Student Reports: Zane Rider, Innsbruck, Austria, May 6-24, 2015
Water Resources and Climate & Glaciology in the European Alps
[lead]”My study abroad experience in Innsbruck, Austria was nothing short of life changing.”[/lead]
The Water Resources and Climate class I participated in was through the University of Alabama, and led by a faculty member who had previously worked at UTK. He had led the trip several years now, and has invited UT students every time. This year was the biggest yet, at thirty-three Alabama students and seven UT students. From freshman to fifth-year seniors and from nutrition majors to engineers, the level of school of each student and their majors varied widely. However, throughout the trip we would grow into a big family, and everyone got along very well.
My travels started a little different than the others who went on the trip. I decided to book my flight to Milan, Italy and take trains to Innsbruck to try to save some money. However, between the stress of booking flights 250 miles from my actual destination, finding connecting trains that put me at my destination in time, and paying for an overnight hotel on the return trip, I found that it would have been much easier to fly much closer to Innsbruck and take a quick bus ride or flying directly into Innsbruck. Arriving into Innsbruck was a huge relief after hours of travel, yet I didn’t quite know what was in store for me.
The first day we got our local phones that could call and text the students, faculty, and any locals we may meet in Austria, and we took a tour around the Old City part of Innsbruck. Later that day, we had our first lecture, which covered glaciers and gathering data on glaciers. We completed the Excel assignment in class, and had to write summaries of the professional readings we were given outside of class. This process of lecture and homework in class and readings outside of class was how the rest of the lectures were set up. That night we had our first mixer at a karaoke bar located in the Old Town area. Karaoke was a great way to have fun with the group and get to know everyone. The next day we were off to our first field trip.
Our first trip took us to the city of Meran, Italy. Located in northern Italy, this smaller town is still located in the Tyrol region (which Innsbruck is also located in). The importance of our trip to Meran was to visit the Castle Tyrol, of which the region was named after. It turned out that our faculty leader’s colleague had actually dated the castle using dendrochronology. Dendrochronology is using tree rings to date trees or other objects using wood. After visiting the castle, the students split up. Because we had the next day off, some students took a day trip to Venice, while other stayed to explore Innsbruck. I was a part of the group that stayed. However, after hearing from some who went to Venice, it sounds like I missed out. The next couple of days after the day off, we had a couple more lectures on glaciers and how to measure the area and volume loss over periods of time.
Our next trip took us to the Ice Caves of Werfen, Austria, called Eisriesenwelt. We travelled there with a bus, then took a cable car up the mountain, then had a small hike and finally we arrived at the mouth of the ice cave. Because of the large temperature difference between the ice caves and the outside air, when the door into the cave is opened a gust of wind upwards to seventy miles an hour bursts forth. The cave itself consists of almost thirty miles of caverns. Our tour took us up and down 1,400 stairs and through about a kilometer of the freezing cold ice cave. It was very bizarre to see the water frozen so quickly. In some cases you could see where the now frozen water was pouring in and how it flowed. Exhausted, we left the cave and set out to Salzburg where we stayed the night in a hotel. The next day we explored Salzburg with our Salzburg cards which gave us access to many tourist attractions in the town. Salzburg seemed to be more of a tourist town, with a Mozart store for everything, than Innsbruck was.
The next lectures we covered were over tree ring chronology and learning what affects tree rings. Learning both about glaciers and dendrochronology was very interesting, and I was actually excited to go on the tree coring trip to apply what I learned in the lectures. Before the tree coring trip, we took a trip to Neuschwanstein Castle near Füssen, Germany. This was a magnificent castle, and it was actually used as a platform to design the Disney Cinderella Castle. Two days later was the tree coring trip, but it ended up getting cancelled due to snow. Up to this point, we had amazing weather with little to no rain.
After the planned trip to go tree coring, the weather cooled off and rained on and off for the rest of the trip. Instead of going tree coring, some of us went to another beautiful castle, Herrenchiemsee, which was based off of the palace Versailles. Later in the trip, time and a place was found to go on an optional tree coring trip just outside of Innsbruck. It was neat actually being able to participate in something resembling field work that researchers are doing.
The last week consisted of two high altitude trips. First, we visited Zugspitze, the highest point in Germany. Unfortunately the weather was cloudy and the visibility was very poor. We descended a part of the mountain to the glacier area, and had a great time when the weather cleared a little. The second trip was to the Stubaier glacier in southern Austria. A lot of the student rented skis and snowboards, and we had a great time skiing, even if the weather was bad again. On the glacier, the faculty leader’s colleague’s understudy showed us how they measure the snow pack density on top of the glacier. That day was perfect for skiing and the snow pack demonstration, because there was eighteen inches of fresh snow on the glacier! Finally, we had one last mixer at the karaoke bar, and the next day everyone who wasn’t staying for the second class said their farewells. Those who stayed for the second class learned more about glaciology from the understudy we met at Stubaier. I will never forget this trip, and the people I met. I plan on visiting Innsbruck at some point again in the future, and I also will keep in touch with the people I met.
