Nearby Redoubt Volcano erupted last night so I am taking the opportunity to post some smoking caldera pictures. I'd like to say that these images were taken at the summit of Redoubt, but they were not. They are all from the summit of Shishaldin Volcano - a 9500 foot strato-volcano on Unimak Island. I climbed it with Gregg R, Franz M and Nancy P back in late May 2005. Then we had a 7000 foot vertical run on skis back to base camp (Top Photo - taken the next morning).
Since we climbed Shishaldin two nearby volcanos Mount Augustine and Redoubt have both erupted, and inconvenienced Kodiak. When volcanos erupt planes don't fly to Anchorage and at the museum we get really worried about ash getting into the climate control system and collections. So I've learned to closely monitor the nearby volcanos on the official volcano observatory website (cut and pasted below)
http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Redoubt.php
But what's funny is that when we climbed Shishaldin we never even checked on its eruptive status. It may have been orange for all we knew. I do know that at the top the smoke was thick and pungent and had us coughing. It smelled really bad. It makes me cringe in retrospect to think it might have been poisonous! Swirling smoke coming up out of a deep hole - seemingly from the center of the earth - while I stood on the top of the world. I will never forget it.
Meanwhile Redoubt has erupted. After I post this I plan on checking the AVO website to see which way the ash is blowing and to see if more eruptions are immanent. I've become much more volcano aware in the last 4 years. We live in a wild place.
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