Living in Grenoble

Some recent pictures made from windows of our kitchen and living room ...

Time to time I wonder - do people who were born and live in this area see it as I see? Do they realize how lucky they are to live here? Am I the only one who thinks that this is a kind of miracle? A miracle not to see crowded subway in the morning, not to stay in a traffic jam for a few hours on the way to your office, and instead make your morning coffee with all these views behind the window and go to your job by bike with swallows and rabbits in the nearest park?

Lightning

Some impressive lightning recorded from our kitchen in Grenoble:

Expedition to Pamirs, Tajikistan (2009)

Будучи еще исследователем в Японии, ездил я как то раз в солнечный Таджикистан для участия в экспедиции на ледник Федченко (самый крупный ледник Евразии). Наконец-то дошли руки сделать ролик про это уникальное для меня путешествие. Вуаля:

This footage was taken during an international expedition to Fedchenko Glacier, Pamirs (Tajikistan) in August 2009. Fedchenko is the largest glacier in Eurasia, it is almost 77 km long and 900 m deep, and thus presents a unique object for geophysical research, in particular, for studying climates of the past through ice-cores. Any fieldwork in this area is extremely difficult and challenging in terms of efforts required to overcome multiple logistical problems. The reconnaissance work presented in this video is part of Central Asia Deep Ice-Coring Project (or CADIP), which is leaded by Prof. V. B. Aizen (University of Idaho, USA).