Mineral King

[Chris Kopp]

Hi Bob. It's pretty amazing how many marmots are up around Barcroft, they're big too!.
I'm a graduate student at UC San Diego. My dissertation research is on the effect that climate change is having, and will have, on plant species ranges in the White Mountains. I feel pretty lucky to be working in one of the most amazing landscapes in North America!

[Bob Gross]

Like I stated, you guys must know a thing or two about marmots. You can't walk north of the Barcroft sheep pen without stepping into one of their burrows. I just can't figure out how those furry suckers make it through the winter if they don't get any antifreeze out of a car.

Maybe your researchers should study the marmots and their renal function during maximal uptake of ethylene glycol. That would be an easy mark for several papers. And then, maybe one paper on the high altitude physiology of the marmot that lives up by the summit lab. All of the humans come walking up to the summit lab, and they are wheezing from the thin air. The summit marmot has a little pennant in its burrow that states "Ed Viesturs Lives!"

Seriously, I find it gratifying to operate around White Mountain Peak and Death Valley on the same day. It kind of blows the carbon out of my lungs.

The person that I would like to meet is John Wehausen down at Big Pine.

I'm more of a wildlife guy than a plant guy.

–B.G.–

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