And a long weekend it was. Snow was dumping the whole time, so between grueling (and fun) early season powder days, I managed to squeeze in a night of Santa mischief during what is my favorite bar night of the year. I was not actually shooting this event for anyone this time. I only brought my camera along because my wife wanted to take pictures, and her skimpy burlesque Santa’s helper suit, alas, had no pockets. But after a few drinks and the midnight gathering under the arch, the worlds largest Santa on Santa snowball fight happened. It was great. The street cleared, people took sides, snowballs flew forth across Virginia street, and a few crazies ran “The gauntlet of death” down the center of the road, finally providing a reachable target (besides me and my camera) for the hundreds of snowball throwers. Good times, then two feet of powder at Mt. Rose the next day to wake me from my stupor. Good weekend! If you don’t know about the Santa Pub Crawl, Reno’s event is supposedly the largest in the nation. Hotel rooms on the strip were going for $20-30 dollars that day. One of my friends got a room at the Cal Neva so he didn’t have to drive for $14.50.  Might have been cancellations due to snow, but hey, Reno is not Las Vegas, it is cheap to stay here about anytime. Check out the Santa Pub Crawl at this link.

And did I mention it is all for charity!

Reno Santa Crawl at Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe

The night started slow at Amendment 21. The heavy snow probably held lots of people to the downtown core.

My wife uses just about any excuse to dress up. Here at Amendment 21.

Dancing it up inside the West Street Market during the Reno Santa Crawl.

I didn't shoot much inside this year, but when we got out in the snow, I couldn't resist. Here the Santas are gathered under the Reno Arch on Virginia St. in downtown Reno, NV.

A little santa love under the Reno Arch during the Santa pub crawl. Keep in mind, the snowball fight has begun and this couple is getting pelted right and left. Some people like it rough I guess.

Run for your life Santa!

Pimp Santa strolling the "Gauntlet of death," between opposing fields of snowball throwers under the Reno Arch.

A little bit angel, a little bit devil!

Mr. and Mrs. Claus finally get chased out of their cover and run for it.

Gotta love the 'stash!

Sometimes, naughty Santa just hides in a dark corner with his date.

A giant ball of flame is the ignition source for the man during the culmination of the Burning Man Project in the black rock desert on Saturday Night.

We just got back from the playa yesterday after a fun-filled week at the Burning Man project. It was the 10th anniversary of our first burn and I thought, while things were fresh in my mind, I would share a few tips and tricks to make your life on the playa that much easier. Oh yeah, and of course lots of photographs from this year’s burn.

First the legal jargon. Burning Man, while free and open in many aspects, is draconian on its grab for control over any and all photographs taken at the event. The organizers say this is to prevent perverts with cameras from posting photographs of naked people.  There is a lot of merit to this. Many of the women are topless (my wife included) the whole time out there, and there is no shortage of perverts with cameras. So, these photos are for illustration and your personal enjoyment only. They may not be reproduced, re-used or republished in any way. And there is nothing remotely indecent about any of them, so feel free to have your kids look over your shoulder.

If you plan on going, be sure to read the survival guide on the official burning man website. My tips are in addition to the detailed and important advice they include in that guide.  This year we had no massive multi-hour whiteout dust storms like we had in years past. We did, however, have several days of wind that kept just below full-on whiteout conditions. So lots of dust flying with a few periods of whiteout but mostly calm and clear at night and in the mornings. My personal take on protective clothing is this: Goggles, yup! You can’t see with that dust blowing in your eyes, but they get hot and sweaty at other times, so have some backup sunglasses also. Dust mask, nope! Never needed it. Just breath through your nose and blow often. I find that with anything short of a chemical warfare rig, I breathed just as much dust. Shirts and/or sunscreen, yup!  I saw way to many glowing red backs out there this year.

Bring a nettie pot. If you don’t know what that is, it is basically a small pot with a spout that you mix water and salt in and pour it through one nostril and out the other to flush your sinuses. I do this about twice a day and have had no issues with sinus infections since.

Wear shoes. The soil is alkali and if you wear sandals all the time, I guarantee you your heels will crack and the soles of your feet will peel. Get several pairs of comfy shoes or boots and spraypaint them to go with your outfits.

Pay attention when you set up camp. The hottest part of the afternoon sun, and the prevailing winds both come roughly out of the west. So put the long side of your RV or trailer or shade structure to block both the afternoon sun and the wind and you will be much happier.

Leave no trace. No, really! Get a 5 gallon orange bucket with a tight fitting lid at home depot and a large strainer at your local grocery store that will fit over it and when you wash dishes or food or anything else, (unless of course you have an RV with a self-contained sink) rinse through the strainer. Dump the strained matter into a garbage bag you take with you, and take the grey water home to use on your compost pile or garden. Make sure your soap is compatible with these uses. You can find environmentally friendly soap at REI or other outdoor shops.

Monique dancing inside a wonderful tube of light and shape at sunset on the playa. My wife threw away our booklet accidentally when we got back, so I don't have the proper names for all these art installations. If anyone has them, please leave them as a comment so I can give credit where credit is due.

Separate your recyclables into glass, plastic, aluminum and cardboard and you can easily and freely dump them at any number of stores in Reno. Don’t and you have to pay, or sit there and separate them in the parking lot after they are covered with mud and dirt.

Bring lights for everything. You, your bike (which you really need) and your camp. Think of something unique so you can find your bike or your friends in a crowd in the dark.

Bring cans. Glass is ok for a few things, but you can take a ton of cans out onto the playa for a week, crush them and they will all most likely fit in one paper sack on the way home, freeing your space up. Also, Ben’s liquors in Reno sells really good beer in cans. Think fat tire and some other great microbrews. Pair this with one of those soft cold sacks that you can get at grocery stores, and you can throw some beers in your backpack, head out on the playa and have cold drinks the whole time. Crush each can after use and you come back leaving no trace AND with a practically empty and weightless backpack.

Center camp is a melting pot of different activity, from drumming to painting to acro-yoga, flaming tubas and coffee for sale, this is a hangout for lots of folks. I actually never made it to center camp last year, so I made a point of visiting this year and found quite a mixed scene.

One ice chest just for ice. We usually take three ice chests. One for food, one for drinks, and one just for ice. The one just for ice starts out with about 6, 10lb blocks of ice covered with another 10 lbs of dry ice. It get’s opened once a day to replenish the ice in the other coolers. Blocks last longer than crushed ice, but we usually have a couple of 7lb bags of crushed ice in the drink cooler, which lasts for about 3 days, and another one or two in the ice cooler, which doesn’t even get opened for the first few days, and the dry ice keeps things from melting at all until then. I usually never have to buy ice the whole week I’m out there.

Bring eye drops. Your eyes will burn from the dust regardless.

If you are not camped reasonably close to the porta-potties, bring a dedicated gallon jug with a screw top lid so you don’t have to walk across the playa in the middle of the night to take a leak. Dump it each morning. This is not like regular camping. There are people all around you, so just walking out at night to have a leak by your car is not an option.

Bring ear plugs. The noise never stops, ever!

Enjoying the sunset at burning man from atop a giant metal sculpture of butterfly wings. Again, anyone with names for these installations please leave a comment so I can post them.

This lighted, flaming neuron was one of the major art installations out on the playa at burning man 2009

A giant sculpture of a woman holding flame at the Burning Man project 2009. I believe this same sculpture was part of the incredible Crude Awakening installation 2 years-ago. If anyone has the proper names for any of the installations in these photos, please leave a comment with them so I can add them and the artists to these descriptions.

A giant sculpture spelling MOM was one of the favorite spots for people to take photos, like Yvette Deighton, pictured.

Some times you just need a notepad. We headed down our block to the Pink Mammoth, a playa bar that is always fun, and I ran into this guy turning backflips on the trampoline across the way. He was busy jumping, but his girlfriend said he was in the summer olympics, I think in track or something. I had already had plenty of drinks that day, so I can't remember, but it just goes to show you that you never know who you may run into, so talk to everyone. That's what it is about.

The Wedge, an installation by Jon Morris, was one of my favorite art installations out on the playa. I am always partial to things I can play on, and this giant slide was no exceptions. After a few test slides, I figured a way to ride it standing up all the way down on two pieces of cardboard, like skiing. Got a few cool stickers for my efforts.

Burning Man provides an exceptional degree of freedom to its participants. This freedom includes the freedom to seriously injure or kill yourself if you do something stupid. So while I did manage to ride down this slide standing up, holding a video camera and filming myself the whole way, that doesn’t mean you should. The guy after me who tried standing up ended up going head-over-rear the whole way down. Stay within your abilities and, even harder, recognize when you are too wasted. Last year I was trying backflips on a trampoline wearing roller skates. Needless to say, there was a lot of whiskey involved in that decision, but the point is, nobody is going to tell you that doing flips on a trampoline with wheels on your feet is a bad idea. They mostly sit back and laugh at the carnage.

Groovik's Cube by Barry Brumitt and a group of Seattle based burners at the Burning Man project in the Black Rock desert, 2009. Yes this is a fully functional giant Rubick's cube that is solvable, but you have to work with two other people to pull it off as each person controls one plane of movement.

This box was another of my favorites. It consisted of a giant box with thousands of bright, multi-colored led lights that would move in programmed patterns. You grab a pair of rainbow, multi-image glasses from nearby and lay under the thing and the effect is spectacular. From floating in a rainstorm to being pummeled by flaming debris. I could have stayed there for hours on my back.

Friday was full-moon on the playa.

This is probably my favorite photograph from Burning man this year. Just as I was lining this peacefull shot up in what I called the metal bird's nest, a parachuter came through the frame in the background.

Dust storm in the giant art installation that I refer to as the metal bird's nest out on the playa at Burning Man

There are lots of giant rave domes out on the playa to get your groove on. For the first time this year, we came across a Greatful Dead themed dome. A pleasant surprise for us old farts.

The man on his unique platform at burning man 2009

Fireworks precede the burning of the man every year. Many years I have covered this event for everyone from the Associated Press, to the Reno Gazette-Journal to the New York Times and had special access. But you know what, the view from the back is just about as good, without the god-awful wait. We woke up literally about 30 minutes before he burned and raced out to the center of the playa.

There are a few more burning man photos up on my Flickr account, and I will add to that in the coming days if you want to check back.

A final word about the exodus. Whether or not you leave Sunday morning or Monday, you are going to have a long, slow drive out. There are no bathrooms along the ride out. Get a pee funnel at pee funnel camp and the previously mentioned plastic gallon jug with a screw-on lid. You may need it after 3 hours of waiting in the dust just to get to the road. Enjoy!!!!

Enjoying the sunrise at the base of Ritter peak as seen from the headwaters above Nydiver Lake in the Ansel Adams wilderness. This was day 4 of a 5 day cross country route that was a version on the popular Minaret Lake-Thousand Island Lake loop.

First, just a shameless plug. Any of these photographs are available as fine art prints or for reproduction licensing as well as many thousands more from my stock archives. Just click on the stock image search link at top or shoot me an email.

This trip was our variation on a popular off-trail backpacking route out of Devil’s Postpile National Monument into the Ansel Adam’s wilderness. We took 5 days for lots of landscape photography and the extra weight that entails, but the trip can be made in 3 days. Though 5 is a nice pace with time for lots of exploration, and many of these locations you will have to yourself. Upon entering Devil’s Postpile, you either have to camp in a campground or take the shuttle bus in from the Mammoth Mountain lodge unless you go in and come out before 6am or 7:30 pm. We camped at Agnew Meadows, where the trailhead starts. This is a great spot, not too scenic, but far enough away from the monument and the river to allow for open spaces often enough.

We took the River trail, also called the lower trail, out to Thousand Island Lakes. This is the best trail option out as the PCT is high, exposed and has very little water along the 8+ mile route. We made it after about 4-5 hours of easy hiking and selected a spot far around on the north-west side of the lake. Thousand Island Lake can get crowded, and the farther north and west you go, the less people you see. Plus there are no trails on that side of the lake, but since the rest of our route was cross-country, we were perfectly set up.

Next we crossed over a low granite saddle to Garnet Lake and descended to a lush meadow just below Banner peak that was cut with deep, clear glacial streams. We loved that spot so much, never saw a soul and found spots to swim in that looked way better than the actual lake about 300 feet below us. Plus it was the meteor shower and there was a large flat granite bench overlooking the lake that made for perfect star watching.

Our third day found us staring at an almost vertical wall of granite and loose rock separating Garnet lake from Nydiver lake. Nathan and I had at it with no problems and signaled the rest of our group waiting below that it was not as steep as it looked. Everyone made it just fine and we descended the other side to the crown jewel of our trip, the completely untouched, unvisited Nydiver lake. Actually it is 3 lakes and a great granite cliff that looks nearly 1000ft straight down at Ediza Lake. Snow still surrounded this lake in spots and we found great jumping rocks and a few good flat spots to camp. We were so isolated, the girls walked around topless all day working on their burning man tans. This spot also proved excellent for nighttime star trail photography and photographs of the alpen-glow on Banner and Ritter peaks in the morning.

From Nydiver, we crossed a small granite saddle directly to the west and followed the most amazing glacial valley all the way down to Ediza Lake. I swear, you could not help but spontaneously burst out singing Edelweiss. This day was to prove our longest. After coming down to Ediza, we had some route-finding difficulties in the high meadow just above it crossing counter-clockwise around the lake and had to ford two steep streams and bushwhack through the brush. The better choice would have been to descend to lakeside and continue clockwise around the lake until you pick up the well-marked trail to Iceberg lake.

Above Iceberg lake was the most technical and difficult of the climbs on steep loose rock with some minor exposure. Nathan and I had to go back down and get the girls packs from them for the last few hundred feet, but we all made it to the top at 10,239 foot Cecile Lake and collapsed in the snow surrounding it. Well, ok, Monique and I jumped in that lake too.

The final leg of our day had us dropping about 800 feet from Cecile lake to Minaret lake, the camping spot for the final night. The map indicated a gently sloping glacial valley coming off the right side of the lake as you are looking downhill toward Minaret lake. Problem was, it started with a neigh unscalable 40 foot cliff. After some poking around, I found a scree field against the cliffs to the far left as looking downhill that then crossed a bench left to right and regained the glacial valley after it mellowed out. We followed this down to Minaret lake without incident and had a great night camping. From Minaret lake, you pick up the trail back to the ranger station at Devil’s Postpile.

The total distance is about 30 miles with an elevation gain/loss of about 5000 feet total.

Catching up on some reading and route planning near sunset at Thousand Island lake at the base of Banner peak in the Ansel Adams wilderness. This was day 1 of a 4 day cross country route that was a version on the popular Minaret Lake-Thousand Island Lake loop.

Our tent is pitched on the rocks above Thousand Island lake at the base of Banner peak in the Ansel Adams wilderness. This was day 1 of a 4 day cross country route that was a version on the popular Minaret Lake-Thousand Island Lake loop.

Waking up with views of Banner peak as seen from the headwaters above Garnet Lake in the Ansel Adams wilderness. This was day 3 of a 5 day cross country route that was a version on the popular Minaret Lake-Thousand Island Lake loop.

Climbing the steep and moderately difficult route above Garnet Lake that connects over to Nydiver Lake in the Ansel Adams wilderness. This was day 3 of a 5 day cross country route that was a version on the popular Minaret Lake-Thousand Island Lake loop.

Sunrise and reflection at the base of Ritter peak as seen from the headwaters above Nydiver Lake in the Ansel Adams wilderness. This was day 4 of a 5 day cross country route that was a version on the popular Minaret Lake-Thousand Island Lake loop.

Panoramic shot of sunrise and reflection at the base of Ritter peak as seen from the headwaters above Nydiver Lake in the Ansel Adams wilderness. This was day 4 of a 5 day cross country route that was a version on the popular Minaret Lake-Thousand Island Lake loop.

Getting a little high altitude fly fishing in at Nydiver lake, which is actually a complex of 3 lakes in Ansel Adams wilderness. This was day 3 of a 5 day cross country route that was a version on the popular Minaret Lake-Thousand Island Lake loop.

Hiking out from Nydiver Lake at the base of Ritter on our way across country to our final night at Minaret lake in the Ansel Adams wilderness. This was day 4 of a 5 day cross country route that was a version on the popular Minaret Lake-Thousand Island Lake loop.

We followed a spectacular glacial valley down from Nydiver Lake at the base of Mt. Ritter, to Ediza lake in the Ansel Adams wilderness. The glacier started just a few hundred feet above me and the water was cold and pure. This was day 4 of a 5 day cross country route that was a version on the popular Minaret Lake-Thousand Island Lake loop.

Some of the stream crossings and route finding became a little more difficult as we rounded the west side of Ediza lake in search of the trail to Iceberg Lake in the Ansel Adams wilderness. This was day 4 of a 5 day cross country route that was a version on the popular Minaret Lake-Thousand Island Lake loop.

Paintbrush were still in bloom along the 9,000+ foot glacial valley leading up to Iceberg Lake in the Ansel Adams wilderness. This was day 4 of a 5 day cross country route that was a version on the popular Minaret Lake-Thousand Island Lake loop.

The most difficult and dangerous climb was the steep and loose rock at the southern end of Iceberg lake heading up to Cecile Lake in the Ansel Adams wilderness. This was day 4 of a 5 day cross country route that was a version on the popular Minaret Lake-Thousand Island Lake loop.

Snow angels in the August snow around Cecil lake, our highest lake at 10,239 feet after a difficult and long climb up from Iceberg Lake in the Ansel Adams wilderness. This was day 4 of a 5 day cross country route that was a version on the popular Minaret Lake-Thousand Island Lake loop.

A small stream entering into Minaret lake in the Ansel Adams wilderness. The map shows the best possible cross country route down from Cecil lake to Minaret lake as a mellow glacial valley on descenders right. It starts with a class 5, 40-f00t cliff. The best way is to head descenders far left and descend the scree pile against the left-hand mountain base. This was day 4 of a 5 day cross country route that was a version on the popular Minaret Lake-Thousand Island Lake loop.

Star trails over the moonlit minarets just above minaret lake in the Ansel Adams wilderness. This was day 5 of a 5 day cross country route that was a version on the popular Minaret Lake-Thousand Island Lake loop.

Sunrise and alpen glow off the Minarets above Minaret Lake on our final day of a 5 day cross country route that was a version on the popular Minaret Lake-Thousand Island Lake loop in the Ansel Adams Wilderness.

Setting up the grids and starting the species count near the 14,250 foot summit of White Mountain for the first US 5-year resurvey as part of the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments or (GLORIA) climate change survey at the first US master-site in the White Mountains.

Story by Scott Sady

Photography by Scott and Monique Sady

Mount Barcroft, a rocky, windswept 13,040-foot peak in the White Mountains above Bishop, CA, is an unlikely candidate for a global climate change laboratory. For the 28 scientists and research students huffing and puffing their way up its flanks this early July morning however, it marked ground zero in the US for studying the effects of climate change.

Mount Barcroft is one of seven permanent study sites established in 2004 in the White Mountains as part of the GLORIA project.

GLORIA (or Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments) is actually a standardized protocol for taking a census of the plant diversity and distribution on alpine peaks that scientists around the world can use to get repeatable and scientifically relevant data.

GLORIA started in Austria on a shoestring budget by a group mostly composed of scientists and volunteers in 1994. The first few permanent sites were established across Europe in 2001 after years of hammering out the methodology to be used. In 2004 the University of California’s White Mountain Research Station, which has facilities at 10,150 feet and 12,410 feet in the White Mountains, and even has one of the highest research stations in the US on the summit of White Mountain Peak at 14,250 feet, became the first and only US master site.

Connie Millar, a research scientist with the US Forest Service, was instrumental in brining the project to the US. “We had a real concern about the lack of integration in the mountain sciences,” said Miller during a slow, rocky drive up to White Mountain Peak.
“Above tree line, alpine summits are very consistent throughout the world. They are more affected by the environment and less by human and other factors,” she said, making them a sort of high-altitude canary in the coalmine.

The GLORIA protocol brings that integration by dictating a very specific method for choosing study plots, mapping them out in a repeatable way, and surveying and cataloging the results in an international database.  GLORIA requires that the study plots are resurveyed every 5 years. This was the first resurvey of a site in the United States.

Since the initial permanent US survey site was established in the White Mountains in 2004, new sites have been established in the Rockies, the Cascades, Alaska, the High Sierra near Mount Dana, and in Lake Tahoe on Freel and Job’s peaks.

In addition to documenting the plant coverage and diversity, other GLORIA volunteers were placing hundreds of tiny temperature sensors to get an exact picture of what the temperature is doing in each of these micro-climates. Another group of scientists were counting the butterfly populations near each of these peaks. Butterflies follow their food, plants, and are another indicator for climate change. Two researchers have even designed a specialized leaf blower to work in reverse and suck out all the insects under .5 meter x .5 meter nets, which are later painstakingly sorted and identified to get an idea of the insect populations around each of these plots.

In Europe, where these surveys have been going on for longer, scientists have noted the steady upslope march of plants and increases in their density as our climate warms.

What changes might we see on the first US resurvey? While this project is too new for statistically relevant findings, most of the young research assistants trudging up the flanks of Mt. Barcroft that day wanted to be the first to find a new species in their study plot.

They didn’t have to wait long. Shortly after setting down their backpacks just outside the study area 22 year-old ecology student Allison Louthan let out a squeal. The cause of all this excitement? A tiny delicate purple flower called “Mimulus mephiticus,” but much more fun to refer to by its common name, the Skunky monkeyflower. The Skunky monkeyflower, true to its name, emits a foul odor. It also was not present in the study plot during the first survey 5 years-ago. This time they found 3 plants growing.

Adelia Barber, a PhD researcher from the University of Santa Cruz studying the ancient bristlecone pine trees that share this bleak mountain realm cautions against drawing any conclusions from such a young study. “I’m not totally convinced that we are observing actual species change yet,” she said. “These species may not have been present 5 years-ago because it was a drier year. What I can say for certain is that after 2 rounds of GLORIA, we know every species growing on each of those peaks right now. Exactly where they are and approximately what density they are growing at. We may not be certain what is going on with them right now, but any future climatic change can be documented in precise detail.”

That is exactly the reason that the GLORIA project was established. It is hard to say with absolute certainty that the climate is changing anything if you don’t first have a well-documented baseline for comparison. Now we have it. The next several years should really show us beyond a doubt what climate change is doing to our beloved mountain peaks.

The University of California's Crooked Creek research station in the White Mountains, CA.

Getting one of the equipment vehicles unstuck after finishing up the species count on the 14,250 foot summit of White Mountain for the first US 5-year resurvey as part of the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments or (GLORIA) climate change survey. The University of California's White Mountain Research Station played host to the week-long structured biological and ecological re-survery of several alpine peaks.

Survey plot lines at the first site at Barcroft peak, 13,040 feet up in the White Mountains. This was the first US resurvey as part of the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments or (GLORIA) climate change survey at the master-site in the White Mountains. The University of California's White Mountain Research Station played host to the week-long structured biological and ecological re-survery of several alpine peaks.

Scientists and research students head up to re-survey first site at Barcroft peak, roughly 13,040 feet in the White Mountains. This was the first US resurvey as part of the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments or (GLORIA) climate change survey at the master-site in the White Mountains. The University of California's White Mountain Research Station played host to the week-long structured biological and ecological re-survey of several alpine peaks.

WMRS research scientist Jeff Holmquest does a bug sample during the first US 5-year resurvey as part of the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments or (GLORIA) climate change survey at the first US master-site in the White Mountains. The University of California's White Mountain Research Station played host to the week-long structured biological and ecological re-survey of several alpine peaks.

WMRS research scientist Jeff Holmquest does a bug sample during the first US 5-year resurvey as part of the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments or (GLORIA) climate change survey at the first US master-site in the White Mountains. The University of California's White Mountain Research Station played host to the week-long structured biological and ecological re-survey of several alpine peaks.

Taking notes during the plant species count near the 14,250 foot summit of White Mountain for the first US resurvey as part of the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments or (GLORIA) climate change survey at the master-site in the White Mountains. The University of California's White Mountain Research Station played host to the week-long structured biological and ecological re-survey of several alpine peaks.

White Mountain Research Station associate director John Smiley, left and Scientific consultant Stuart Weiss try to identify a butterfly during a butterfly count as part of the first US 5-year resurvey as part of the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments or (GLORIA) climate change survey at the first US master-site in the White Mountains.

Steve McLaughlin, a botanist and retired professor at the University of Arizona was the go-to man for difficult plant species identification during the GLORIA project survey of plant species and distribution on the alpine peaks in the white mountains.

Researcher Jimmy Spaulding sets up the grids and starting the species count near the 14,250 foot summit of White Mountain for the first US 5-year resurvey as part of the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments or (GLORIA) climate change survey at the first US master-site in the White Mountains. Owens Vally and the high sierra rise in the background.

GLORIA project headquarters in Vienna, Austria.

US GLORIA mastersite in the White Mountains near Bishop, CA.