Incredibly, there is a Chinstrap colony up on the top of the ridge here. The birds are following the visible trails up to the bowl of the cirque, and then continuing from there to the top of the ridge. To nest, the they need snow-free ground. That spurs them to some prodigious feats – they must be climbing a good couple of thousand feet here (I haven’t found a topo to check). And they have to do it with every round trip to the ocean to feed (about once every 6 days). The colony hosts about 500 nests, holding steady since 2006 but down from 3,000 in 1982. www.penguinmap.com/mapppd/site/SPIG.
