off and melts.
The first 10 days or more of our June climb of Denali will be spent on this glacier starting at base camp at 7,200 feet. Living on a moving sheet of ice is not without its challenges. The slow but steady peregrination of the ice downhill causes the surface of the ice to crack -- especially on curves and steeper sections of the glacier.
These cracks are called crevasses, which are a constant danger to climbers who travel on glaciers. Sometimes the cracks can be seen and avoided, but often snow bridges develop and these bridges can conceal the crevasse.
The depth and strength of a snow bridge varies greatly. Also, as the temperature rises and the snow softens, the snow bridges weaken. A large crevassed area can be a little like the proverbial mine field. Dangerous areas can be completely hidden from view and snow bridges can collapse.
Crevasses on Denali are huge. They can be hundreds of feet deep and hundreds of yards long as well as dozens of feet wide. A climber who falls into one of these massive cracks risks injury, damage or loss of gear, and even death.
Consequently, mountaineers take great care to avoid a crevasse fall, but they also prepare for a fall in several ways. First, climbers travel on glaciers in rope teams where the climbers are all tied together. If one falls, the others are there to stop the fall and rescue the fallen climber. Each climber typically rigs a system that helps them climb up the rope and out of the crevasse. The other climbers on the rope can haul the fallen person up and out as well.
Climbers also probe the snow for weaknesses with ice axes or ski poles without baskets. This probing can detect air pockets under the snow and indicate thin snow bridges. Risk of a crevasse fall also can be reduced by traveling when air is coldest so snow bridges are the most solid.
Much like crevasse danger, the weather is a constant danger for mountaineers on Denali. Seasonal weather patterns and long-range forecasting for the Tiffin area make predicting the weather remarkably accurate in general. On Denali the forces at work are quite different than in northwest Ohio.
On Denali, as with all mountains, orthographic lift produces rapid changes in the weather. Orthographic lift occurs when an air mass travels over terrain that is rising (like a mountainside). As a result of the increased elevation, the air mass cools as it rises and the moisture in the air condenses into clouds. An excellent example of orthographic lift producing weather in Ohio occurs in the northeastern corner of the state. Lake effect snows can be quite heavy in places such as Mentor because the land rises more than 100 feet above the level of Lake Erie and when the moisture-laden air traveling across the lake from Canada is lifted over this higher ground, the clouds form in the same way they do on Denali.
The massive vertical rise of Denali, almost 18,000 feet from its surrounding lowlands to the summit, produces rapidly changing and powerful storms. Moisture from the Pacific Ocean and arctic air combine to further exacerbate the changing weather. Storms on Denali can last three continuous days or more and dump many feet of new snow. Winds can reach 80-100 mph during these powerful storms. The mountain literally creates its own weather.
Unlike in Tiffin where fronts travel across the U.S. or drop out of Canada and pass over the city and then are gone, Denali weather often is created right on the mountain and it stays on the mountain until its energy is exhausted.
Our climb starts June 3 and ends sometime later in the month, but unlike Mentor in June, Denali will be covered in snow and storms will be snow storms and blizzards. June is a month of never-ending daylight and warmer temperatures on Denali. But "warmer" is a relative term. Wind chill values routinely drop to 30 below zero or more in these storms. Wise climbers hunker down in tents and igloos to wait out the tempests.
As the residents of Tiffin enjoy the splendor of June days (school is out and the sun is finally shining), think about making a trip to Kelley's Island to marvel at the huge grooves cut by a glacier that no longer exists. As the sun sets on a warm evening, gaze out over the amazingly-flat land surrounding Tiffin that lends itself so well to agriculture, and visualize a sheet of ice hundreds of feet thick scraping the land.
And be glad we are living in a warmer world than the one that spawned the continental ice sheets.
By Bernie Hohman
A brief blog of our training and trip is located at www.denaliin2008.info and there is more information about our mountain adventures at www.thesummitridge.com.
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