Alex Honnold ascended to fame making one of the most daring no-rope climbs of a rock face in history, as documented in the award-winning film Free Solo. Then he turned to climbing for causes — the latest of which took him to the Arctic Circle, where he traveled with a team to measure the impact of climate change on some of the most remote parts of planet Earth.

Honnold’s expedition to check on Greenland’s ice, performed in 2022, was documented for a National Geographic three-episode miniseries that will arrive on Disney Plus on Feb. 5, titled Arctic Ascent. 

Much like Honnold’s prior journey to track down undiscovered frogs up the sides of yet-to-be-climbed jungle mesas in South America, his venture in Greenland’s frigid fjords is filled with firsts. He and the team ascended a rock wall that hadn’t previously been climbed to reach an iced-over plateau that nobody had crossed on foot before, made a boat trip across uncharted waters, and finally ascended Ingmikortilaq, a 3,750-foot previously unclimbed mountain that’s nearly a thousand feet taller than Yosemite’s El Capitan cliff face, which Honnold summited in Free Solo. 

«When we were sailing up the fjord in boats to go up to Ingmikortilaq, we did actually literally cross a point where there was no more information on the depth chart,» Honnold said. «We crossed a line and it was just blank after that. Nowadays, it’s relatively rare to go somewhere where you’re kind of off the edge of the map.»

As remote as Honnold’s trek was, what they were investigating has implications for the whole world. Emissions from burning fossil fuels are causing our climate to change, warming up the planet and leading to more extreme weather. As scientists expand their study of climate change’s impact, they’re also looking farther afield to understand how it can upset natural processes — and in Greenland, the melting of vast ice sheets could lead to a rise in global water levels, which could put coastal settlements around the world underwater. 

The expedition took the team nearly 100 miles through subzero temperatures and even colder winds, which is difficult enough to endure in the open ice plain but extra torturous when climbing. As Honnold pointed out, you can’t climb with gloves as your fingers need to be free to grip holes and cracks in the sheer rock wall, so they must be exposed to the elements. And unlike Honnold’s previous trips to Antarctica, which had been cold but largely sunny, Greenland’s rain and snow meant many grim overcast days for his adventuring team. 

Instead of finding frogs, the pro-environmental angle for this trip was to forge a path across ice fields and up mountain faces for Heïdi Sevestre, a glaciologist with the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, who came to measure how climate change is affecting the formations of ice layers in arctic Greenland. Over the course of the journey, Sevestre took readings and collected samples in areas humans have never walked or climbed — a rare opportunity to collect data that could better our understanding of our warming world. 

To Honnold, that’s a worthy cause for adventure. His post-Free Solo fame led to work that he funneled into a new foundation that has hooked up disadvantaged communities to solar power around the world. The Arctic Ascent expedition fed the same urge for Honnold to tend to the planet.

«I think a project like this is just a way to help talk about the environment to a mainstream audience, in talking about the importance of climate change, basically,» Honnold said.

Sevestre and Honnold make up a third of the six-person crew that went on the expedition, which also included Hazel Findlay and Mikey Schafer, two other climbers well-known for their skill in so-called «first ascents» up rock faces; as well as safety specialist adventurer Aldo Kane and Greenland guide Adam Kjeldsen. The challenging conditions and pioneering opportunities in adventure and science attracted them all to help crucial research at the edge of the world.

Forging through the arctic with research tech and iPhones

The three-episode miniseries documents the team’s arduous journey, which is peppered with interludes wherein Sevestre deploys scientific equipment to measure conditions and estimate their normalcy — or how much climate change has made them abnormal. 

But the climbers sometimes need to court danger to get those instruments into the right position. One incident early in the series’ first episode has Honnold and others rappelling down a gaping hole carved by water rushing down to a glacier’s base, and dropping a piezometer into the flood to measure how much is flowing. Another data point to bring back to the scientific community from places it’s never accessed before. 

Sevestre took a range of measurements over the course of the trip, including rock samples from the initial rock wall that could provide historical data to compare to modern climate progression. She took sonar measurements of the plateau to estimate how much water might flow into the world’s oceans if the ice sheets melt. And when they got past the ice field to the lake, she dropped a knee-high cylinder into the water — an actual aquatic probe for NASA (one of many in its Oceans Melting Greenland, or OMG, network of probes). 

Honnold brought his iPhone. 

While most of the miniseries is shot by National Geographic videographers with conventional cameras and drones for jaw-dropping ultrawide shots of gorgeous landscapes and sheer rock walls, it can be tough to get filmmakers into position in more extreme moments. So Honnold recorded a small portion of the footage himself in the fleeting triumph when he and his fellow climbers reached the top of an arctic wall that had never been climbed before. And he did it with an off-the-shelf iPhone.

«You’re almost required to do little video diaries [with phones] all the time because you just can’t capture it otherwise, those kinds of interactions where it’s just you and your partner at the anchor being like, ‘Here we are, we’re doing a thing, isn’t this exciting?'» said Honnold. He used either an iPhone 12 Mini or iPhone 13 Mini, he recalled.

Viewers won’t notice when the show seamlessly switches to his iPhone point-of-view, which is stunning proof that the smartphones in our pockets can produce documentary-quality footage, even at the edge of the world. Honnold kept the phone in an inner jacket pocket close to his warm chest for the most part so it wouldn’t die when exposed to Greenland’s subzero temperatures, but it still let him take part in contributing his own moments, from jokey chitchats with his team to euphoric cheers atop mountains, to the documentary.

Honnold has carried smartphones on climbs before, which he used to listen to music and take photos to send to family and friends. But phones have come a long way, and production companies now outfit him with the latest phones. His next trip, another National Geographic-recorded expedition to Alaska, has him using an iPhone 14 Pro Max so he can use its ProRes high-quality video format.

«The quality of phones now is good enough that you can put on a big screen,» Honnold said.

An expedition of science and adventure, the National Geographic way

The actual Arctic Ascent expedition happened in 2022, and Sevestre bundled her research into the trip to execute experiments for multiple universities. These myriad readings and measurements are, as Honnold described them, pieces of data that institutions around the world will use for different projects. 

«Nothing we did is groundbreaking in and of itself, but that’s kind of the nature of science is that no individual piece of data determines any outcome. It’s always just part of this broader web of human knowledge,» Honnold said. «We’re hoping to fill in a gap in the map, for sure.»

That said, expeditions can be productive long after they’ve finished. The science expert from Honnold’s previous trip up the South American jungle mesas is still publishing research on the frogs discovered during the expedition, which occurred years ago. We won’t know the full impact of the Arctic Ascent expedition for some time, but there are other benefits to documenting such a tough adventure in some of the most wildly beautiful and unexplored parts of the world.

«I think showing the landscape is important, just showing people the wild beauty of Eastern Greenland. And I think that people can be inspired by nature in that way,» Honnold said. «But I think it’s nice to have an educational component, to have [Sevestre] along, to help people understand what’s at stake in Eastern Greenland.»

Ah, the sounds of summer. Splashing waves at the beach, a lawn sprinkler spinning deliriously, the bells of an ice-cream truck … and the constant buzz of cicadas. If you live in certain states, get ready, because they’re coming back in 2024.

Cicadas, winged insects with an especially loud song, have a weird life cycle. They grow underground, but we humans mostly pay attention to them when they emerge into our above-ground world. 

There are annual cicadas, which emerge from their underground life every year at various times. Then there are periodical cicadas, which emerge only every 13 or 17 years. Those groupings are called broods and are numbered. Because of their trackable schedule, these broods of periodical cicadas tend to steal all the headlines from their annual cicada comrades.

This summer, it’s a double-brood year. That’s rare. According to ScienceAlert, the last time it happened was in 1803. One brood on a 13-year-cycle — called Brood XIX — and another on a 17-year cycle — called Brood XIII — are expected to pop out of the ground in 2024.

Here’s what to know before they take over your neighborhood between May and June, including how to protect your hearing from all that cicada noise — and whether climate change could be responsible for be disrupting the cicada cycle.

What’s expected in 2024

Brood XIX

Brood XIX, also called the Great Southern Brood, is the biggest brood of 13-year periodical cicadas, if you go by geographical distribution. It was last seen in 2011 in the Southeast US. Most periodical cicadas are on a 17-year cycle, but Brood XIX is on a 13-year cycle. The two other surviving 13-year broods are expected to return in 2027 and 2028.

This brood is expected to re-emerge in mid-May and stay around through late June. The cicadas tunnel to the surface, mate, lay their eggs and then die off. Look (and listen) for them in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

Brood XIII

Brood XIII is known as the Northern Illinois Brood. (Illinois seems to appeal to cicadas more than any other state. Experts at the University of Connecticut say that the Land of Lincoln «contains both 13- and 17-year life cycles, all seven currently recognized species, and five separate broods, some of which include disjunct populations.» Talk about the Big Noise from Illinois.

This is one of the 17-year cicada broods. It was last seen in 2007 and should be back from mid-May to late June, just like Brood XIX. They are expected to appear in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin and possibly Michigan.

The basics about cicadas

According to the EPA, cicadas are about 1 to 1.5 inches long, with a wingspan twice that length. They have black bodies, red-brown eyes and membranous wings with orange veins. The noise that makes them famous is the loud courting sound of the adult males.

The name of the species is pronounced differently in the US, where most people say «suh-KEI-duh,» than it is in the UK, where people tend to say, «suh-KAA-dah.»

What to do about the cicadas

Live and let live — they’re temporary and harmless. Cicadas may be noisy, but they don’t bite or sting. And unlike termites, they won’t chew their way into your house, though they could enter through open doors and windows as other insects can. In fact, pest-control experts say that pesticides don’t work on cicadas.

«It’s a waste of (pesticide), and it’s a danger to the environment just to spray down because you’re afraid of the cicadas,» one expert told CNET in 2021.

How can you manage the cicada noise?

The main problem with the cicadas is obvious: their constant buzzing noise. They’re around only for about six weeks, however, so experts have some ideas for how to keep the sound from driving you buggy.

These aren’t cicada-specific remedies, but they work. You might try noise-canceling headphones, white-noise machines or simple earplugs. You can also try some DIY soundproofing, such as weather-stripping foam tape.

Climate change and cicadas

Climate change brings rising global temperatures, and the cicadas aren’t working with a calendar, they’re reacting to temperatures. So it’s unsurprising that scientists believe climate change affects the cicadas as well.

Chris Simon, a professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut, has studied and researched cicadas for years.

«Warmer winters and earlier springs will cause cicadas to come out earlier,» Simon told CNET. «Warming climates also increase the growing season in a given area so that cicadas may be ready to emerge from the ground years earlier — generally four years earlier — turning 17-year cicada populations into temporary 13-year cicadas. If this happens repeatedly, we hypothesize that 17-year cicadas could become permanent 13-year cicadas.»

But that change wouldn’t reduce the number of cicadas, Simon told CNET, just adjust their schedule. And it shouldn’t affect the food chain, because «the animals that eat them above ground would see them more often, and the animals that eat them underground would still do so,» Simon said.

While it’s possible that climate change could force the cicadas to move farther north, that won’t be an immediate change. Simon notes that periodical cicadas can move only as adults, and that can happen only for about for weeks every 13 or 17 years. While periodical cicadas can fly, they tend not to move much or migrate long distances. Human-made asphalt and cement obstacles could also prevent the cicadas from taking off to the great white north.

How you can help cicada researchers

Want to help scientists learn more about periodical cicadas?

«Citizen scientists are critical for filling in the parts of the distribution that we do not have time to visit or unknown parts of the distribution that we can later verify,» Simon told CNET.

To help you can download Cicada Safari for iOS or Android, a free app developed by Simon’s colleague Gene Kritsky. The app asks people to take a cicada photo using their phone, with geolocation allowed. 

«(Kritsky’s) team will verify photos and log the data and share it with us,» Simon said.

How to protect new, small trees from cicadas

While cicadas shouldn’t hurt large, mature trees, new young trees may be vulnerable. Female cicadas like to lay their eggs on trees where new leaves are located, puncturing the branches and possibly causing leaves to wither, turn brown and even snap. So if you live in a cicada territory, hold off on planting any new trees until they’re gone, which should be in late June.

If you have new small trees and are worried about cicada damage, you may want to loosely wrap their trunks and the areas where twigs meet the branches. You can use cheesecloth, foil tape, barrier tape or sticky tape. You could also use landscaping nets around smaller trees. CNET has a guide to tree protection against cicadas.

People eat cicadas?

This last bit isn’t for everybody, but you can actually eat cicadas. Don’t even try it, though, if you have seafood allergies, because cicadas are related to shrimp and lobster.

If you’re made of tough stuff and don’t get easily queased-out by unusual foods, there are plenty of simple cicada recipes on the web. An expert from Johns Hopkins University says they’re «quite tasty» but admits «the yuck factor» might keep most of us from even trying.

The good news, though, is that if your dog wolfs a few down — and dog owners know some pups will eat literally anything — cicadas shouldn’t harm them. Just watch that they don’t choke from eating too many at once.