Videla Glacier, Chile is an outlet glacier of the Cordillera Darwin Icefield. The glacier has a number (Point 1-6) of terminus lobes where retreat has led to proglacial lake development between 1997 and 2025, as seen in these annotated Landsat images.
Videla Glacier is a land terminating glacier in the northwest portion of the Cordillera Darwin Icefield (CDI) in Tierra del Fuego, Chile. The glacier has terminates in several expanding proglacial lakes each in front of a different tongue of the glacier. The glacier flows northwest from Cerro Ambience towards Fiordo Profundo. Meier et al (2018) identified area change of Patagonia glaciers from 1870-2016 with a ~16% area loss of CDI, with more than half of the loss occurring since 1985. They also noted that CDI glaciers were retreating fastest between 1986 and 2005. Izagirre et al (2025) identified a 124% increase in glacier lake area from retreat between 1945 and 2024. The retreat has been largest on tidewater glaciers such as Marinelli Glacier and Ventisquero Grande Glacier.
In 1997 of Videla Glacier’s six main terminus lobes, five did not exhibit a proglacial lake, only the two northern most lobes (Point 4, 5, and 6) ending in a fringing yet to develop proglacial lake. The terminus lobes at Point 2 and 3 were joined. By 2019 lobes 1 and 4 had developed significant proglacial lakes, while the main terminus at Point 5 and 6 had opened up two halves of the same proglacial lake. The terminus lobes at Point 2 and 3 had separated. A rib (yellow arrow) was developing upglacier of the main terminus indicating thinning and reduced flow. A new lake had developed just downstream of this rib.
In 2025 the terminus at Point 1 had receded 950 m creating a 0.75 km2 proglacial lake. Terminus Lobe 2 and 3 had separated by 400 m. At Point 4 a 0.5 km2 proglacial lake had formed with the 1050 m retreat. The main terminus at Point 5 and 6 extends across the lake basin in a narrow 350 m wide tongue. The lake has grown to 3 km2, with 1.5 km of recession from Point 6 and 1.8 km from Point 5. This narrow tongue may well break off this coming summer.
Videla Glacier, Chile ongoing retreat and proglacial lake growth at terminus lobes (1-6) illustrated by Landsat images from 2019 and 2022.
HPS-12 Glacier in 1985 and 2017 Landsat images. The red arrow indicates 1985 terminus, yellow arrows the 2017 terminus, purple dots the snowline and 1-4 are tributaries. By 2017 all tributaries have detached and the glacier has retreated 13 km.
HPS-12 is an unnamed glacier draining the west side of the Southern Patagonia Ice Cap (SPI). The glacier terminates in a fjord and is adjacent to Upsala Glacier to the east and Pio IX Glacier to the north. This developing fjord is also unnamed but feeds into Estero Falcon. Here we update the 2017 NASA Earth Observatory project I completed in 2017, that identified this as the fastest retreating glacier in Chile in the 1985-2017 period, using Landsat imagery from 1985-2025.
HPS-12 Glacier in 2015 and 2025 Landsat images. The red arrow indicates 1985 terminus, yellow arrows the 2025 terminus, black arrow the 2015 terminus. Former tributary 1 and 2 have declined in width .
In 1985 the HPS-12 terminates 1.5 km from the junction of two fjords that are occupied by HPS-12 and HPS-13. These are separated by a peninsula. The glacier is fed by four tributaries labelled 1-4. The snowline in 1985 is at 900 m. In 2001 the four tributaries still join the main glacier, but the terminus has retreated 3.5 km. In 2015 glacier retreat has led to separation of tributary 1, 2 and 4 from the main glacier, tributary 3 only feeds tributary 2 and not the main glacier. The glacier retreat has continued to 2017, the current terminus is 800 m wide vesus 2800 m wide in 1985 . Total retreat from 1985 to 2017 was 13 km. By 2025 the glacier has retreated 14.75 km and has lost more than 50% of its total length. Tributary 1 and 2 continue to narrow from 2015 to 2025 illustrating that flow from the icefield accumulation zone is being reduced. This suggests less discharge into the terminus reach of HPS-12.
This glacier follows the pattern of retreat we have reported from Bernardo Glacier, O’Higgins Glacier, Tyndall Glacier and Upsala Glacier. The retreat is driven by the SPI have been experienced significant mass loss a. Malz et al (2018) noted a ~1 m/year mass loss from 2000-2016 with HPS-12 and Jorg Montt Glacier losing the most. Minowa et al (2021) found that 35% of all ablation of the Patagonia Icefields stemmed from frontal ablation.
HPS-12 Glacier in 2001 and 2015 Landsat images. The red arrow indicates 1985 terminus, yellow arrows the 2017 terminus, purple dots the snowline and 1-4 are tributaries. By 2015 tributaries 1, 2 and 4 have detached.
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.
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.
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)
A network of extensive rifts have developed since 2023, yellow arrows. The fringing proglacial lake has not expanded. Rifting indicates uplift from partially floating glacier area.
Ice flow in the region around the developing lake, which is near the boundary with Yakutat Glacier in Sentinel Image from June 20, 2025
Novatak Glacier is between the Yakutat and East Novatak Glacier in southeast Alaska. The glacier retreated 1 km from 1987-2023 (NASA EO, 2015). The majority of the accumulation zone of these three glaciers is below 1000 m, which has made them particularly vulnerable to the warming climate. The result has been expansion of the proglacial lake, Harlequin Lake, at Yakutat Glacier from 1984 to 2024 from 50 km2 to 108 km2 (Pelto & NASA EO, 2024). There was no lake in 1908.
Novatak Glacier has been slow to form a substantial terminus lake unlike its neighbors, possibly because it lacks a sufficient basin. This has limited the retreat of this glacier as it thins. The developing rifts does show a large lake will form, with an area of 10-12 km2 . This will isolate the terminus from the main inflow to Novatak’s terminus, which will hasten a rapid meltdown. The rifts represent places where water level change causes flexure of the glacier, leading to their formation and expansion. They are not related to flow, but to uplift and down fall of ice where it is somewhat afloat. Rapid meltwater inflow to this basin will raise water level further stressing this region this summer. The degree of rifting indicates the ice is thin, but none are open enough to see water. This suggests breakup will not happen this summer. This type of rifting in 2010 and 2015 led to further breakups at Yakutat Glacier.
June 20, 2025 rifting of Novatak Glacier.The rifts represent places where water level change causes flexure of the glacier, leading to their formation and expansion. They are not related to flow, but to uplift and down fall.
Berg Lake in 2002 and 2024 Lands at images. Red arrows illustrate 2002 margin, and yellow dots the 2024 margin after a retreat. Yellow arrows indicate the gorge that drained the lake periodically from the 1980s through 2013. Now it drains south sub-glacially into Pacman Lake and then into Bering Lake
Berg Lake is impounded by the Steller Glacier terminus. During the latter half of the 20th century and early 21st century this lake periodically drained west through a gorge to the Bering River. With retreat and thinning this outlet has been abandoned. Vegetation has regrown in portions of this channel area by 2024 illustrating this.
Berg lake and Steller Glacier terminus retreat from 2016 to 2018 in Landsat images exposing the former gorge exit, red arrow.
During the 1986-2022 period the full lake level declined, but the filled area of the lake remained close to 25 km2. The lake level decline led to abandonment of the gorge outlet and drainage south into Lake Ivanov (NWS, 2024). In 2019 this channel was also abandoned, and now the drainage goes directly from Pacman Lake into the Gandil River and then into the Bering River watershed (NWS, 2024). The rapid retreat of Steller Glacier terminus particularly on the western half of more than a kilometer from 2016 to 2018 has driven the continuation of outlet location shift. The speed of drainage from 2018-2021 caused significant flooding in the floodplain of the Bering and Gandil River, that has not been observed in 2022-2024.
Map of Berg Lake drainage path in 2024-yellow dots, false color Sentinel image.
The lake continues to fill each summer and drain in late summer, with drainage being in August of 2021 and 2022, and late July of 2023 and 2024 (NWS, 2024). It is evident that since the 2022 fill of 25 km2, that in 2023 and 2024 the lake did not completely fill before drainage, reducing flood hazards. The minimum lake size has declined as the water level has been reduced to 4 km2 by fall in 2022, 2023 and 2024. The lake depth is greatest in the glacier center, which drives greater calving and retreat. On May 19, 2025 filling is underway and the lake has an area of 6 km2.
Berg Lake in 2022 full in June and drained in October, false color Sentinel images.Berg Lake drained in September 2023, and filling in June 2024, false color Sentinel images.Berg Lake in fall 2024 drained and filling in May 2025, false color Sentinel images.
As April ends there is a sharp snowline ranging from 1200 m at Mount Baker to 1400 m at Cascade Pass. Above 1500 m the melt season is just getting started.
As the accumulation season comes to an end for North Cascade glaciers it is worth reviewing this winter and looking ahead with a forecast for glacier mass balance by the end of summer 2025. The winter of 2025 at NOAA’s Washington Cascade Mountain West Division 5 records indicate that this winter was below the declining trendline of total precipitation with a mean of 54.8 inches, down slightly from last year. Winter temperatures were again warm at 33.2o F but close to the expected rising trend line average.
The 1946 to 2025 winter (November-March) mean temperature and total precipitation for the Western Cascade Mountains-Division 5 weather stations.
The mean April 1 snow water equivalent (swe) at the six North Cascade Snotel sites with a consistent long term record was 0.72 m. This is below the declining trend line and 31% below the long term average for the 1946-2025 period. This is above the 2024 value, but in the lowest quintile. Mount Baker ski area has reported 585 inches of snowfall through April 21, which is ~30% percentile. April 1 swe is the key date for asssessment for winter snowpack water resources. For glaciers the accumulation season typically continues until the end or April or early May. This year snowpack depth at Mount Baker Ski Area (1280 m) increased from 148 inches on April 1 to 164 inches on April 9 and then declining to 119 inches by May 1 (80% of normal). A similar pattern was seen at Stevens Pass-Grace Lake station (1460 m) with snowpack depth on April 1 of 107 inches, increasing to 114 inches by April 9 and decreasing to 82 inches by May 1. These stations are several hundred meters below glacier elevations. At Lyman Lake Snotel (1800 m) snowpack SWE which most closely matches the glacier elevations was 40.1 inches rising to 42.5 inches by April 11 and declining to 35.9 inches by May 1, ~60% of normal. At the Middle Fork Nooksack site (1520 m) snowpack was 44.8 inches SWE on April 1, rising to 49 inches by April 11 and declining to 46 inches on May 1, 67% of normal . This illustrates that at glacier elevations snowpack would have also increased in mid-April, before a slow decline in the latter part of the month. There were a number of atmospheric rivers that drove a higher snowline than usual as May starts, but also led to a rapid increase in snowpack above the snowline.
The mean April 1 SWE from 1946-2025 at six long term SNOTEL stations: Stampede Pass, Fish Lake, Stevens Pass, Lyman Lake, Park Creek and Rainy Pass.
As the melt season begins, based on the above the winter snowpack on glaciers on May 1 are 70-80% of normal. Eric Gilbertson measured snowpack on the summit Colfax Peak at 17.3 ft (5.27 m) on April 18, 2025. This is a location that is to some extent wind scoured and would be less than the depth on the adjacent glacier, a normal year there is 8-9 m of snowpack at 2300-2800 m. On Eldorado Peak they found 25.3 feet on April 27, 2025. This is the depth expected for this location in a year with 75-80% of normal snowpack. It is a location that appears to balance enhanced deposition and scour. Weather conditions in the Pacific Northwest are forecast to have above average temperatures for the upcoming 90 day period. This combined with the below average snowpack on glaciers on May 1, will yield another year where ice thickness loss exceeds 1 m across the glaciers, as each of the last four years have. The average from 2014-2024 has been -1.41 m, which is a 1.5 thick slice of the glacier lost each year. The range expected this year is -1.2 m to -2.4 m. How much will depend on the specific weather and the frequency and intensity of heat waves.
Mean mass balance observed in the field annually by the North Cascade Glacier Climate Project.
From a Glaciers Perspective 