The Summit Hunters

[Tim Seaver]

The Summit Hunters

 

[NewHampshire]

He he, cute hats

Brian

 

[1HappyHiker]

Outstanding! Superb! Splendid! Fabulous! What else can I say!
Oh! Did I mention that I like it?

 

[cushetunk]

Two thumbs up!

 

[adktyler]

Nicely done, I liked it. Wish I could think up clever rhymes like that!

 

[chinooktrail]

How sweet!

Thanks for the much needed smile this morning!



Way to go Tim, Cath and Drew, Um Clem and Flo and Jethro I mean!

 

[drewski]

how sweet it was..

another sweet peakbragging hunt...any of you grid experts care to guess the peak and the #???

 

[donna]

Cool! How about writing something cool for me when I finish my NEHH.

 

[Kevin Rooney]

how sweet it was..

another sweet peakbragging hunt...any of you grid experts care to guess the peak and the #???

Well, that looks like the northern Presis in the background, and the Carter Range to your right? Are you and Cath headed up Shelburne Moriah? Haven't a clue what # it is though. Not into NHHH.

 

[ColdRiverRun]

how sweet it was..

another sweet peakbragging hunt...any of you grid experts care to guess the peak and the #???

I'll guess about 425 of the grid for you...and about 4000 for Flo.

 

[Tim Seaver]

Frosted Polygon Etched Ice on Kissin' Rock

While huntin', we couldn't help but notice that Kissin' Rock (which naturally comes a bit before the rock known as "Second Base") was covered with thick ice, which had this amazing surface to it; very small, slightly raised polygons about 1/4" or less etched in frost. All purdy like.

I can't seem to find an explanation of how this particular phenomena happens.

Any ideas? Warm moist air hitting the cold icy rock and being drawn into hex shapes by ... ? Voodoo?

( I could only stomach so many white papers on "heterogeneous frost nucleation on smooth surfaces")

 

[mtnmama]

How sweet it is to wake up to this!!!!
Very nice Tim, Drew & Cath.
Beautiful pics Tim...keep em coming.

 

[MichaelJ]

Schweet! Good for a big smile.

 

[DougPaul]

While huntin', we couldn't help but notice that Kissin' Rock (which naturally comes a bit before the rock known as "Second Base") was covered with thick ice, which had this amazing surface to it; very small, slightly raised polygons about 1/4" or less etched in frost. All purdy like.

I can't seem to find an explanation of how this particular phenomena happens.

Any ideas? Warm moist air hitting the cold icy rock and being drawn into hex shapes by ... ? Voodoo?

Interesting formation...

Patterns like this can be formed by expansion and contraction, such as mud cracks or Arctic ice polygons (meters to tens of meters in size, http://www.crrel.usace.army.mil/permafrosttunnel/1g3c_Polygons.htm). From your description, I presume this is a layer of ice over relatively smooth rock and can't think of a mechanism for enough expansion and contraction to occur to cause such a pattern...

You don't show a scale--how big is the average polygon?

Doug

 

[Tim Seaver]

Doug, the cells of the honeycomb pattern were about 1/4" or less.

My latest theory is that the pattern was formed by an evenly distributed layer of water droplets that had formed by the icy rock "sweating" under mild temps, then freezing/drying quickly in the cold wind, and that the surface tension of each drop created the pattern as the frost crystals formed along the shrinking circumference of the drop where it joins the rock's thick icy surface.

Or something.

 

[una_dogger]

Flo and Clem shor look familiar-like.....

Great story and pics!

 

[NewHampshire]

how sweet it was..

another sweet peakbragging hunt...any of you grid experts care to guess the peak and the #???

Mt. Doomslayer for #666??????


Brian

 

[DougPaul]

Doug, the cells of the honeycomb pattern were about 1/4" or less.

OK. I had misinterpreted the 1/4" as the height.

My latest theory is that the pattern was formed by an evenly distributed layer of water droplets that had formed by the icy rock "sweating" under mild temps, then freezing/drying quickly in the cold wind, and that the surface tension of each drop created the pattern as the frost crystals formed along the shrinking circumference of the drop where it joins the rock's thick icy surface.

Or something.

It looks to me like the edges of the polygons were touching (or connected) at one point and the edges withdrew (or cracked apart and withdrew) and frost formed in the cleared boundaries.

Perhaps light liquid rain falling on cold rock and flash freezing to generate the polygons? Still need a mechanism for the edges to draw back.


Another wild guess: vapor freezing (depositing) directly on cold rock (possibly initiated by droplets). Each individual ice crystal starts at a different nucleation site and grows outward. When the crystals meet, the crystal lattices are mismatched and the crystals don't join. The join lines then grow upward faster than the non-edge surfaces. (Crystals grow at different speeds on different faces. This conjectures that the dislocation at the junctions grows upward faster than the flat surfaces.)

Doug

 

[ColdRiverRun]

Another wild guess: vapor freezing (depositing) directly on cold rock (possibly initiated by droplets). Each individual ice crystal starts at a different nucleation site and grows outward. When the crystals meet, the crystal lattices are mismatched and the crystals don't join. The join lines then grow upward faster than the non-edge surfaces. (Crystals grow at different speeds on different faces. This conjectures that the dislocation at the junctions grows upward faster than the flat surfaces.)

Doug

This is the ding ding ding for me. I've seen videos of this years ago. The white edges are the frosted joining points of the outward growth of each polygon meeting each other. Each one individual would have a smooth glaze ice appearance but when they meet they are like two separate growth patterns coming together in a non structured form.