 Poster: A snowHead
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There are plans to wrap Swiss mountain glaciers with tin foil this summer in an effort to stop them melting... Reports Ananova.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Are glaciers melted by the radiation of the sun, or the heat conducted into the ice by air at +0C?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I'd vote for both.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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If this was a week or so latter i'd say it was an april fool
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april foil maybe
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Here are some other foil-wrapping suggestions, for April, Easter or Christmas:
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How do they get the foild down the sides and underneath?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Ask that lady. I think she picks up the glacier like a turkey.
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skanky, easy, they wrap up the rain before it freezes.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Are you guys actually saying that the tin-foil job on glaciers is silly idea?
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Is this what it's baste on?
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A fowl idea.
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Maybe it's a Swiss fetisch. They wrap their schocolates in it, now glaciersch. What next? Foil wrapped private banksch and Stockli schkis? (I was going to say cuckoo clocksch but decided not to bait Ische) 
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Poster: A snowHead
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Slikedges, you've forgotten the Gruyere and Emmental or is this post just getting too cheesy.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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David@traxvax, stop pointing out the holes in his post ...
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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It's a bird-brained idea and everyone seems to have taken a ham-fisted approach to all this......
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Yeah, but it's something to reflect on.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Lets drop this thread.................... Its a dead duck
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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skanky, so you're taking a shine to it?
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Don't knock it - it may well be a feather in the scientist's caps.
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Stopping them turning to water key to this scheme. Some people may think it's a toilet idea, or a loo mini,...um...needs work I think. 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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skanky, You may need to consider getting out a lot more!!!! But I like your lateral thinking - it's stuffed with great ideas. I shall foil it away for future reference. 
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Stuff it
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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In case any of you were thinking of taking up this idea, I think you all should know it doesn't work. In the interests of science, yesterday I took a tub of icecream out of the freezer and wrapped it in foil. Just now, after a mere 24 hours I inspected the ice-cream, and I have to report that it has all melted.
If, however, despite my brilliant experiment, they do decide to continue with this crack-pot idea, I would suggest we start buying up shares in tin-foil pronto.
Now. back to packing . . . .
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Of course the idea is to simply shield the glacier from the sun, it out to reduce the melting but it won't stop it due to the higher air temps
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You know it makes sense.
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Well yes and no, with glaciers if you can keep the sun off the glacier you will significantly reduce glacial melting, don't forget that the sun does not significantly affect clean fresh white snow, take this year for example, earlier this season there was very little snowfall in Sitzerland for much of January plus high levels of sun, but the ambient temp stayed cold and the snow barely melted, now the ambient temp is much higher and teh snow is rapidly going away, however with glaciers their huge depth of ice maintains a very low ambient temp in close proximity to the glacier but particulates embedded within the snow are heated by the suns rays causing rapid melting at the surface, thus if you can keep the suns rays off the surface and allow a layer of cold air to circulate under the foil it might actually work.
To use Jonpim's, idea and test it, take two blocks of equal sizes of ice a fridge some foil and a powerful lamp, place both blocks of ice in the fridge, and direct the lamp so that its rays fall equally on both, then take some foil and allowing a small air gap between foil and ice place it in front of one of the blocks of ice, leave and check regullarly to see the results
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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I heard something about this on the radio and they said it was a foil-coated foam blanket - which will give some additional insulation. The layer of air DG Orf wants. Seems it's not the whole glacier they are trying to protect - just a strip of bulldozed snow they have to create every year to connect a lift station to the skiable area now that the glacier has already shrunk. Still think it's a crackpot idea. 
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Poster: A snowHead
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Whistler's papers this week both report that Intrawest are planning two long term measures to stop the shrinkage of our summer skiing glaciers on Blackcomb mountian.
First they plan to erect strategically placed slatted fences at the ridge above the glaciers to cause wind transported/drifted snow to be deposited at the top of the glacier (reminds me of the 'elephant fences' on Cairngorm many years ago) and second the pumping/piping of water to the top to allow snow cannons to make snow especially on the higher parts of the glacier. The theory is that in due course more ice will be at the bottom and so the melt back of the glacier tail will be stopped or at least reduced.
There is no mention of cost or who will provide the funding, but since the glaciers provide cause for a significant number of 'bed nights' both in winter and summer I suspect that both plans will be put into action in the very near future.
It is interesting to note too that in line with Whistlers attempt to be a sustainable comunity there is also a hydro electric plant proposed for the valley between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains, which we are told will provide the electrical needs of both mountains including the snowmaking equipment and lifts!
Although I am not a great lover of the Intrawest 'one company owns it all' & 'we are bound to make max profit for our shareholders' philosophy of ski town development, I have to say that Intrawest are in a unique position to not only contemplate these sorts of very long term payback projects but also to carry them out.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, it seems that the Swiss remember the promise they made.
"Workers at a Swiss ski resort have wrapped part of a retreating glacier in reflective sheeting to protect it, they say, from global warming."
This article is from BBC News.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| colinmcc wrote: |
First they plan to erect strategically placed slatted fences at the ridge above the glaciers to cause wind transported/drifted snow to be deposited at the top of the glacier (reminds me of the 'elephant fences' on Cairngorm many years ago)
There is no mention of cost or who will provide the funding, but since the glaciers provide cause for a significant number of 'bed nights'
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No mention of cost, eh?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Eh?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I saw the Swiss blanket being draped over the glacier yesterday on one of the TV news channels - maybe Channel 4 News. It was a white blanket.
Presumably they will take it off again in about October for fresh snow to do its thing. It looked like a surprisingly steep slope.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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David Goldsmith, yes BBC WS Radio also carried the story this morning and they were talking about the guys installing it rappelling (abseiling). The pic on the BBC link above shows this but I don't think that's the final destination of the blanket.
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Time to buy shares in Alcan?
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This idea (using aluminium panels instead) has already been suggested (half seriously), for the Garbh Corrie below Braieriach in the Cairngorms, as a way of restoring Britains last glacier !
Presumably the foil blanket (or aluminium panels) would also shelter the ice from mild winds and importantly rain, as well as reflecting solar radiation and insulating the snow. In a British context protection from rain and mild winds are probably more important to the longevity of snow fields than shelter from the sun.
I took this picture of the Garbh Corrie last Tuesday (3rd May).
http://www.winterhighland.info/forums/file.php?2,file=290
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