Fieldwork in the Sierra Nevada (part 1), Volcanic domes close to Mammoth Lakes

Hey everyone! I’m just back from the first drone campaign of the BOULDERING project, and what a weekend it was! The volcanic domes near Mammoth Lakes were absolutely stunning. Here’s a little recap of the adventure:

We started at the South Deadman volcanic dome on Friday evening. It was our test run—everything feels tricky the first time! The northern slope of the dome required a bit of off-piste trekking to reach, and the strong winds didn’t make things any easier. The flight paths were aligned against the wind direction, which drained the drone’s batteries way faster than expected (lesson learned: perpendicular flight paths save battery life). Despite these challenges, we captured some solid drone images that set a good tone for the weekend.

After a long day, we checked into the cozy Innsbruck Lodge in Mammoth Lakes. The town’s small city center had a charming evening market with music and friendly locals—a perfect way to unwind. After a hearty American breakfast the next morning (seriously, they know how to do breakfast!), we headed to the Obsidian Dome.

At Obsidian Dome, we conducted three drone flights throughout the day and measured around 20 boulders. We specifically chose boulders of different sizes to test how well our future boulder detection algorithm can recover them, especially the smaller ones near the resolution limit of the images. After realizing we hadn’t used enough tape to mark the boulders, we doubled down with plenty of bright orange tape to ensure they’d be easily visible in the drone photos.

On Sunday, we returned to the South Deadman dome for a final session. We measured another 15 boulders, captured one last round of drone images, and then made the 4–5 hour drive back to the Bay Area.

The amount of data we collected is incredible. Now it’s time to sit down in the lab, process the images into orthoimages, and digitize the ground truth measurements from the field. This trip was a unique experience—I’ve mostly been a modeler in my research career, so getting out in the field was a refreshing change. It felt amazing to combine the physical and digital aspects of science. I loved every moment of it!

I can’t wait for part 2 of the fieldwork in September. Until then, take care! 😊