The First Day

​The SPADE set-up group arrived yesterday, and we hit the ground running! Julie, Juris, Mathieu, and I (Hilary) met up in the Calgary airport to go and pick up a few items before heading off to Canmore. We got a bit turned around on our way to the store, but we made it there in the end and got everything we needed. This made for a long time in the car, however it was completely forgotten when we got that first proper view of the mountains! We arrived in Canmore where we met up with everyone at the Coldwater Lab and made plans for the next day. After dinner and groceries in town, we left for the Biogeoscience Institute in Kananaskis Country to get settled into our accommodations and get some (much needed) rest.

Arrival in the Calgary airport with all of our luggage

​Set-up for the project began this morning with the installation of the LIDAR at Fortress Mountain with Rob and Mike from ECCC. This was followed up with the install of the weather station and parsivel on scaffolding nearby the Powerline station. Thanks to the folks from the Coldwater Lab for their help with the install and their hard work with the pre-install setup! Weather at the top was pretty gusty with some occasional rain, but when the sun came out it was very pleasant. Juris and Mathieu headed into Calgary to pick up supplies for our solar panel system for Nipika Mountain Resort.

Setting up the LIDAR

Thanks to everyone who helped with the installation (L to R): Greg Galloway, Robin Heavens, Michael Harwood, Mathieu Lachapelle, Julie Theriault, Hilary Smith, Rob Reed, Kabir Rasouli, André Bertoncini, and Nicolas Leroux.

​The weather forecast for the rest of the week looks like it will be very interesting! Lots of work to keep us busy. Stay tuned…
 
- Hilary Smith
 
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