TRIP AND RATE SUMMARIES
ClimateAdventures.org
Climate Adventures in North America and Greenland
~ ~ ~ Ongoing Climate Impacts with a Climate Specialist Guide~ ~ ~
A Division of the Climate Change Now Initiative, Nonprofit 501c3
Base Camp: Austin, Texas
Information: Bruce Melton PE, bmelton@earthlink.net 512 799-7998
Booking: Carol Cespedes PhD, Carol.Cespedes@gmail.com 512-450-4463
We are the first to offer tours, trips, expeditions and leisure excursions to see climate change impacts happening now with a climate specialist and wilderness guide. Our offerings range from leisurely day trips to insane helicopter drop-offs. We do iceberg trips on reinforced sailing vessels and two-week RV trips across Alaska. We camp next to the ice sheet and cruise wilderness four-wheel drive beach from hotel and seafood base camps. Rates for our offerings are listed below (click here to download a pdf). For a full rate sheet please call for information or use our contact form. Rates are subject to change.
The Hill Country Drought: Four-wheeling on Buchanan
Lake Buchanan is about an hour and a half from Austin. The drought has allowed the bed of the lake to be opened up to four-wheel drive trails by the locals who can’t get their boats out into what lake remains. Most lakes are alive with buzzing watercraft and activity of all kinds. Even though there is still a lot of water at Buchanan, because there is so little access, the silence can be stunning. Nighttime is particularly enchanting in some of the really remote areas of what used to be the lake. The darkness is profound. The lack of normal lake background noise is quite reminiscent of an earlier time. We do day trips as well as camping on the lake bed far from shore. Camping on the lake bed is a truly unique experience and, it gives us a head start on a possible day two of this new wilderness adventure for a total dry lake immersion experience. For three persons, day trips start at $267 per person, camping from $250 per person per day, motel camp from $300 per person today.
Padre:Adventure and Discovery on a Vanishing Barrier Island
The 90 miles of four wheel drive beach on Padre Island is our destination. This is just about the closest thing to an uninhabited wilderness beach that one can drive to anywhere. Coastal Texas has one of the highest relative rates of sea level rise anywhere and parts of the glorious beach on Padre Island have already begun to disappear. Spend the day, camp for a few nights or lose yourself in a week of deserted island exploration. We can also “motel camp” or even stay at a beachside resort and enjoy seafood every night in Corpus, Port Aransas or South Padres Island. Rates start at $220 per day per person or $1,540 per person per week camping with three expedition members plus guide per trip. Stay at a motel or resort and eat seafood every night beginning at $280 per day for a week at $1,960, with three expedition members and guide.
Search for the Red Forests:
The Great North American Pine Beetle Pandemic
You will search for red forests with our climate guide Bruce Melton in a modified four-wheel drive suburban. Or if you like, choose a trip in an RV. From the Suburban, we can look for red kill from above treeline on some of the finest four-wheel drive roads in North America. From an RV, we camp in style. We also offer a motel camping expedition. Do you want to visit Yellowstone, Grand Teton or Rocky Mountain National Parks? The beetles are everywhere from the four corners area to the Yukon in Canada. Our trips are for one or two weeks and start at $308 per day for three persons or $4,613 per person for 14 nights/15 days traveling in an RV with three expedition members plus guide. Four-wheel drive suburban trips start at $363 per person for $5,075 for 14 nights/15 days with three expedition members plus guide.
Drunken Forests, Disappearing Dirt: Permafrost Melt in Alaska
The ideal way to see Alaska is in a rented RV. Ideally, up to four can join us in an RV for the trip of a lifetime to see Alaska PLUS, a focus on seeing permafrost melt in its many forms with a climate specialist guide. Plan on seeing Denali, the Haul Road and Alaska Pipeline, the Yukon, numerous glaciers and everywhere we are surrounded by the most remote wilderness landscapes imaginable. Our itinerary can vary on a moment’s notice and include anything the group can agree on that we can cover in our allotted time. Because there are so few roads in Alaska, the identified spots that have been scouted for permafrost and glacier melt visits are “on the way” in most instances. Rates start at $337 per day for 14 nights/15 days traveling in an RV with four people plus guide for $5,050 per person.
Kangerlussuaq, Point 660: Inland Ice
There are two options for visiting the ice sheet at Kangerlussuaq. One is to stay at Old Camp in town and “commute” the 22 miles to the ice sheet daily. Old Camp is the old hostel in Kangerlussuaq (not a camping thing at all). The other option is to camp next to the ice. The “commute” version closely follows the camping version except excursions are much more limited in time on or near the ice and we return every night to the modern facilities at Old Camp. Camping next to the ice is unlike anything anywhere. The ice sheet is 100 to 200 feet tall its edge and rapidly increases to well over a thousand feet within a mile or two. The weather can be extreme or sublime and we always use the highest quality mountaineering equipment.
Please contact us for rates. We are booking for the 2015 season now. Booking dates are early as there is a lot of interest and trips fill by the first of the year.
Trip Length: 7 or 14 days
Departure Dates: Available by request, see the calendar or contact us for more information.
This trip can be combined with other trips to Greenland like Sailing with Rembrandt, The Ilulissat Icefjord or the Jackobshavn Terminus.
Sailing with Rembrandt: Icebergs in Greenland
ClimateAdventures.org offers tours aboard the three-masted schooner Rembrandt of Oceanwide Expeditions. The Rembrandt is a 168 foot ocean going sailing vessel with a hardened hull for duty in Arctic waters where ice can be a hazard. These tours are “Zodiac” events with daily excursions to calving glacier fronts and Greenland settlements in these bulletproof expedition grade rubber dinghies. This trip is focused on the west-central Greenland coast around Ilulissat and the Ilulissat Icefjord World Heritage site. Cruises extend north far beyond the Arctic Circle. Expect to encounter ocean wildlife of all kinds as well as majestic icebergs in all of their dazzling glory. With increased media coverage of warming in Greenland, these tours are becoming quite popular. The warming has increased ice discharge over 600 percent since 1992.
Please contact us for rates. We are booking for the 2015 season now. Booking dates are early as there is a lot of interest and trips fill by the first of the year.
Departure Dates: Available by request, see the calendar or contact us for more information.
This trip can be combined with other trips to Inland Ice, The Ilulissat Icefjord or the Jackobshavn Terminus.
Ilulissat Icefjord: Watching Ice
We spend the first night or two at the Hotel Hvide Falk (the White Falcon) in Ilulissat and take our iceberg seeing tour and helicopter ride weather permitting. Then it is just a short hike outside of town to the icefjord and camp. A porter or two will help carry gear. We will head up the icefjord about a mile the first night so it will not be too far to hike back to mouth of the icefjord the next day. For the rest of the stay we are required to move camp every day by World Heritage site rules. Billion ton icebergs, bergy bits and brash from the fastest moving glacier in the world discharge to the icefjord 30 miles inland and jams at the mouth until enough pressure forms that it breaks up in a cataclysmic movement. We camp and wait hoping to be there when the moment arrives. Our days will be spent wandering the shore up to several miles from camp, or just hanging around, always staying within easy access of the icefjord, waiting for the ice to move.
Please contact us for rates. We are booking for the 2015 season now. Booking dates are early as there is a lot of interest and trips fill by the first of the year.
Departure Dates: Available by request, see the calendar or contact us for more information.
This trip can be combined with other trips to Inland Ice, Sailing with Icebergs or the Jackobshavn Terminus.
Jackobshavn Terminus: Icequake
This is a week-long helicopter trip to what has now been identified (May 2014) as the fastest moving glacier in the world. We will camp at about the same place as the ice scientists, but a respectful distance and above the washover from megawaves spawned by calving events. Half-mile long icebergs (or larger) can calve from this five mile wide face. They don’t just crack off, they often roll from the bottom up and explode upwards from below water level. The forces can create a seismic event measuring 5.2 on the Richtor scale. The wind can blow at 60 mph even in summer and it can snow any day of the year. We will use only top grade, heavily guyed four-season mountaineering tents. Our time will be spent watching the ice, or making relatively short hikes around the area and maybe talking to a loitering scientist if we get the chance.
Please contact us for rates. We are booking for the 2015 season now. Booking dates are early as there is a lot of interest and trips fill by the first of the year.
Departure Dates: Available by request, see the calendar or contact us for more information.
This trip can be combined with other trips to Inland Ice, Sailing with Icebergs or the Jackobshavn Terminus.
Steamboat Lake, north of Steamboat Springs, Colorado. This area was devastated by the mountain pine beetle in 2008-2010. Almost every single tree in the Steamboat Lake State Campground was killed by the beetle, then subsequently logged to prevent falling hazards to campers.
TRIP AND RATE SUMMARIES
ClimateAdventures.org
Climate Adventures in North America and Greenland
~ ~ ~ Ongoing Climate Impacts with a Climate Specialist Guide~ ~ ~
A Division of the Climate Change Now Initiative, Nonprofit 501c3
Base Camp: Austin, Texas
Information: Bruce Melton PE bmelton@earthlink.net 512 799-7998
Booking: Carol Cespedes: Carol.Cespedes@gmail .com 512-450-4463
We are the first to offer tours, trips, expeditions and leisure trips to see climate change impacts happening now with a climate specialist and wilderness guide. Our offerings range from leisurely day trips to insane helicopter drop-offs. We do iceberg trips on reinforced sailing vessels and two-week RV trips across Alaska. We camp next to the ice sheet and cruise wilderness four-wheel drive beach from hotel and seafood base camps. Rates for our offerings are listed below. For a full rate sheet please call for information or use our contact form. Rates are subject to change.
The Hill Country Drought: Four-wheeling on Buchanan
Lake Buchanan is about an hour and a half from Austin. The drought has allowed the bed of the lake to be opened up to four-wheel drive trails by the locals who can’t get their boats out into what lake remains. Most lakes are alive with buzzing watercraft and activity of all kinds. Even though there is still a lot of water at Buchanan, because there is so little access, the silence can be stunning. Nighttime is particularly enchanting in some of the really remote areas of what used to be the lake. The darkness is profound. The lack of normal lake background noise is quite reminiscent of an earlier time. We do day trips as well as camping on the lake bed far from shore. Camping on the lake bed is a truly unique experience and, it gives us a head start on a possible day two of this new wilderness adventure for a total dry lake immersion experience. For three persons, day trips start at $267 per person, camping from $250 per person per day, motel camp from $300 per person today.
Padre:Adventure and Discovery on a Vanishing Barrier Island
The 90 miles of four wheel drive beach on Padre Island is our destination. This is just about the closest thing to an uninhabited wilderness beach that one can drive to anywhere. Coastal Texas has one of the highest relative rates of sea level rise anywhere and parts of the glorious beach on Padre Island have already begun to disappear. Spend the day, camp for a few nights or lose yourself in a week of deserted island exploration. We can also “motel camp” or even stay at a beachside resort and enjoy seafood every night in Corpus, Port Aransas or South Padres Island. Rates start at $220 per day per person or $1,540 per person per week camping with three expedition members plus guide per trip. Stay at a motel or resort and eat seafood every night beginning at $280 per day for a week at $1,960, with three expedition members and guide.
Search for the Red Forests:
The Great North American Pine Beetle Pandemic
You will search for red forests with our climate guide Bruce Melton in a modified four-wheel drive suburban. Or if you like, choose a trip in an RV. From the Suburban, we can look for red kill from above treeline on some of the finest four-wheel drive roads in North America. From an RV, we camp in style. We also offer a motel camping expedition. Do you want to visit Yellowstone, Grand Teton or Rocky Mountain National Parks? The beetles are everywhere from the four corners area to the Yukon in Canada. Our trips are for one or two weeks and start at $308 per day for three persons or $4,613 per person for 14 nights/15 days traveling in an RV with three expedition members plus guide. Four-wheel drive suburban trips start at $363 per person for $5,075 for 14 nights/15 days with three expedition members plus guide.
Drunken Forests, Disappearing Dirt: Permafrost Melt in Alaska
The ideal way to see Alaska is in a rented RV. Ideally, up to four can join us in an RV for the trip of a lifetime to see Alaska PLUS, a focus on seeing permafrost melt in its many forms with a climate specialist guide. Plan on seeing Denali, the Haul Road and Alaska Pipeline, the Yukon, numerous glaciers and everywhere we are surrounded by the most remote wilderness landscapes imaginable. Our itinerary can vary on a moment’s notice and include anything the group can agree on that we can cover in our allotted time. Because there are so few roads in Alaska, the identified spots that have been scouted for permafrost and glacier melt visits are “on the way” in most instances. Rates start at $337 per day for 14 nights/15 days traveling in an RV with four people plus guide for $5,050 per person.
Kangerlussuaq, Point 660: Inland Ice
There are two options for visiting the ice sheet at Kangerlussuaq. One is to stay at Old Camp in town and “commute” the 22 miles to the ice sheet daily. Old Camp is the old hostel in Kangerlussuaq (not a camping thing at all). The other option is to camp next to the ice. The “commute” version closely follows the camping version except excursions are much more limited in time on or near the ice and we return every night to the modern facilities at Old Camp. Camping next to the ice is unlike anything anywhere. The ice sheet is 100 to 200 feet tall its edge and rapidly increases to well over a thousand feet within a mile or two. The weather can be extreme or sublime and we always use the highest quality mountaineering equipment.
Please contact us for rates. We are booking for the 2015 season now. Booking dates are early as there is a lot of interest and trips fill by the first of the year.
Trip Length: 7 or 14 days
Departure Dates: Available by request, see the calendar or contact us for more information.
This trip can be combined with other trips to Greenland like Sailing with Rembrandt, The Ilulissat Icefjord or the Jackobshavn Terminus.
Sailing with Rembrandt: Icebergs in Greenland
ClimateAdventures.org offers tours aboard the three-masted schooner Rembrandt of Oceanwide Expeditions. The Rembrandt is a 168 foot ocean going sailing vessel with a hardened hull for duty in Arctic waters where ice can be a hazard. These tours are “Zodiac” events with daily excursions to calving glacier fronts and Greenland settlements in these bulletproof expedition grade rubber dinghies. This trip is focused on the west-central Greenland coast around Ilulissat and the Ilulissat Icefjord World Heritage site. Cruises extend north far beyond the Arctic Circle. Expect to encounter ocean wildlife of all kinds as well as majestic icebergs in all of their dazzling glory. With increased media coverage of warming in Greenland, these tours are becoming quite popular. The warming has increased ice discharge over 600 percent since 1992.
Please contact us for rates. We are booking for the 2015 season now. Booking dates are early as there is a lot of interest and trips fill by the first of the year.
Departure Dates: Available by request, see the calendar or contact us for more information.
This trip can be combined with other trips to Inland Ice, The Ilulissat Icefjord or the Jackobshavn Terminus.
Ilulissat Icefjord: Watching Ice
We spend the first night or two at the Hotel Hvide Falk (the White Falcon) in Ilulissat and take our iceberg seeing tour and helicopter ride weather permitting. Then it is just a short hike outside of town to the icefjord and camp. A porter or two will help carry gear. We will head up the icefjord about a mile the first night so it will not be too far to hike back to mouth of the icefjord the next day. For the rest of the stay we are required to move camp every day by World Heritage site rules. Billion ton icebergs, bergy bits and brash from the fastest moving glacier in the world discharge to the icefjord 30 miles inland and jams at the mouth until enough pressure forms that it breaks up in a cataclysmic movement. We camp and wait hoping to be there when the moment arrives. Our days will be spent wandering the shore up to several miles from camp, or just hanging around, always staying within easy access of the icefjord, waiting for the ice to move.
Please contact us for rates. We are booking for the 2015 season now. Booking dates are early as there is a lot of interest and trips fill by the first of the year.
Departure Dates: Available by request, see the calendar or contact us for more information.
This trip can be combined with other trips to Inland Ice, Sailing with Icebergs or the Jackobshavn Terminus.
Jackobshavn Terminus: Icequake
This is a week-long helicopter trip to what has now been identified (May 2014) as the fastest moving glacier in the world. We will camp at about the same place as the ice scientists, but a respectful distance and above the washover from megawaves spawned by calving events. Half-mile long icebergs (or larger) can calve from this five mile wide face. They don’t just crack off, they often roll from the bottom up and explode upwards from below water level. The forces can create a seismic event measuring 5.2 on the Richtor scale. The wind can blow at 60 mph even in summer and it can snow any day of the year. We will use only top grade, heavily guyed four-season mountaineering tents. Our time will be spent watching the ice, or making relatively short hikes around the area and maybe talking to a loitering scientist if we get the chance.
Please contact us for rates. We are booking for the 2015 season now. Booking dates are early as there is a lot of interest and trips fill by the first of the year.
Departure Dates: Available by request, see the calendar or contact us for more information.
This trip can be combined with other trips to Inland Ice, Sailing with Icebergs or the Jackobshavn Terminus.
Steamboat Lake, north of Steamboat Springs, Colorado. This area was devastated by the mountain pine beetle in 2008-2010. Almost every single tree in the Steamboat Lake State Campground was killed by the beetle, then subsequently logged to prevent falling hazards to campers.