Max Wilbert – The Polaris Project

Wilbert senior thesis
Posted on October 10, 2011
Wilbert, Max. Siberian Summer. Huxley College Senior Thesis, Western Washington University, February 2011. [download pdf]
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Photo Essay: Ambarchik
Posted on August 31, 2010
Ambarchik was a Soviet prison camp (gulag) beginning in the 1930’s. This place has a sad feeling to it, perched on the edge of the world, the Arctic Ocean to one side and the treeless tundra to the other. It is now the site of a new tragedy: as the climate warms, storms strengthen, ecosystems shift, and weather patterns change.…
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Now The Real Work Begins…
Posted on August 6, 2010
For many of us, the field portion of the Polaris Project was just the beginning. While the scientists have haystacks of data to sift through, I have a stack of 20,000 photos waiting to individually perused, ranked, tagged, and grouped – a task for days and days.…
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Seven Lessons from a Northern Adventure
Posted on July 25, 2010
We left Saturday morning on what we imagined would be a long, hard day trip to the Arctic Ocean and tundra. We ended up weathering a storm in a fishing shack, relying on Nikita and Sergei’s resourcefulness and our positive attitudes.
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To Duvannyi Yar and Back Again…
Posted on July 21, 2010
Hello everyone! Its our first update in a while, as the internet has been intermittent and the team has just returned from a two day trip upriver. We went to a place called Duvannyi Yar, where Pleistocene-era soils are eroding at a massive rate as the underlying permafrost thaws and massive wedges of ice melt.…
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We’re Alive!
Posted on July 16, 2010
Below is a series of snapshots of all Polaris students taken over the past few days. Maybe a bit rough around the edges after almost 2 weeks in Siberia, but all are well and thoroughly engaged in their projects. …
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9 Days And Counting…
Posted on July 10, 2010
When the sun does not set, keeping track of the days becomes problematic. They blend together – yesterday’s sun and sweat fading into today’s rain and thick clouds. Sweet smells are in the air, fresh and crisp after the rain. Flowers are blooming across the landscape.…
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Seattle to Moscow
Posted on July 4, 2010
Our first full day in Russia! We arrived last night after 15 hours on planes, first from Seattle to Washington DC, then on to Moscow. The road that led us away from the airport gave us our first taste of the Russian countryside.…
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Howdy!
Posted on April 2, 2010
Hello everyone. My name is Max Wilbert, and I am the Western Washington student who will be working with Chris Linder on multimedia production this summer. I’m quite looking forward to the trip – the Arctic is the front lines of the climate catastrophe, and I want to learn as much as I can while I am there.…
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