The following pictures give a year by year view of Columbia Glacier within one day of August 1. The best year was 1999, the worst, 2005.The snowy peaks of the Monte Cristo region can be seen from the Everett area. With 30 glaciers many at low altitudes, this region may receive more snow than any other region in the North Cascades. The largest and lowest is Columbia Glacier occupying a deep cirque above Blanca Lake and ranging in altitude from 4600 to 5700 feet. Kyes, Monte Cristo and Columbia Peak surround the glacier with summits over 2000 feet above the glacier. The Monte Cristo range is the first major rise that weather systems coming off the ocean encounter on the way east to the Cascade Crest. As a result precipitation is heavy. During the summer if it is raining anywhere in the North Cascades it will be in the Monte Cristo region. The glacier is the beneficiary of heavy orographic lifting over the surrounding peaks, and heavy avalanching off the same peaks. We measure the mass balance of this glacier each year and report the data to the World Glacier Monitoring Service. The location is gorgeous as seen in this painting by Jill Pelto 
Despite the advantages of snow accumulation the glaciers mass balance since 1984 has average -0.5 m a year for a cumulative loss of 13 m. For a glacier that averages 60 m in thickness this is over 20% of its volume. Details of the mass balance research and methods are at
Columbia Glacier has retreated 134 m since 1984. Lateral reduction in glacier width of 95 m in the lower section of the glacier and the reduction in glacier thickness are even more substantial as a percentage. The major issue is that the glacier is thinning as appreciably in the accumulation zone in the upper cirque basin as at the terminus. This indicates a glaciers that is in disequilibrium with current climate and will melt away with a continuation of the current warm conditions. The glacier has lost 17 m in thickness since 1984, but still remains a thick glacier, over 75 meters in the upper basin and will not disappear quickly.
A lateral moraine deposited during the Little Ice Age, is visible at the western edge of the glacier, descending below the glacier to 4250 feet. This moraine has little vegetation on the inside, but is vegetated on the outside. Just in front of the terminus are two terminal moraines deposited during retreat in the last 20 years. Facing southeast Columbia Glacier is protected from any afternoon sun except during the summer. During the winters storm winds sweep from the west across Monte Cristo Pass dropping snow in the lee on Columbia Glacier. Avalanches spilling from the mountains above descend onto and spread across Columbia Glacier. The avalanche fans created by the settled avalanche snows are 20 feet deep even late in the summer. Nearly a third of the glacier is covered by avalanche fans, but no summer avalanches have been observed. Avalanches, shading from the sum provided by the high peaks, and wind drift snow deposition permits Columbia Glacier to exist at such a low altitude.
From a Glaciers Perspective 
Yes, but 25 years of glacier melt only tells us that the glacier is melting. Most glaciers around the world have been melting since 1850, when the Earth began to warm up, exiting the Little Ice Age. Glacier measurement only began in the mid 20th Century. There are many reasons glaciers melt, in Glacier National Park weather studies for the past 100 years show very slight warming but a loss of precipitation. In the Swiss Alps new studies find that glacier melting was higher in the 1940’s, when man was burning VERY LITTLE fossil fuel compared to today, because of increased sunlight. I don’t find this article to be a “scare” article, but an information article, that only tells a very small piece of the story.
This article just looks at what it takes to monitor a single glacier annually. It is what it is not trying to be scary. I have not extrapolated here. Of the 47 glaciers we monitor all 47 are retreating. You are incorrect that this is a long term trend, since the end of the Little Ice Age of this same group of 47 glaciers 20 were advancing in 1975. The same can be said for Switzerland where you note the high melt in the 1940’s, most of the Swiss glaciers advanced at some point during the 1950-1980 period. However, 2003 and 2005 are the only years in the last century when not a single glacier advanced. The Swiss have been monitoring for far longer than 50 years.