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Crown of the Continent: Alaska's Wrangell-St Crown of the Continent: Alaska's Wrangell-St. Elias page 1 Audio Description Script As Recorded Recording date: March 14, 2002 Describer: William V. Patterson Reviewed by: Margaret and Cody Pfanstiehl 01 :00:00:00 (Black screen. Title Appears.) White letters on black screen: "Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve presents." From the darkness, the sun begins to appear over distant mountain peaks. Rolling, cloud-like fog hovers above the wide river, the Copper River, in the foreground. Time-lapse photography hastens the bright sun's appearance and the tumbling movement of the misty fog. Sunshine glints on the water's gently flowing surface. Soon, jagged, snow-capped mountain peaks. Rapidly moving clouds. (On second fall.) From the wall of a calving glacier, towers of ice crash into the sea. 01 :00:58:00 (Cue to time-code and fading of crashing sound.) Now.snowshoe tracks trace a zipper-like pattern in deep snow. 01 :01 :11 :00 ("... continue their climb, ever higher, into the sky.") A single mountain climber slowly ascends a peak. Soon, a snow-covered volcano, white steam escaping its vent. 01 :01 :27:00 (" ... awaiting its next eruption.'? An aerial view of a craggy, mountain-like muddy brown glacier, partially covered with snow. 01 :01 :37:00 ("... grind their inexorable way to the sea.'? ., Crown of the Continent: Alaska's Wrangell-St. Elias page 2 Audio Description Script As Recorded Now, lush green vegetation. A large reddish-brown bear ambles from left to right. Then, a mountaintop with a brilliant blue sky. Outside a small yellow dome tent, one man standing, another seated. 01 :02:06:00 ("... the achitectonics ofthe planet itself are revealed.'} A wide view of the gorge, far below the tent. At ground level, green vegetation surrounds the meandering river. Now, we are flying close to a grayish-brown mountainside streaked with pale orange patches of earth. Then, fly over a snow-covered black ridge to view a vast white ice field surrounded by snow-capped mountain peaks. Black letters on the screen: Crown of the Continent-Alaska's Wrangell­ St. Elias. The screen fades to black; then to a snowy mountain panorama shown in a grainy, slightly unsteady picture. 01 :02:55:00 ("... carried along by my father's dream.'? Home movies of a man and three boys eating at a picnic table .. 01:03:10:00 ("... a dream for distant horizons.'? A black and yellow train, marked "Alaska Railroad," pulls into view. 01 :03:24:00 ("... found in old National Geographies.'? A hunter carrying a gun walks toward us. Now the hunter stands in a stream, dipping his hand to drink from the flowing water. A caribou gracefully climbs a slight incline. 01 :03:36:00 ("... Dad took our family north.'? Three boys walking and climbing on a glacier. Crown ofthe Continent: Alaska's Wrangell-St. Elias page 3 Audio Description Script As Recorded 01 :03:46:00 ("... were not without incident.') Driving past spruce trees and snow-capped mountains. 01 :03:54:00 (" ... on the Alaska Highway .. .') A car and trailer in a ditch. 01 :03:46:00 (" ... and camping under bridges and in ghost towns.') A rough log cabin. Then, three boys on a beach. 01 :04:44:00 (" ... an Alaska that surpasses all imagination.') The screen goes to black. Then, snow-covered ground and a man with skis with poles steadily climbing a slight incline. Now, three men on skis, trudging across a wide expanse of snow, leaving behind a yellow tent. Two tall mountain ridges in the background. 01 :05:49:00 ("... nine of the sixteen highest peaks in North America.') Mt. St. Elias in the distance, encircled by wispy clouds. 01 :06:00:00 ("... a single glacier larger than Rhode Island.') The Malaspina Glacier, a wide field of marbleized blue, gray and white. 01 :06:06:00 ("... an area the size of Connecticut.') Sheer, thin rocky ridges, vertical cliffs. Crown ofthe Continent: Alaska's Wrangell-St. Elias page 4 Audio Description Script As Recorded 01 :06:12:00 ("... the size of six Yellowstones. '? A valley of glaciers, carving rivers of ice. 01 :06:25:00 ("... larger than Switzerland-with higher mountains.') Pace descriptions to changing images on screen: A single engine plane takes off from a rocky beach and flies past a deep blue lake, backed by low, green hills and azure sky with soft white clouds. The plane flies over the crest of a snow-covered hill, a high sharp peak in the background. Now flying over a glacier field covered by a rough surface of white snow and ice. Flying through a deep, steep gorge of vertical rock, one side edged by tree-covered, terraced cliffs. Now over a verdant green forest of tall slender trees, a green clearing and small ponds of water silver in the sunlight. The tiny plane flies over a green valley backed by rugged, snow-laden mountains. Passing alongside the steep vertical face of a mountain, following the lazily turning path of a mottled, gray-brown glacier field. 01:08:18:00 ("... does not lend itself to meaningful comparisons.'? We are over a turquoise blue lake. Then, the brown, cratered surface of a glacier. 01 :08:37:00 (" ... where the vitality ofgeologic genesis is evety present.'? [pronounced "sir-acks"] Jutting, upright ridges of glacier material, "seracs," rising like huge, broken teeth of dirty ice from deep frozen chasms. Crown of the Continent: Alaska's Wrangell-St. Elias page 5 Audio Description Script As Recorded Pace description to changing image on screen: Now, peaks of mountain ranges rising like cresting waves. 01:09:18:00 ("... finally reaching the sands of a distant shore.'? A gentle tide breaking on the dark gravel shore of the intensely blue Pacific Ocean. Irregular chunks of white icebergs stand in shallow water and on the beach, some frozen into the curved shapes of crashing breakers. 01 :10:06:00 ('The St. Elias is the highest coastal range in the world.'? Storm clouds roiling over the mountains. 01 :10:16:00 (" ... hostage.') Dark storm clouds speeding overhead 01:10:36:00 (" ... deepening some of the world's heaviest snowpacks. '? Huge clouds rolling between craggy black mountain peaks. 01:10:50:00 ("A pellucid blue sky in the St. Elias Range is a rarity.') The screen fills with a steep slope of white snow. Three mountain climbers on skis with poles steadily ascend to a peak. Skis sliding on hard snow. Man in soft red jacket, wearing tinted glasses. He reaches the top of a snow-covered peak. PAUSE, BUT SPEAK BEFORE IMAGE ON SCREEN CHANGES: From an aerial view, we rise over a snow ridge to view a massive range of snowy mountains. Crown of the Continent: Alaska's Wrangell-St. Elias page 6 Audio Description Script As Recorded 01 :12:00:00 ("... in the last 2,000 years.') Sheer, vertical rock face of a mountain, gray, brown and blue. 01:12:08:00 ('What has carved these jagged peaks down from gigantic lava domes-is ice.') A small flowing blue stream. Now, six hikers walking on the gray-brown ice of a glacier field. 01 :12:22:00 ("This is the greatest concentration ofglaciers on the continent.'? Pace descriptions to changing images on screen: Six hikers walk in a valley of ice. Aerial views of bright blue glacier ponds surrounded by frozen white ice. Swirling dunes of mounded snow. The surface of a lake, half-covered by island-like patches of ice and snow, like a jigsaw puzzle. Two people in a kayak paddle, left to right, across a smooth glacial lake. Blue ice overhead melting into a pool below. Let sound "drip." The view from inside a blue and white ice cave as two people approach its mouth. Now, we fly over the surface of a glacial lake. 01:13:50:00 ("... fed by ceaseless winter snows, transform the landscape.'? A blue river flows through a deep green valley. Crown of the Continent: Alaska's Wrangell-St. Elias page 7 Audio Description Script As Recorded 01 :14:02:00 (" ... carve u-shaped valleys.'? A steep valley formed by brown earth that has tumbled down from the ridges on each side. 01 :14:22:00 (" ... in the braided brown rivers that flow down to the sea.'? Now we fly high over a flat area laced with rivers. Next, a small glacier nestled in the valley, high on a hilly ridge. Smooth sand, green vegetation in a valley far below. 01 :14:46:00 (" ... creeping up the slopes of moraines as the glaciers recede.'? Close-up of delicate, feathery white flowers. 01:15:00:00 (" ... creating soil other plants will need to gain a foothold.'? A willow with green leaves. A bee buzzes a catkins, a fuzzy, caterpillar­ like bud, then buzzes a fireweed stalk of bright pink blossoms. A green field with many of the pink fireweed flowers, tall spruces at the edge. 01:15:22:00 ("... so dense it hides the prodigious wildlife.'? A rich green, spruce forest surrounded by snowy mountains. Pace descriptions to changing images on screen: A spikey-quilled brown porcupine waddles along the forest's floor, sniffing plants. A black raven perched on a treetop flies into the bright blue sky. From the air, we look down on the spruce forest. A gray-white, great-horned owl on a tree limb turns to look at us. Crown of the Continent: Alaska's Wrangell-St. Elias page 8 Audio Description Script As Recorded Sunset. Mist rising from a pond, surrounded by silhouetted spruces. A reddish-brown beaver gliding through the still water.
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