Mendenhall Glacier, Alaska
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July 2007
Jeff Orlowski
An accomplished photographer, filmmaker and pianist, Jeff came to Boulder and the Extreme Ice Survey from Stanford University. As director of post-production, Jeff creates the dramatic time-lapse sequences that are the center point of the EIS project. He is also the cinematographer on much of the footage of the EIS team on location in Alaska, Iceland and Greenland.
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| Jim and I visited our cameras at Mendenhall in July of 2007. The Mendenhall Glacier is one of the most popular glaciers in the world, with a beautiful visitor’s center that overlooks the glacier. This was supposed to be a quick and simple trip—canoe out to the cameras, swap out a memory card, and head back. The weather was great, with temperatures in the low 40s, and it was the last day of a long trip in Alaska. We got to the cameras very quickly, and everything was working perfectly. We had more than 1,400 pictures, which captured a lot of change in the glacier.
We were about to head back when James remembered that he needed to take a repeat shot of a photo he took the year prior and hopped into the canoe. I was filming him from a large, grounded iceberg surrounded by a bunch of small icebergs. I was looking for the best vantage point and stepped out onto a small block of floating ice to get the shot. But I slipped off. It all happened in slow motion . . . one foot was firmly rooted on the ice . . . the other was sinking into the icy-cold water. I had the video camera in my hands and knew I had to do something fast. I managed to pass the camera into my left hand, then reached out and just barely managed to nestle the camera on terra firma milliseconds before I went in up to my neck.
The trip back to the motel was long and cold —but the camera was fine.
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