Everything about the creation of this book is a lesson in completely failing to understand the magnitude of what I had gotten involved in. Granted, I did one thing correctly, which was to not attempt the project with the PA-11, as it would have likely been impossible, owing to range limitations. The odyssey of Norway began with the acquisition of the Super Cub, and I thought it would end after one summer, only to scamper off to Iceland. I thought I’d publish one book of glaciers of mainland Norway and Sweden and move on.
It took three summers and will end up being three separate books. I have only now finished the first book over three years after the flights of the first summer ended. Amazon’s 550-page limit doesn’t help, though I am not sure the practicality of birthing a 1500-page book if I could.
It is cute to note how I optimism and exuberance, as viewed from Google Maps from the comfort of one’s home, doesn’t match up to reality. The thing is, I launched this blog with an epic bender of a flight in the PA-11 in 2014, from Colorado to Yellowstone to North Carolina, making the same point. It is not like it is a new concept, however what continues to surprise me is that, as the projects get bigger, I still find myself estimating improperly.
In any case, there is a dynamic that extends beyond trip planning. The book in question is 528 pages with well over 1000 images of glaciers in it. It contains the glaciers of southern Norway, south of Trondheim, without everything in Jostedalsbreen, the largest glacier in Continental Europe. That will come later, as there wasn’t enough room.
One has to ask what kind of reader wants to see every nook and cranny of every glacier. While few likely care enough to study in such detail, I have a bit of a gnawing obsession with achieving that very outcome. These glaciers change year by year and decade by decade and are, as has been belabored ad nauseam, melting. At some point, what is in the pages of this book will be a fossil record of something that doesn’t exist, so I am insistent on capturing everything.
However, after showing over 100 images of Folgefonna, the third largest glacier in Continental Europe, one wonders who would care to see another hundred. That is a reasonable understanding of how much information a person can process. The question I am left grappling is this: flipping through some pages for 10 minutes on that glacier complex summarizes maybe 30 hours of unforgettable flying into a few minutes. It comes nowhere close to conveying what I felt when in the plane above that majestic ice feature.
It gets worse. I was only there for a few months. I found myself time and again amazed by the complex interplay of lighting, clouds, wind, and mountain waves, and if I had the choice, I’d spend a lot more time, capturing the intricacies of something few on earth ever get to see like I do. How is it even possible to begin to properly convey the ice that sits up on high, out of the view of almost everyone? I honestly can’t say, though I am doing my best to try.
As is my custom, the link below for the book cover will show the main book page, which has an interactive map of the photograph locations for everything in the book. It was the “flight of a lifetime,” though there have been more since then. Stay tuned in case I ever catch up and get it all published.
