Programme

The village community building (Dorfsgemeinschaft Haus) comfortably accommodated all the summer school activities. On a regular day, lectures started at 8.30AM and lasted until lunch time (12.30AM). The afternoon was spent making exercises and doing a computer project. Twelve groups of three students each were assigned a computer project. By doing numerical experiments and fiddling with different numbers ('making a walk through parameter space'), students got a feeling for a certain glaciology-related process. Two random examples:
-the comparison between a local meteorological model for the Antarctic ice sheet and actual measurements of the meteorological quantities such as albedo, wind and temperature, including the pinguin paradox
-remote sensing of major glaciers, inferring ice velocities with satellite interferometry techniques.

The complete programme is available as a PDF.

In their spare-time, the participants enjoyed the different outdoor pursuits that the surroundings of Karthaus have to offer. Many went for a hike to the Kreuzspitze (2484m), a mountain top south of the village. Just below the summit an enormous cross has been erected, visible from the village. The walk could be done in anything between 56'44" (2005 record of Thomas Reerink) and three hours. On many days a footbal or a frisbee match has been played between the end of the official program and dinner. In the breaks between lectures there was a lot of practice for these matches on the meadows next to the Dorfgemeinschaft Haus.

On Sunday September the 16th, all the students and staff went on an excursion into the Ötztaler Alps to walk over the Hochjochferner, to see the Hintereisferner and to learn about the tragic fate of Ötzi the Ice Man.