Professor of Environmental Science at Nichols College in Massachusetts since 1989. Glaciologist directing the North Cascade Glacier Climate Project since 1984. This project monitors the mass balance and behavior of more glaciers than any other in North America
Bonnet Glacier in Banff National Park in the 9-5-2025 Sentinel image has lost its snow cover in 2025. This is causing rapid expansion of bedrock amidst the glacier as the glacier thins (yellow arrow).
The summer of 2025 featured extensive melt on Alberta glaciers in many cases removing all snow cover. A glacier that cannot retain snow cover is akin to a company have no income, only expenditures for the year. If this trend persists the glacier will not. This builds on a period of glacier loss in the region from 2011-2020 glacier loss accelerated by ~190% from the 1984-2010 period in this region (Bevington and Menounos, 2022). The 2021-2024 period was noted as a period of unprecedented ice loss in Western Canada (Menounos et al 2025). Haig Glacier has been a summer training ground for cross country skiers. This summer by mid-August snow cover was too limited to permit this use, which had happened in 2023 as well. The result in the images below of rapid melt is fragmentation, bedrock emerging amidst glacier and glacier area decline. Here we examine a series of glaciers within 100 km of Banff, Alberta in Sentinel images from September 2025.
Haig Glacier on 9-2-2025. This glacier in Peter Lougheed Provinicial Park has only a sliver of snowcover at the very top of the glacier.Petain Glacier in Height of the Rockies Provincial Park has a fringe of snow cover left at the top of the glacier in mid-September. The thinning glacier has bedrock emerging amidst the glacier.Icefall Mountain Glacier on 9-5-2025 has lost all snow cover. This glacier in Siffleur Wilderness Area features expanded bedrock areas amidst the glacier (yellow arrows).Trifid Glacier in Banff National Park lost its snowcover and is continuing to fragment in this false color Sentinel image.Drummond Glacier in Banff National Park in early September 2025 has lost 96% of its snow cover this is leading to fragmentation of the glacier.
Willingdon Glacier in Siffleur Wilderness Area lost all but a sliver of snow cover in 2025. The rapid thinning bare glacier ice is leading to fragmentation at yellow arrow.
Rikeva Glacier retreat in Landsat images from 2020 and 2025. Illustrates new island at Point A and retreat of land terminus at Point B and from headland at Point C.
Rikeva (Rykacheva) Glacier flows from the Northern Novaya Zemlya Ice Cap to the west coast and the Barents Sea. The glacier has been retreating rapidly like all tidewater glaciers in northern Novaya Zemlya (Pelto, 2016) (Carr et al 2014) identified an average retreat rate of 52 m/year for tidewater glaciers on Novaya Zemlya from 1992 to 2010. Maraldo and Choi (2025) identified frontal retreat rate of Novaya Zemlya glaciers from 1931-2021 and found an increased each decade since the early 1970s, reaching a peak retreat rate of 65 m/year between 2011 and 2021. We have observed the impact at Vilkitskogo Glacier and Krayniy Glacier,
In 2000 Rikeva Glacier extended beyond the island that would emerge at Point A. The landbased terminus lobe extended just beyond Point B. By 2013 the glacier had retreated adjacent to the island, with the island acting as a stabilizing point for the terminus. The terminus lobe had retreated just south and east of Point B.
Rikeva Glacier in Landsat images from 2000 and 2013 illustrating retreat to island at Point A and retreat of land terminus at Point B.
In 2018 Rikeva Glacier terminus rested on an island at Point A that acted as a buttress for the glacier terminus. By 2025 the glacier had retreated from the island with 4.5 km2 of glacier retreat since 2018 and 8 km2 of retreat since 2000.
Rikeva Glacier in Sentinel images from 2018 and 2025 illustrates retreat from Island at Point A.
Macbeth Icefield, BC in false color Sentinel image from 9-25-2025. Bare of snow cover reveals annual layers within firn, darkened by dust and forest fire partical deposition.Small glaciers A,B,C and E have vanished.
Macbeth Icefield is the Purcell Mountains of southwestern British Columbia. The several icefield outlet glaciers drain into Duncan Lake the Duncan River and then Kootenay Lake. From 2011-2020 glacier loss accelerated by more tha 250% from the 1984-2010 period in this region (Bevington and Menounos, 2022). The 2021-2024 period was noted as a period of unprecedented ice loss in Western Canada (Menounos et al 2025). The summer of 2025 was even worse. Access to the Macbeth Icefield Recreation Area is currently closed due to extensive forest fire impact to the long hiking trail that accesses the icefield (images below illustrate the burn scars).
I have had the opportunity to review satellite images of this area from 1984-2025. In 2025, for the first time the icefield lost all snow cover exposing many annual layers of firn. The firn is snow that endured at least one summer, and is not yet converted to glacier ice. This firn is signficantly darkened by particles of dust and forest fire derived material. This further enhances melt once exposed.
In 2023 and 2024 significant firn areas were exposed as well, in the sequence of images below. . The repeated years of limited snow cover has led to mass balance loss and a 25-30% reduction in icefield area since 1987. From 1987-2025 several small adjacent glaciers have been lost A,B, C and E. t Point D the glacier has fragmented. At Point F the glacier ended in the lake in 1987 and now the glacier has retreated 700 m from the lake.
Macbeth Icefield in 1987 and 2025 Landsat images indicating recession of icefield margin, loss of snowcover and vanished small glaciers A,B,C and E.A 2024 forest fire burned extensive areas in the Birnam Creek valley that drains the southern end of the icefield. The 2023 image illustrated the consistent red of forest, with the brown areas at the yellow arrows indicating burn scars.Macbeth Icefield in Sentinel image from 9-1-2023. Extensive firn area is exposed, while 30% of the icefield has retained snow cover.Macbeth Icefield in Sentinel image from 9-5-2024. Extensive firn area is exposed, while 20% of the icefield has retained snow cover.Macbeth Icefield in Sentinel image from 9-25-2025. The lack of snow cover is evident.
Silver Star Glacier image from August 18, 2025 indicating no retained snow cover. Ilustrates the glacier still has crevasses.Below is June 2025 image from Jack McLeod that illustrates detachment occuring in upper portion.
The USGS (1971) North Cascade glacier Inventory identified 15 perennial snow/glacier areas in the Methow Valley from 1958 aerial images. To qualify for the list you needed an area of 0.1 km2. There were three glaciers on Tower Mt., two on Golden Horn, two on Gardner Mt., two on Robinson Mt. and 5 on Silver Star Mt. When we began annual field monitoring of North Cascade glaciers in 1984 we explored the identified glaciers around Tower Mt. and Silver Star Mt. The northeast side of Tower Mt. still had one existing glacier and Silver Star Mt. had three.
Tower Mountain in 2025 illustrating the loss of glaciers at the three locations that had hosted glaciers in 1958.
As of 2005, I could identify 9 glaciers with an area of 0.8 km2, in the Methow Valley. About 30% of this area was on Silver Star. On Silver Star there were 3 glaciers in 1958 with a combined area of 0.33 km2. Silver Star had three identified glaciers in 1958. With the western most being the most extensive. The middle and western Silver Star Glacier had crevassing. The eastern Silver Star Glacier was a perennial snow field with no crevassing and insufficient thickness and size to generate movement.
Silver Star Glacier from Aug. 28 2006. The glacier is snow covered above the main icefall.
In 2006 here were two glacier left with an area of 0.19 km2 . In this area average July-Sept. ablation on the glacier is 2.6 m/a. Thus, an area of 900,000 m2 x 2.6 m =2.34 million m3 of runoff from the glaciers on average contributed to the Methow River system. This is down from 3.9 million m3 in the 1970’s. This is a significant amount of water, but based on the disappearance of Lewis Glacier, a 40% drop in runoff occurred from the glacier basin in July-Sept. after the glacier was gone. This indicates that approximately 60% of the runoff would occur from the snowpack in the former glaciated area. Thus, the loss of all glaciers will generate a loss of close to 1 million cubic meters for the basin during the July-Sept. period. This runoff would be released earlier in the melt season. Average July-Sept. flow at Winthrop was 750 cfs from 1990-2004, while the glacier runoff had declined to ~10 cfs .
In 2013 the western Silver Star Glacier still had active crevassing and does retain snow cover through the summer. The middle Silver Star Glacier was fragmented stagnant ice that indicated it may no longer have been a glacier. At that time I assessed it could not survive the next pair of warm years.
Silver Star Glacier in 2014 illustrates that is still an active glacier with significant crevassing. This image is taken from lower west margin by Fritz Stugren.
The lone remaining glacier is confined to a narrow chute is 750 m long, and no more than 200 m wide. There is a small icefall. This glacier is similar to the upper east side of Lynch Glacier, if that was the only part. The glacier is retreating slowly 75 m from 1993 to 2013.
In 2025 the western Silver Star Glacier was 670 m long, an 80 m retreat since 2013, and has an area of 0.075 km2. The crevassing is noticeably reduced. The top of the glacier has several thin areas that will lead to detachment as illustrated by the Jack McLeod image. The glacier still has crevassing and areas likely over 30 m thick. This is the only remaining glacier in the basin and can survive another decade. During late summer periods the glacier provides between 1 and 2 cubic feet per second to the stream system.
The role glaciers play for rivers is buffering low flow periods late in summer. Without glaciers the late summer water supply diminishes. The trend in the Methow has been a sharp reduction in flow for June-August from the 1990-2004 period to the 2015-2025 period. Average discharge from July-September has fallen ~40% for the 2015-2025. In the Methow River valley supporting the reintroduction of beavers is a project that can buffer late summer streamflow to an extent. The Methow Beaver Project is well on the way in this effort.
Methow River mean monthly discharge at the Methow River at Winthrop, WA – USGS-12448500 station. The river has a higher peak discharge in spring now and and a much lower summer discharge.
Twins Glacier in Sentinel 2 images late in the melt season in 2021, 2023, 2024 and 2025. The darker blue is bare ice and the light blue is snow cover. This illustrates the lack of significant snow covered area each of these summers.
Twins Glacier in the Wind River Range of Wyoming is nestled on the north side of a ridge extending from Winifred Peak to The Buttress, in Titcomb Basin. Titcomb Basin is high alpine basin that lacks trees and has many alpine lakes. The basin was named for brothers Charles and Harold Titcomb, who were some of the first to explore the area in 1901. The Wind River Range was inhabited by the Sheepeater Shoshone (Tukudika) tribe as far back as 2000 BC. This tribe relied on bighorn sheep as a key staple and did not utilize horses, both adaptations useful for alpine terrain. Fur trappers were active in the region going back to the 1830s including Charles Fremont for which Fremont Peak on the east side of the basin is named. Titcomb Basin remains popular with climbers today.
Devisser and Fountain (2015) identified Wind River Range glaciers lost 47% of their area from 1900-2006. Li et al (2025) indicate a thinning rate of 0.58 m/year on Wind River Range glaciers from 2000-2019, representing a cumulative loss of 11.6 m. The loss from 1968-2000 had been -0.08 m/year. This accelerated thinning this century has led to rapid area losses across the range. The mean June-September temperature for the Wind River (Wyoming-Division 9) rose 1.2oC from 1900 to 2024. The mean June-September temperature exceeded 16.5oC five times from 1900-1999 and nine times from 2000-2025. During the 1900-2024 period there is no trend in November-April total precipitation for the Wind River Division. It is the frequent warm summers that have accelerated glacier loss.
Twins Glacier in 1966 spread broadly across the mountain slope from Knapsack Col to The Buttress and had an area of 0.49 km2 (GLIMS). The glacier extending close to the top of a rounded ridge does recieve wind enhanced snow deposition, but no avalanching. By 2015 the area had declined 75% to 0.13 km2 and was primarily confined to an area below The Buttress (Fountain et al 2023). The 2013 image (from Bob Sihler) below illustrates a lack of snow or firn cover which indicates there is no longer a persistent accumulation zone, without which a glacier cannot survive (Pelto, 2010). From 2021-2025 each summer the glacier has lost all snow cover indicating it no longer has an accumulation zone. This has led to rapid thinning and development of a bedrock ridge that has nearly separated the glacier, note 2021 image (from Will Wickert). In 2025 the glacier lost all snowcover and was fragmenting into two sections with an area of 0.05 km2 and 0.03 km2 respectively. The ~50 visible annual layers indicates ice in the glacier is all from the last 75 years. The glacier is almost disappeared. The fragmentation and acceleration of area loss indicates this glacier cannot endure several more years of warm conditions that eliminates snow cover.
Twins Glacier outline in blue on USGS map based on 1966 aerial photographs. Glacier extends from Knapsack Col to east end of The Buttress.
Twins Glacier in 2013 seen from the northeast nestled below The Buttress. The diagonal bedrock ridge that is now fragmenting the glacier is not yet evident. The lack of snow or firn cover illustrates the glacier is not retaining snow cover. This image taken by Bob Sihler.
Twins Glacier in 2021 indicating rock rib extending diagonally across the glacier. There is limited retained snow or firn cover with a month left in the melt season. There are ~50 visible annual layers. The thin nature of the glacier is also evident. This is an image taken by Will Wickert.
Core field team in 2025 Emmett Elsom, Mauri Pelto, Jill Pelto and Caitlin Quirk.
We hiked into North Cascade glacier to complete detailed observations for our 42nd consecutive year. These annual observations provide a detailed assessment of their response to climate change. For the third consecutive year North Cascade glacier on on average lost more than 2 m of glacier thickness. This cumulative loss of 7-8 m on most of the ranges glaciers that average 25-40 m in thickness represents 20% of their volume lost in just three years. On a few of the largest glaciers, such as those on Mount Baker that average 40-60 m in thickness the loss represents 12% of their volume lost.
The consequence is an acceleration of the collapse of the North Cascade glacier system. This landscape that has for long been shaped by ice is rapidly losing that glacier element. The rate of retreat for the glaciers we work on has accelerated so quickly that we are faced each year with changing terrain and new challenges. Beyond that, we are starting to really see the effect this retreat and the decrease in water has on the ecosystems both near the glaciers and further downstream. During the field season we love seeing the wildflowers, eating blueberries, and counting mountain goats. These are all parts of a habitat that is built around glaciers and snowpack. Seeing these shifts has been really difficult, but it helps to still return to these landscapes and continue to tell their stories through science and art. Below the story is told in images with captions by each of us who participated.
Two things that stood out during the 2025 field season were the strength of our collaborations, and the changing resources the glaciers are able to provide to the surrounding ecosystem. This visible change attracted the attention of KING5-Seattle NBC affiliate and CBS Morning News. At the bottom of this post the resulting footage is embedded. The film “Shaped By Ice” Jill and I worked on with Dan McComb has been a finalist in two recent film festivals, this footage also at bottom of this long read post.
Working on Rainbow Glacier from left-Katie Hovind, Caitlin Quirk, Claire Seaman, Jill Pelto and Margaret Kingston
We worked with two oil painters, one watercolor painter, one printmaker, two news film crews, a team of botanists, and more. The result of all these collaborations has led to so many great stories being created and shared about our collective work. It also meant our core group of field assistants had to be flexible to a changing group and the sometimes difficult and imperfect logistics that accompany that. -Jill Pelto
This photograph of an icefall at 2000 m (6700 ft) on the Easton glacier encompasses the wide range of emotions that I felt working on these glaciers this summer. The focal point of the picture is the wound inflicted upon the glacier by our changing climate. Bedrock and sediment creep through the gaping wound in the lowest icefall of the Easton, the opening visible for the first time in the project’s 42-year history. The place also holds a beauty, a sense of majesty that cannot be diminished by the tragic context of our work. The seracs at the top of the scene lean at impossible angles, destined to crash down onto the slope below, piercing the quiet of the snowy expanse in dramatic fashion. The dark annual layers in the glacier speak to the age of the ice, flowing down the flank of Mt. Baker over decades. The landscape has been a facet of my life for the past few years, as it falls upon the Easton Glacier route to the mountain’s summit. The icefall has always drawn me in as I pass, sparking a profound sense of wonder. It makes me deeply sad to see the beauty of such special places diminished, sad in a way that little else does. Over the past few years, I’ve come to like visiting these places to visiting an elderly loved one. While time may change them and even take them away from us, their beauty and meaning to me will hold true.-Emmett Elsom
How does being present in a place shape our understanding? To the left is a view of Sholes Glacier, complete with my on-site rendition. I can’t express how lucky I feel to have had the chance to experience these places first hand. To interact with a place by attempting to capture its likeness — paying attention to the negative space not only between the white snowpack and black exposed rock, but in the empty, carved-out area that used to be filled with ice. Experiencing the texture of the glacier under your feet, the cool air drifting off the snow, the good tired feeling of your body after physically traversing top to bottom. This is what you don’t get from a photo. To know places such as these is to love them and see their role in the world, and want to protect them. But so many never get the chance to understand them this way.-Claire Seaman
This field season I focused on exploring the once-barren foreland a glacier leaves behind. Studying the plants growing in the wake of the Easton Glacier made me reflect on the way life responds to these major changes. This photo of a bright monkeyflower cluster in the streambed of the nearby Sholes Glacier exemplifies this resilience and optimism to me. The Sholes, in the background, drains a lifeblood that will feed the watershed downstream into the Nooksack, supporting people, fisheries, and a whole riparian ecosystem. The eventual loss of glacial ice feeding the river will be catastrophic, yet the scarred space left behind will blossom with vegetation. Witnessing firsthand how staggering the extent of glacial retreat is can be overwhelming, but that bright patch of flowers stands as encouragement. Alone in an altered landscape, those flowers will pave the way for more to follow. Change is nuanced, and as we watch it occur we can change, sharing stories of the beauty of this environment supported by ice, and adapting our lives and policies in a way that can be the difference which keeps glaciers flowing.-Katie Hovind
As a backcountry skier and oil painter focused on winter landscapes of the North Cascades, the idea of painting glaciers in the field was a dream come true! I knew what we would see and learn about the health of our glaciers from the scientists would be highly emotional, but the power of these environments disappearing in our lifetimes is something my words fail to communicate how devastating that feels. During the study on Rainbow glacier I caught on film the moment a serac collapsed, loudly crashing, crumbling from a newly melted out rock knob down the mountain splitting into smaller and smaller pieces. It looked sickly as it broke before our eyes. Another unique experience was going into a teal, translucent, otherworldly ice cave. I have started 2 paintings to capture this vanishing environment. My goal is to assist the project in translating the study’s findings through landscape paintings that communicate the beauty of these places with titles that call attention to the retreating glaciers in the North Cascades. We all have a responsibility as humans to make individual changes to combat climate change and vote like fresh water and air depends on it, because it does. -Margaret Kingston
The pace of glacier change struck me hard this summer. Never before have humans lived with such a deglaciated Cascades mountain range. Not the settlers, not the fur trappers, not the first people who have been here for 13,000 years or more. Cultures and ecosystems spawned from the retreating edge of the Cordilleran Ice sheet into the Puget Sound area. Alpine glaciers fed streams, rivers, salmon, all kinds of human projects in Washington State. Our societies are shaped by the ice and now we are experiencing glaciers disappear.
I write this at the end of the 2025 hydrological year, waiting for winter snow to shelter the land I love in a cool white blanket. The devastation of the alpine glaciers has surfaced so frequently in conversation these last couple months. Those who have seen the mountains are alarmed as beds of ice they once knew to be hundreds of feet thick look shallow and frail, ice pitches that were once climbed are now grey gullies of rock, and volcanoes which have always been white are unnervingly gray and shrouded in smoke. The realities of climate change in the Northwest are clear.
It is a painful time to care about the glaciers of the Cascades. Witnessing the erosion of something so much older and bigger and impactful than myself is staggering. There is much action to be done in this new terrain but for now, I come back to this: I sit in the dying glaciers warm light as the sun rises, summon the deepest snowfall in years and tell the glacier that we care, that we were grateful for all the help watering our food and feeding our oceans and making sure our salmon had somewhere to live. We are here because of you. -Cal WaichlerImage description: This image shows a crevasse on the Easton Glacier of Mount Baker. The saturation is distorted because I shot this photo on 35mm and pre-exposed the film to light and heat to parallel the material effects of global warming on our glacier systems. The Easton glacier is a source of water for Baker Lake, which provides recreation and hydropower to the region. When I see this photo, I think of the impacts of glacial melt to water, energy, cultural, and economic resources in Washington. -Caitlin QuirkColumbia Glacier is one of sixty global reference glaciers. This summer it lost 5% of its volume.Lower Curtis Glacier continues to rapidly thin at the top of the glacier as well as at the terminus. The glacier retained additional avalanche accumulation, leading to a less negative balance than other glaciers.Rainbow Glacier is one of the sixty global reference glaciers. This year new bedrock began to emerge and expand in several icefalls, leading to serac fall.Easton Glacier has retreated 700 m since 1990 and has a number of bedrock areas emerging in icefall up to 2500 m.Lynch Glacier east and west side are separating. The upper basin did retain some snow in 2025.Daniels Glacier lost all snowpack by the end of the summer and bedrock is quickly expanding amongst the glacier.
The trajectory for most North Cascade glaciers is one of fragmentation. This is illustrated by Foss Glacier on the east flank of Mount Hinman, that we began observing annually in 1984 but stopped measuring as it fragmented.Foss Glacier from the top was a 1 km long and nearly 600 m wide glacier. In Sept. 2025 Cal Waichler captured view from the top with the two main fragments now less than 50 m wide and 300 m long.-Mauri Pelto
Leah Pezzetti KING5 meterologist hiked in with us to Lower Curtis Glacier.
The CBS team hiked into Sholes Glacier with usspending the night, and we had three generations of Pelto’s.
Hofsjokull East is snow free on 8-17-2025 in this false color Sentinel image. This leads to ice melt, thinning and bedrock expansion at Point A-D.
Hofsjokull East, Iceland is a small ice cap east of Vatnajokull with a summit elevation of 1100 m. In the last decade the snow line has often been above the ice cap. The ice cap had an area or 4.97 km2 in 2003 declining to 2.51 km2 in 2023 (Iceland Glacier Viewer). In 2024 all 10 glaciers in Iceland had significant mass loss (Pelto, 2025).
In August 2020 the ice cap has lost nearly all of its snow cover, this occurred again in 2023 and 2024. The result in 2025 when the ice cap again lost all its snowcover, is significant glacier surface melt and thinning. This leads to expansion of bedrock. At Point A there has been rapid expansion of the bedrock knob. At Point B and C new bedrock has been exposed and rapidly expanded. At Point D a bedrock rib at the edge of the ice cap has spread into the ice cap.
The lack of snow cover indicates the ice cap no longer has an accumulation zone and cannot survive. In 2025 the ice cap area is 2.10 km2 . Ice cap area has declined by ~60 % in the last 22 years. The story here is similar to that at the larger Prándarjökull 10 km to the northeast. The summer of 2025 in Iceland was exceptional beginning with a May heatwave, followed by a July heatwave. The May heat wave led to high snow lines as summer began on Vatnajokull.
Hofsjokull East is nearly snow free on 8-14-2020 in this false color Sentinel image. Contrast the area of bedrock at Point A-Dto the 2023 and 2025 images.
Hofsjokull East is nearly snow free on 9-3-2023 in this false color Sentinel image. Point B and C now have evident bedrock areas.
Kvitkapa in Landsat images from 2014 and 2025 indicating the fragmentation from 3 to 8 different glacier parts.
In 2022, 2023 and 2024 a number of ice caps and glaciers across Svalbard lost all snow cover, ie. Edgeøya 2022. The result by 2024 was that all firn cover had been lost as well on many of the ice caps of Edgeoya, such as on Digerfonna. This largely removes the ability of meltwater to refreeze. In 2025 we again see this playing out on the ice caps of Edgeøya. This all too familiar story indicates these glaciers lack a consistent accumulation zone that is essential for their survival
Map of Kvitkapa from TopoSvalbard indicating one interconnected ice cap in 2000.
Kvitkapa is an ice cap on a peninsula on the south coast of Edgeøya Island. In a map of this region from TopoSvalbard this is a single interconnected system of glaciers. By 2014 Landsat imagery indicates the ice cap has separated into three sections. By 2025 the ice cap has fragmented into eight different parts.
On the next peninsula to the east Kvalpyntfonna has also lost all snow cover again 2025.
Kvalpyntfonna in Landsat image from 2025 having lost all its snow coverand has no residual firn from previous winters either.
Further north and east on Edgeøya the Stonebreen ice cap has also losts its snow cover and firn cover driving thinning and retreat. The consistes loss of snow cover and resultant loss of firn cover, indicates that most ice caps Edgeøya cannot be sustained.
Stonebreen in false color Sentinel image illustrating retreat from 2020-2025. The lack of retained snow cover and residual firn will lead to continued rapid thinning and retreat.
Field team Emmett Elsom, Mauri Pelto, Jill Pelto and Caitlin Quirk at Rainbow/Mazama Glacier saddle.
For the 42nd consecutive year we were in the field observing North Cascade glaciers. Our expedition of scientists and artists observes the response of the glaciers to climate change. In the last five years the glacier system in this mountain range is showing signs of collapse. The signs range from vanished glaciers, dwindling summer runoff, increased rockfall and serac instability.
Our first field area was Columbia Glacier, which feeds the North Fork Skykomish River. This is the largest glacier in the Skykomish River Basin and a World Reference glacier. We have observed ongoing retreat and accelerated volume loss, 50% of its volume lost in 42 years. The primary field team consiste of Emmett Elsom (field scientist), Caitlin Quirk (field scientist), Jill Pelto (art director) and Mauri Pelto (science director). In 2025 the new glacier lake that developd in 2010 continue to expand, a warmer Blanca Lake supported more algae, and the reduced glacier area provided notably less streamflow dring this the late July-August period.
Columbia Glacier 7-29-2025 with the expanding new lake and the thinning glacier that used to have a steep high terminus (Jill Pelto).
We next headed north to Lower Curtis Glacier on Mount Shuksan, which feeds into Baker Lake. We were joined by Katie Hovind (field scientist) and Margaret Kingston (oil painter). Leah Pezzetti, meteorologist and Nick Goldring videographer from KING5 in Seattle joined us.
The terminus of this glacier continues to thin, with the seracs becoming less imposing. The terminus front has diminished from over 45 m high, to 25 m. The glacier is thinning almost 1 m per year even in the accumulation area of the cirque basin. Glacier retreat has been 225 m since retreat began in 1986 across the wide terminus front.
Next up was Sholes and Rainbow Glacier, both accessed from our camp on Ptarmigan Ridge. Claire Seaman (oil painter) joined our crew for both. Ben Pelto and Margot Pelto joined us for Sholes Glacier, along with their nine-month old daughter Wren, (my granddaughter). The Sholes Glacier has been rapidly thinning and losing area along its broad lower margin particularly in the last 5 years. The glacier has lost 0.25 km2 in this century along this margin, or 30% of the total glacier area. In 2023 we explored an ice cave that was over 100 m long. In 2025 this entire slope is devoid of ice. CBS Sunday News joined us on Sholes Glacier and captured well, what we do and how we combine art and science.
Rainbow Glacier descends from a saddle with the Mazama Glacier. This area consistently retains deep snow. This year the snowpack was 3.5-4.75 m deep in early August. Further down glacier, a series of bedrock knobs continue to emerge from beneath the ice, leading to steeper, thinner icefalls that leads to unstable serac conditions. The collapse of these seracs is predictable in terms of where. We did observe a large one. We descended to the terminus of the glacier. The glacier continues to retreat, with a retreat of 890 m since 1986. The glacier had been advancing prior to 1986.
Easton Glacier on August 9, 2025 from our research camp. In 1990 glacier ended at small ridge right behind our hats. Now glacier has receded 700 m (Abby Hudak, Jill Pelto and Mauri Pelto)
We circled to the south side of Mount Baker to examine Deming, Easton and Squak Glacier. Easton Glacier has retreated 705 m since retreat began in 1990. This year we continued to observe new bedrock emerging from beneath the glacier, including in the main icefall at 2000 m and as high as 2800 m on the glacier. This is also occurring on Deming Glacier. In both cases there is oversteepening in icefall areas leading to unstable seracs. On Squak Glacier we descended, what had been a crevassed icefall, that now is a steep ice ramp, to the terminus. This indicates limited velocity feeding the now nearly stagnant glacier tongue.
New areas of rock exposure emerging at base of main Easton Glacier icefall for the first time, at 2000 m.
Bedrock emerging at 2800 m on Easton/Deming Glacier. These features illustrate thinning is extensive even near the top of Mount Baker glaciers.
Our last stop was in the Alpine Lake Wilderness, and we were joined by Cal Waichler (wood cut printing) and Margaret Kingston. The glaciers of Mount Daniel and Mount Hinman have been in rapid decline this century. With six of the nine ceasing to exist by 2024. We continue to monitor Lynch and Daniels Glacier each year. Lynch Glacier continues to retain snowpack on the upper portion of the glacier, while losing 50% of its area since 1984. Daniels Glacier has lost 60% of its area since 1984 and is no longer retaining significant snow pack by the end of the summer. The retreat of area loss on Daniels Glacier has been 5% per year in the last five years. The runoff from glaciers into the Cle Elum Reservoir has diminished markedly in late summer reducing both runoff and increasing water temperatures. By late August Cle Elum Reservoir had dropped to 7% full, which will curtail water allocation to downstream Yakima Basin agriculture.
Descending onto Lynch Glacier, with Pea Soup Lake below. The glacier filled the lake until 1978.Daniels Glacier in 2025, illustrating the bare rock slope that was almost entirely covered by the glacier in 1984.The remaining fragments of Foss Glacier that has lost 80% of its area since we first mapped it in 1986.
Prándarjökull on August 20, 2025 has no retained snowpack-with weeks left in the melt season (Sentinel false color image)
Prándarjökull is an icecap northeast of Vatnajokull that has a summit elevation of 1215 m, and a margin between 875 and 925 m. In 2003 the ice cap had an area of 17.3 km2, declining to 12.8 km2 by 2023 (Iceland Glacier Viewer). In 2024 all 10 glaciers in Iceland had significant mass loss (Pelto, 2025)
In 2021 the ice cap lost at least 90% of its snow cover as noted in the Sentinel image from 8-24-2021. In 2023 The ice cap again lost nearly all of its snow cover.
Prándarjökull on August 31, 2023 has only 5-10% retained snowpack-with weeks left in the melt season (Sentinel false color image)
The spring and early summer of 2025 was one of record warmth for Iceland. This led to a rapid rise of the snowline to 900-1000 m on Vatnajokull. By mid-July 60% of the Prándarjökull was snow free. There is an area of water saturated snow-light blue amidst the snowpack.
Prándarjökull on July 13, 2025 the ice caphas 40% retained snow cover-with weeks left in the melt season (Sentinel false color image)
By August 20, 2025 the ice cap had no snow cover. The early exposure of ice in recent years is leading to the continued recession of the ice cap and the intrusion of bedrock areas into the ice cap at Point A and B. At Point C in 2021 recent firn is exposed, that has melted away by 2025. The area of the ice cap has declined to 11.5 km2. There is no recent retained firn-indicating that in the last five year no snow cover has persisted to the end of this summer. This indicates the lack of an accumulation zone, without which the glacier cannot survive.
Prándarjökull on August 31, 2023 has only 5-10% retained snowpack-with weeks left in the melt season (Sentinel false color image)
2025 Field Season: For the 42nd consecutive summer we are heading into the field to measure and communicate the impact of climate change on North Cascade glaciers. This year an overall focus of the project is supporting the UN’s “International Year for Glaciers’ Preservation”. This means focusing on glaciers that have disappeared and are in critical danger of disappearing in the next decade. Jill Pelto, Art Director and Mauri Pelto, Science Director
This field season follows the 2021-2024 seasons that featured either historic heat waves and/or periods of extended warm weather. The heat led to a greater exposure of bare ice on glaciers with a higher albedo and greater density. The observed melt rates are 7-9 cm/day water equivalent during warm weather events vs 4-6 for snow surfaces. This led to substantial mass losses on North Cascade glacier for the four years of over ~6 m.
Science objectives: We will complete detailed measurements on 10 glaciers, three of which are part of the World Glacier Monitoring Service reference glacier network (48 glaciers globally), which have 30+ consecutive years of mass balance observations. This summer we will have an opportunity to assess the long-term ramifications of the 2013-2024 period of unprecedented mass balance losses and associated glacier changes, with detailed mass balance, crevasse depths and glacier surface elevation profiling. We also focus on the impact of diminishing glacier size on downstream runoff.
Drilling and emplacing ablation stakes on Sholes Glacier.
Art Objectives: We will collaborate with several artists who will join us for a portion of the field season. They will be able to create their own work about the landscape and the science or may join us for fieldwork and make plans for future artwork. We hope to use this art to share our research with a broader audience and highlight the beauty and importance of these places.
Cal Waichler Sketch of Lower Curtis Glacier.
Communication Objectives: We will leverage the brands of our expedition sponsors and the focus on vanishing glaciers that the UN brings this year. These organizations can help spread our message. We will utilize a combination of artists and scientists to tell the story.
From the Glaciers to the Sea: this is one of two paintings that tells stories of watersheds fed by North Cascade glaciers that flow out into the Puget Sound. The snowpack and glaciers in the mountains in this region provide crucial meltwater to river systems, many of which connect critically to the ocean.
Field Team 2025:
Jill Pelto (she/her) is an artist and scientist from New England who grew up loving winter sports and trips to the mountains. She incorporates scientific research and data into paintings and prints to communicate environmental changes. Her multi-disciplinary work weaves visual narratives that reveal the reality of human impacts on this planet. She completed both her B.A. degrees in Studio Art and Earth and Climate Science, and her M.S. focused on studying the stability of the Antarctic Ice Sheet at the University of Maine, spending two field seasons at a remote camp in the southern Transantarctic Mountains. Jill will be joining the project for her 15th field season. She is excited about continuing to document the change in North Cascade glaciers that she has witnessed each of the last ten years — through science and art.
Mauri Pelto (he/him)has directed the project since its founding in 1984, spending more than 800 nights camped out adjacent to these glaciers. He is the United States representative to the World Glacier Monitoring Service. For 15 years he has been author of the blog “From a Glacier’s Perspective”, and associate editor for three science journals. He is on the Science Advisory Board for NASA’s Earth Observatory. His primary position is Associate Provost at Nichols College, where he has been a professor since 1989. He either runs on trails or skis on alpine and cross country trails every day.
Emmett Elsom (he/him) is an environmental science student at Western Washington University from Portland, Oregon. Growing up mountaineering and backpacking in the Cascade Range, he developed a love for the region and a fascination with the complexities of its ecosystems. In 2024 he had an opportunity to work In the field with the Oregon Glaciers Institute, assisting with SNOTEL data collection and fieldwork. This year, he is looking forward to broadening his understanding of the ecological role of glaciers and their melt across the Pacific Northwest, and the power of utilizing art in science.
Caitlin Quirk (she/her) is a Masters student of Environmental Humanities at the University of Utah. She writes essays and poetry about socio-environmental justice, land relations, and political ecologies of climate change. Before graduate school, Caitlin worked as a mountaineering instructor and environmental researcher. Through these roles, she formed deep relationships with glaciers throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Katie Hovind (she/her) is an environmental science student at Western Washington University. She feels a deep connection to the Cascade mountains and their watersheds from growing up in this region, and hopes to share their beauty and importance with others. She was a field assistant with NCGCP last year, and is excited to continue collaborating this year to explore ways science and art can evoke caring—for protection of natural spaces and response to the climate crisis. This season, she will help conduct a vegetational succession study at the Easton’s terminus to observe the changing alpine plant growth in the wake of a receding glacier.
Margaret Kingston: is an oil painter and art educator from Winthrop, Washington. Originally from New Hampshire, she moved 3000 miles with her husband Jonathan Baker to the Methow Valley after visiting the North Cascades National Park. Landscapes of the Pacific Northwest have been her inspiration for the past 13 years, captured first through a photo then realistically painted on canvas. As a backcountry skier, hiker, and biker she captures the energy of places these activities take you. With funding from the Mary Kiesau Fellowship Grant, Margaret will plein air paint on site in honor of her friend Mary Kiesau. Her observations during time spent with the North Cascade Glacier Climate Project will be shared through the resulting artwork and at a community event in the Methow Valley. Learn more about Margaret Kingston’s work at MkOilPaintings.com
Claire Sianna Seaman (she/her) is a painter, filmmaker, and printmaker from Leavenworth, WA. She holds a BA from Smith College in Studio Art, with a concentration in Climate Change. She is currently earning her MA in Human Geography at the University of British Columbia. Claire has been featured in the Wild and Scenic Film Festival Art Exhibition and received an Artist Trust GAP Award. She worked with scientists from the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group to create an art piece that imagined climate resiliency in the Pacific Northwest. This piece is currently part of the 5th National Climate Assessment Art x Climate Gallery on display at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C https://www.clairesianna.com/
2025 Schedule
July 28: Hike In Columbia.
July 29: Columbia Glacier survey
July 30: Hike Out Columbia/Hike in Lower Curtis
July 31: Lower Curtis Glacier Survey
Aug. 1: Hike out, Hike in Ptarmigan Ridge
Aug. 2: Sholes Glacier
Aug. 3: Rainbow Glacier
Aug. 4: Rainbow Glacier
Aug. 5: Hike out. Hike in Easton Glacier (Resupply in Bellingham WA)
Glaciers on the ridge from Moutn Shuksan to Mount Baker that we observed to be active in mid 1980s, identified in GLIMS map below. Above Sentinel image from 9-9-2023. Glaciers that are no longer glaciers in yellow, seven of them including Mount Ann=MA, Shuksan Arm=SA, Coleman Pinnacle East/West=CPW/CPE, Camp Kiser=CK, Table Mountain=TM and HBB=Happy Bunny Butte. We still monitor each year Lower Curtis, Rainbow and Sholes.
The two most prominent mountains of the North Cascades Mount Shuksan and Mount Baker are connected by a ridge from Shuksan Arm to Ptarmigan Ridge. We visited 12 glaciers along and close to this ridge in the mid-1980s, to decide which to monitor annually. At that time each of these had active crevasses and significant area of glacier ice. We By the end of 2023 seven of the twelve glaciers are gone. We continue to monitor Lower Curtis, Rainbow and Sholes Glacier in detail. Portals and Ptarmigan Ridge Glacier which we visit every year, but do not assess in detail, will likely disappear in the next few years. Below is the evolving area and the date the glacier was lost, the area reported in the 1958/84 period and 2015 are from GLIMS and the 2023 area we determined from Sentinel imagery.
Glacier
GLIMS ID
Year Lost
1958/84 Area
2015 Area
2023 Area
Camp Kiser
G238275E48809N
1993
0.22
0.03
0
Happy Bunny Butte
G238277E48834N
2005
0.166
0
0
Table Mountain
G238295E48850N
2015
0.158
0
0.008
Coleman Pinnacle
G238269E48826N
2018
0.56
0.031
0.018
Mount Ann
G238341E48818N
2022
0.12
0.07
0.01
Shuksan Arm
G238362E48838N
2023
0.16
0.07
0.03
1963 image of Ptarmigan Ridge sent to me by Austin Post.
Ptarmigan Ridge glaciers in 1993-all small but still all nearly joined.
In 2024 the lack of glacier ice or perennial snow along Ptarmigan Ridge is evident.
From a Glaciers Perspective 