An Anchorage company is installing a weather monitoring system at a popular hiking destination near the city.
Starting mid-April, people looking to recreate at Rabbit Lake will be able to check snow and ice conditions before heading out on the trail.
Ziona Rose is a production technician for beadedstream, which provides temperature monitoring solutions around the world. It’s the company’s first public project, she said, and it’s rooted in safety.
“The whole point is people can understand conditions before going out. A huge part of the outdoors is knowing what you're getting yourself into,” Rose said. “Rabbit Lake was kind of the perfect middle ground of where we think it would be most useful to the public.”
The Rabbit Lake Trail is nearly nine miles out-and-back and is a popular route, especially in the summertime, for hikers, backpackers and campers. In the winter, it’s often used by backcountry skiers and wild ice skaters.
Data will include air and water temperatures, water pressure, snow cover and ice thickness and will be available though the company’s app and web page. A sign and QR code will also be installed at the trailhead, she said.
To measure ice thickness, the company will install a temperature probe that was customized with temperature sensors every inch. It’s a winter-based project that Rose hopes will establish a long-term record of freeze-thaw patterns to track climate trends in the area.
“We will be putting in the instrumentation every year as soon as the lake is frozen enough for it to be safe to install and then removing equipment by no later than July 31,” Rose said.
Although still covered in snow, hikers have recently reported that most of the snow along the trail to Rabbit Lake is packed down.
