FAQs

JIRP (pronounced as a word, with a soft "J" as in "Juneau" or "jaguar" and an "i" as in "chirp") is the Juneau Icefield Research Program. Participants in the program (staff, students, and faculty) are JIRPers. JIRPers take pride in being a welcoming crew of intrepid explorers and curious glacier scientists who go to great lengths to bring the wonders of the Icefield to the next generation of science students. 

The JIRP Undergraduate Field Course is on the Icefield for the middle six weeks of the 8-week program. Students and staff do not leave the Icefield for this time (barring an emergency). Faculty rotate in and out every 1-2 weeks.

The JIRP Graduate Field Course is on the Icefield for 3 weeks of the 4-week program. Students and staff do not leave the Icefield for this time. Research teams may rotate in and out during the Graduate Field Course, per agreements with the JIRP Operations Staff.

The Juneau Icefield Research Program (originally Project) began with field seasons as far back as 1946. The original JIRPers numbered the camps and campsites in the order in which they established them. As the program evolved, the traverse route changed and some camps became favored for their location, infrastructure, and access. Just to confuse things, some camps were even renamed. Today the large JIRP traverse starts at Camp 17, progresses on to Camp 10, then to Camp 18, Camp 26, and (finally) Camp 30, aka the JIRP building in Atlin, BC. Small groups will visit other, more remote camps and regularly used campsites throughout the summer.

The Field Staff are all trained to an Advanced Wilderness First Aid level, and many are Wilderness First Responder certified. Almost all parties leaving camp will travel with a Field Staffer, and they are the first responders in any medical situation. Additionally, we make every effort to have a doctor, P.A., or N.P. traveling with the expedition at all times. Because the expedition is so spread out, this person may be several hours away. In the event that an expedition participant needs care we can't provide in the field, we will organize an evacuation by helicopter as soon as weather permits. 

Most students, most summers see the Northern Lights either at Camp 18 or in Atlin. Until that point in the summer it's not really dark enough at night (plus it's often cloudy).

Good question! Further north in Alaska and Canada there will be 24 hours of daylight around the summer solstice (June 21st/22nd). The Juneau Icefield is a bit too far south for this, but we will have more daylight than most people are used to. In June the sun sets around 11 pm and rises around 3 am, but it won't ever get really, truly dark. By the end of the summer it will be dark-ish from 9 pm to 5 am.

Backcountry: Sort of a synonym for the word "wilderness", except that "wilderness" comes with connotations of different levels of conservation and land protection in different parts of the world. Anywhere you're a significant distance from a major road - the woods, the desert, the mountains, the glaciers - is the backcountry. Contrast this with "frontcountry",  which is anywhere in town/the city/the suburbs/places with roads, cars, stores, houses, and medical clinics or hospitals.

Snow machine: At JIRP and generally in Alaska we use the term "snow machine" to refer to the machines people in other places call snowmobiles, sleds, ski-doos, or scooters. It's a regional thing, plus we like to reserve "sled" for the things we fill with cargo and drag behind the snow machines.

Trail lunch: a packed lunch, lunch to eat on the trail.

Mountaineering: Mountaineering is a level up on hiking. Hiking is basically walking, albeit sometimes for a long day over mountains. Mountaineering involves using a combination of ropes, harnesses, carabiners, ice axes, and crampons to protect against dangerous conditions - usually falling into a crevasse or sliding down a steep slope. We'll teach you how to use all these tools during Safety Week.

Ski mountaineering: All the same mountaineering skills, modified to accommodate skis. Again, we'll teach you the specifics once we get up onto the Icefield.

Glacier vs. Icefield vs. Ice cap vs. Ice sheet: What's the difference?  The difference lies in the depth of the ice and the area it covers. A glacier is one stream of flowing ice, sort of like one river. An icefield is made up of many interconnected glaciers, constrained by the surrounding topography. An icefield becomes an ice cap when the ice becomes significantly deeper and flows over the tops of the mountains, roughly out from the central accumulation area (picture spokes of a wheel). An ice cap that gets very large (~50,000 sq. km) becomes an ice sheet.