Mountaineers

WHITE WONDERLAND: The MPA student body is in day two of their excursion to Mt. Rainier. They're staying at the Mount Rainier Institute, a cooperative of the University of Washington and the National Parks Service. 

I honestly don't know much about the following photos, except that the kids are in them, and they're on Mt. Rainier somewhere.

If I'm not mistaken, below is near where they went snowshoeing today.

And the subject line accompanying the photo that I was emailed (below) read "Unicorn Peak." 
Sure, Annabelle has a unicorn shirt on, but that's not atypical. ;)

I Googled "Unicorn Peak Rainier" and the Washington Trails Association website tells me "Unicorn peak is the tallest in the Tatoosh Mountain Range and offers spectacular views of Mount Rainier. It's top is somewhat jagged which looks like a Unicorn's horn, hence the name."

Hmm. So maybe they weren't on Rainier, but were near Rainier at this point.

They'll be home tomorrow, so I can expect a full report then.

In the meantime, you can listen to other kids talking about outdoor education in National Parks.

https://youtu.be/vbMcHPsn2ns

MEANWHILE, ON MARS: A super cool photo came across my social media feeds today. 

NASA has Mars covered on land and in the "air," as shown in this remarkable photo. ... (click on it so it enlarges and you get a better look). You're trying to spot a little something different in the landscape.

                               Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

See that tiny bluish dot in the center of the frame? That's Mars Science Laboratory (a/k/a Curiosity), chugging away up Mount Sharp on the surface of Mars!

The photos was taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. 

Curiosity is headed toward "Vera Rubin Ridge," a destination uphill where the rover team intends to examine outcrops where hematite has been identified from Mars orbit. 

MSL's location on the day of the photo above can be seen here, as the point labeled 1717: https://mars.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/2017/curiositys-traverse-map-through-sol-1717 as the point labeled 1717.

If you want a closeup look at images MSL took via its mast camera (Mastcam) while at the location in the photo, follow this link: https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?s=1717&camera=MAST%5F.

Here's one awesome example of that Curiosity is seeing. ...

                                          Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Per NASA's press release today, "Lower Mount Sharp was chosen as a destination for the Curiosity mission because the layers of the mountain offer exposures of rocks that record environmental conditions from different times in the early history of the Red Planet. Curiosity has found evidence for ancient wet environments that offered conditions favorable for microbial life, if Mars has ever hosted life."