Tag: north cascade glacier retreat

North Cascade Glacier Climate Project 2025 Field Season Summary: Year 42

On By mspeltoIn climate change glacier retreat, glacier climate change, Glacier Observations, glaciers salmon, North Cascade Glaciers
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 Waichler
Image 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 Quirk
Columbia 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 us spending the night, and we had three generations of Pelto’s.

Signs of a Collapsing Glacier System: North Cascade Glacier Climate Project 2025

On By mspeltoIn North Cascade Glaciers
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.

2025 North Cascade Glacier Climate Project Field Plan-42nd Year.

On By mspeltoIn North Cascade Glaciers

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.

Jill’s 2025 Paintings inspired by our work about the Skykomish River Watershed and the Nooksack River Watershed.

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) 

Aug. 6:    Easton Glacier

Aug. 7:    Deming Glacier

Aug. 8:    Easton Glacier

Aug. 9:    Easton Glacier

Aug. 10:  Hike in Mount Daniels

Aug. 11:  Mount Daniels Survey

Aug. 12:  Ice Worm Glacier Survey-Exit

Assessing Crevasse Depth on Easton Glacier

North Cascade Glacier Accumulation Season 2025 and Forecast Outlook

On By mspeltoIn glacier climate change, Glacier Observations, North Cascade Glaciers
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.

Preservation Of North Cascade Glaciers

On By mspeltoIn climate change glacier retreat, glacier climate change

Recipe for Mountain Glacier Formation:

Recent glacier thinning due primarily to warm summers has exposed new bedrock knobs on upper portions of Deming, Easton and Squak Glacier on Mounty Baker, Washington

Find a location where temperatures are cold for at least 7 months of the year. This location also needs to have substantial snowfall and ideally where addtiional snow is added via avalanches or wind depostion. With these ingredients on hand, let stand for a few decades, while the snow accumulates to a thickness of at least 20 m. A key step in the recipe is the transformation of snow to ice under its own weight and with some meltwater percoloation and refreezing. Unlike bread dough you do not need stir or kneed during this period. Once there is a volume . For the glacier to persist the glacier must retain accumulation across a significant portion of its surface by the end of summer. To maintain its size we have observed this percentage to vary from 50-70% on North Cascade glaciers. The lack of a persistent accumulation zone will lead to loss of that glacier. of 500,000 m3 you are either a glacier or at the threshold of being a glacier depending on how steep the underlying slope is. Unlike rolling out a pie crust, this does not need to be an even thickness, or made on a flat surface. As the glacier matures it will develop crevasses indicating movement, which is an essential characteristic of a glacier. It is not a passive feature, its movement allows it to begin to sculpt its landscape.

Current Glacier Loss in North Cascade Range, Washington

Many centuries or millenia later, the glacier has become a critical part of the landscape. Yet, changing climate is leading to the loss of many. In the North Cascades glaciers have been losing close to 1% of their volume annually over the last 40 years, with the rate rising to over 2% in the last decade. The glaciers cover 200 km2 almost all of which are in steep high elevation Wilderness areas not proximate to roads. In 2010 we noted that 2/3 of North Cascade glaciers could not survive current climate. Today this percentage has increased to more than 90%. There are 31 glaciers in the range that I completed observations on in the 1980s that are now gone. Our annual field expedition has noted the glaciers losing ~1.5 m of thickness annually in the last decade.

Deglaciated area below Easton Glacier, Mount Baker, WA in 2023.

Are there any Preservatives we can add to the Recipe?

What would it take to preserve the Easton Glacier in the North Cascades? 

The largest snowmaking operation in North America is at Killington Ski Area, VT. At maximum capacity they can convert 35,000 m3 of water into snow per day. Given that Easton Glacier has an area of 2.5 km2 and has been losing 1.5 m water equivalent thickness per year, 3.75 million m3 of water equivalent snow has to be produced.This would take 108 days at maximum capacity of the more than 2000 snow guns. This ignores enviornmental laws and the logistics of water supply, piping, snow gun placement and electricity. This all in an environment of harsh weather with avalanches and crevasses.

Killington, Vermont snowmaking operation.

To cover the glacier with geotextiles during the summer, requires 2.5 million square meter of material that would be to installed each summer and removed each winter to allow accumulation, of course summer recreation would not be practical on the glacier. The geotextiles do not last long in these conditions and cost ~$2 per square meter. How to anchor these in place and connect on a crevasse glacier would be very difficult, which is why usually only a portion of the glacier near the terminus is covered, which does not help the overall situation of glacier loss.

Tarps at top of Gurschen Glacier, Switzerland, that reduce the melt locally note groomer for scale.

There are many more glaciers in this range and around the world where this same confounding logistical challenges make any artificial attempts at preservation ridiculous beyond a few isolated glaciers that are already close to existing infrastructure.

When I began this work in 1984 solar power and wind power did not exist, these are not the only renewable sources of power, and just one of many approaches to reducing CO2 emissions, but they are illustrative of rapid growth from insignificance. The Renewalbes 2014 Global Status Report and the Renewables 2024 Global Status Reports provides measures of renewaable energy production over the last decade. Global capacity for Solar Photovoltaic energy production has risen from 4 GW in 2004 to 190 GW in 2014 and then to 1600 GW in 2023. Global Capacity for Windpower has risen from 48 GW in 2004 to 370 GW in 2014 and in 2023 was 1020 GW. In 2023 alone over 500 GW was added to these two sources combined. See below for charts from this report on increased capacity. This is a preservative under development that can work with continued emphasis and in concert with other items such power grid infrastructure improvement and electric/hybrid automobile manufacturing expansion.

40th Field Season of North Cascade Glacier Climate Project Underway

On By mspeltoIn North Cascade Glaciers

Illustration by Megan Pelto of key numbers behind what it takes to undertake a 40 year field study on glaciers.

For the 40th consecutive summer the North Cascade Glacier Climate Project is heading into the field to measure and communicate the impact of climate change on North Cascade glaciers. This field season follows the 2021 and 2022 seasons that featured a historic heat wave and periods of extended warm weather. The heat led to a greater exposure of bare ice on glaciers, particularly at higher elevations. For ice surfaces with a higher albedo and greater density the observed melt rates are 7-9 cm per 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 two years of -2.5 m. Winter snowpack in the North Cascades in 2023 was 80-90% of normal on April 1 and May 1.

Science objectives: We will complete detailed measurements on 10 glaciers, three of which are part of the World Glacier Monitoring Service reference glacier network (42 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 2021 and 2022 summers and measure the response of glaciers to the weather of 2023 with detailed mass balance, crevasse depths and glacier surface elevation profiling.

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. Potential artists include painters, a podcast creator, a photographer, and a printmaker. We hope to use this art to share our research with a broader audience and highlight the beauty and importance of these places.

Communication Objectives: We are seeking expedition sponsors this year with brands who have a climate change focus. These organizations can help spread our message; we have two so far. We are looking to support the production of podcasts as well.

Terminus change at two World Glacier Monitoring Service reference glaciers. Columbia and Eastson Glacier. 

Field Team 2023:

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.

Painting by Jill Pelto that incorporates mass balance data from NCGCP from 1983-2022 along the top of the glacier.

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 a decade he has been author of the AGU 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 ski’s on trails alpine and cross country everyday.

Mauri Pelto looking at deglaciated envioronment below Easton Glacier

Mariama Dryak-Vallies (she/her) is the Director for the Polar Science Early Career Community Office (PSECCO) hosted by CIRES at University of Colorado Boulder. Mariama grew up on a farm in west-central Wisconsin before earning her B.A. in physical geography and archaeology at Durham University (UK)—where her passion for studying, researching, and teaching about glaciers, climate change, and the natural environment was born. She completed her M.S. in Earth and Climate Sciences at the University of Maine, studying Antarctic glaciology and ice-ocean interactions. During graduate school she was actively involved advocating for polar early career scientists as board member and co-chair of the US Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (USAPECS). Mariama is passionate about working towards building accessible Earth and polar sciences spaces for all.

2018 field team including Jill, Mauri, Mariama and Erin

Kaiyuan Wang (he/him) is a recent graduate from McGill University with a B.Sc in Honours Physical Geography, a minor in Geology. Originally from China, he developed an aspiration for Geoscience in the Great White North while living on the former bed of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. His passion for the cryosphere has led him to fieldwork on glaciers in the Kluane National Park in Yukon, Jasper National Park in Alberta, and a glaciological conference in Iceland. He will be doing his Ph.D. in Arctic Hydrology at the Northern Change Research Laboratory at Brown University. Kai is thrilled to be part of the 40-year-long effort of documenting glaciers as a living testimony to a warming world.

Shivaprakash Muruganandham (he/him) is currently a PhD candidate in Ocean Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA. He is back in school after a few years as a strategy consultant, during which time he specialized in satellites and space applications: earth observation and satellite communications in particular. Prior to this, he graduated with Master’s degrees in Space Technology and Cybernetic Systems/Control. Shiva is fascinated by ice, and his research focus on ice sheet/glacier modeling is motivated by his interests in the downstream impacts of cryosphere-climate interactions on coastal and mountain communities..

Field Partners 2023

Lizz Ultee (she/they) is an Assistant Professor of Earth & Climate Science at Middlebury College, Vermont.  They earned a B.Sc. in mathematical physics at Queen’s University (Canada) and a Ph.D. in climate science at the University of Michigan, specializing in mathematical methods to understand and predict glacier change.  Lizz finds ice endlessly inspiring.  Beyond inspiring, though, glaciers are important for downstream communities — motivating Lizz’s present research focus on glacier contributions to sea-level rise and water resource availability.

Alia Khan’s research team including grad students Sally Vaux, Colby Rand, and Anne Wilce focus on environmental chemistry in the cryosphere, including black carbon and snow algae to document global change of glacier and snow melt in mountainous and polar regions.Western Washington University Cryosphere Studies and Aquatic Biochemistry Lab.

Claire Giordano is an environmental artist, writer, and educator creatively telling the stories of science, climate change, and the modern experience of nature. From creating rain-dappled sketches in an old growth forest to filming a watercolor class beside a glacier, careful observation of nature inspires her goal is to connect people and place through art. In 2021 she founded the Adventure Art Academy – a series of virtual watercolor classes filmed outside – to invite others into the joy of painting outside.

Field study by Claire Giordano, artist in residence with the NCGCP for her 4th year. She creates these incredible pages with notes, paintings, and sketches from her days out exploring the landscape.

Kathleen Shannon is a freelance journalist & radio producer telling science and environmental justice stories across the West. She is based in Missoula and earned a master’s degree in Environmental Science and Natural Resource Journalism from the University of Montana in 2023. Her work has appeared on NPR, in High Country News and elsewhere.

Julia Ditto is a science illustrator from Anchorage, Alaska who specializes in environmental and ecological graphics. Julia spends much of her time recreating in the backcountry, which inspires much of her work. She has always used art as a tool for observing and communicating her experiences, both inand out of the field. She is currently attending CSU Monterey Bay’s Graduate Science Illustration Program.

Who are we? NCGCP was founded in 1983 to identify and communicate the response of North Cascade glaciers to regional climate change. NCGCP is a field project including scientists and artists that has a broad interdisciplinary scope and examines more glaciers than any other program in North America.  We do so cost effectively relying on no permanent camps or helicopter support. The field season includes no days off and each day is spent completing measurements on glaciers.  The focus is on glacier mapping, mass balance measurement, terminus observations, glacier runoff monitoring and capturing the environment with art.  

Why study glaciers in the North Cascades? Glaciers are one of the world’s best climate monitors and are a critical water resource to many populated glaciated regions. This is particularly true in the North Cascades where 700 glaciers yield 200 billion gallons of summer runoff and glaciers have lost 30 % of their area in the last century. This has reduced glacier runoff in late summer in the region as the reduction in glacier area has exceeded the increase in melt rate. During heat waves this role is even more profound with the glacier fed North Fork Nooksack River discharge rising ~24% due to greater melt, while unglaciated South Fork Nooksack River discharge declines by ~20%. The increased discharge limits the rise in river temperature during heat waves to 0.7 C in the North Fork, with the South Fork increasing by 2 C, increasing stress on the salmon in the South Fork (Pelto et al., 2022).

Retreat of Mount Baker glaciers documented by our program

The mass balance record we have compiled since 1984

Summer temperature records from NOAA WA Division 5

Winter Snowpack from North Cascade long term Snotel stations on April 1

NORTH CASCADE GLACIER CLIMATE PROJECT 2020-37th Annual Field Program

On By mspeltoIn glacier climate change, North Cascade Glaciers2 Comments

Field season images from 2019 indicating crevasse stratigraphy, annotated by Clara Deck.

Director: Mauri S. Pelto, mspelto@nichols.edu-Nichols College

Field Artist & Scientist: Jill Pelto, pelto.jill@gmail.com

Who we are? NCGCP was founded in 1983 to identify the response of North Cascade glaciers to regional climate change, particularly changes in mass balance, glacier runoff and terminus behavior.   NCGCP is a field project that has a broader interdisciplinary scope and examines more glaciers than any other program in North America.  It does so cost effectively relying on no permanent camps, helicopter support or salaries for the director. The field season includes no days off and each day is spent completing measurements on glaciers.  The focus is on glacier mapping, mass balance measurement, terminus observations and glacier runoff monitoring.  This program monitors two of the World Glacier Monitoring Service’s reference glaciers. There are ~45 such glaciers in the world with 30 years of continuous measurements. We complete mass balance and terminus observations on Columbia, Daniels, Easton, Ice Worm, Lower Curtis, Lynch, Rainbow and Sholes Glacier with runoff measurements below Sholes and Ice Worm.

Why study glaciers in the North Cascades? Glaciers are one of the world’s best climate monitors and are a critical water resource to many populated glaciated regions. This is particularly true in the North Cascades where 700 glaciers yield 200 billion gallons of summer runoff and glaciers have lost 30 % of their area in the last century.

Field Team 2020:

Jill Pelto 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, as earlier in July was illustrated on the cover of TIME. She completed both her B.A. degrees in Studio Art and Earth and Climate Sciences 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 12th 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 has directed the project since its founding in 1984, spending more than 700 nights camped out adjacent to these glaciers. He is the United States representative to the World Glacier Monitoring Service, author of the AGU blog “From a Glacier’s Perspective”, and on the Science Advisory Board for NASA’s Earth Observatory.  His primary job is Dean of Academic Affairs at Nichols College, where he has been a professor since 1989.

Cal Waichler is an environmental science major at Colby College in Maine and is from Winthrop, WA. She looks to bridge the gap between science and the public by creating impactful, accurate climate art and storytelling. This summer’s research goal is to generate building blocks to contextualize her work within two fields: glacier science and climate communication.

Mariama Dryak (she/her) is an earth scientist, science communicator/writer and an advocate for action on creating solutions to the global climate crisis. Mariama is the creator and editor of an environmental advocacy blog Let’s Do Something BIG. and the ‘we persist.’ podcast, which shares the stories of underrepresented people in the earth, ocean and environmental sciences. Mariama received her Master’s from the University of Maine in 2019 in Earth and Climate Science, during which she drew connections between inferred ocean conditions and glacier change along the Antarctic Peninsula. Mariama can most often be found chatting science, going on adventures or getting muddy whilst doing something outdoors.

Columbia Glacier terminus with the 2018 field team.

 Field Partners 2020

Victoria Jarvis and Michelle Tanz are Wilderness Stewardship Fellows who will be gathering information about the Henry M Jackson Wilderness including the glacier. They are looking to understand the Columbia Glacier and our research within the scope of the 5 qualities of wilderness character (untrammeled, undeveloped, natural, solitude and primitive rec, other). They will then be able to incorporate our long-term monitoring efforts into their wilderness character narrative– a synthesized agency document providing insight about the wilderness.

Alia Khan, Western Washington University Cryosphere Studies and Aquatic Biochemistry Lab:

The research team including grad students Molly Peek and Shannon Healy focus on environmental chemistry in the cryosphere, including black carbon and snow algae to document global change of glacier and snow melt in mountainous and polar regions.

Tom Hammond, North Cascade Conservation Council,Will be joining us for the 17th year leveraging his experience with our for understanding the ongoing impact of climate change and our stewardship on the region.

Nooksack Indian Tribe, for the 9th consecutive year we will be conducting field work aimed at providing field validation and streamflow calibration data below Sholes Glacier for the ongoing work of the tribe.

Measuring flow below Sholes Glacier

North Cascade Glacier Climate Project 2019, 36th Annual Assessment

On By mspeltoIn North Cascade Glaciers



The summer of 2019 found the North Cascade Glacier Climate Project in the field for the 36th consecutive summer monitoring the response of North Cascade glaciers to climate change.  This long term monitoring program was initiated partly in response to a challenge in 1983 from Stephen Schneider to begin monitoring glacier systems before and as climate change became a dominant variable in their behavior.

The field team was comprised of Clara Deck, Ann Hill, Abby Hudak, Jill Pelto and myself.  All of us have worked on other glaciers. The bottom line for 2019 is the shocking loss of glacier volume. Ann Hill, UMaine grad student observed, that “Despite having experience studying glaciers in southeast Alaska and in Svalbard, I was shocked by the amount of thinning each glacier has endured through the last two and a half decades.”  Glaciers are typically noted as powerful moving inexorably.  Clara Deck, UMaine MS graduate, was struck by “the beauty and fragility of the alpine environment and glaciers.”  Fragile indeed in the face of climate change. Abby Hudak, Washington State grad student, looked at both the glacier and biologic communities as under stress, but glaciers cannot migrate, adapt or alter there DNA.

Over the span of 16 days in the field, every night spent in the backcountry adjacent to a glacier, we examined 10 glaciers in detail. All glaciers are accessed by backpacking.  The measurements completed add to the now 36 year long data base, that indicate a ~30% volume loss of these glaciers during that period (Pelto, 2018). Here we review preliminary results from each glacier. Each glacier will have a mass balance loss of  1.5 -2.25 m, which drives continued retreat.  Columbia and Rainbow Glacier are reference glaciers for the World Glacier Monitoring Service, with Easton Glacier joining the ranks later this year. Below and above is the visual summary. Specific mass balance and retreat data will be published here and with WGMS after October 1.

Easton Glacier, Mount Baker.  Terminus has become thin and uncrevassed as a rapid retreat of 15 m per year continued, 405 m retreat since 1990.

Easton Glacier icefall at 2200 m typically has 1.8 m w.e. at the end of the summer, this year it will be 0 m. The overall mass balance will be ~2 m of loss.

Deming Glacier, Mount Baker has now receded over 700 m since our first visit 35 years ago.

On Lower Curtis Glacier a key accumulation source the NE couloir now shows bedrock. Overall by summers end ~25% of the glacier will retain snowcover, far short of what is needed to maintain its volume.

The Lower Curtis Glacier terminus continues to retreat at 8 m/year, but thinning and slope reduction has been more notable.  

In early August the majority of Sholes Glacier has lost its snowpack.  The thin nature of the terminus indicates the glacier is poised for continued rapid retreat that has exceeded 15 m per year during the last 7 years.

Runoff assessment confirmed ablation stake measurement of 11 cm of ablation/day from 8/6-8/8 on Sholes Glacier.

High on Rainbow Glacier there are still plenty of regions lacking snowcover, instead of a thick mantle of snowpack.

Rainbow Glacier was awash in meltwater streams, see video.  This area should have 1 m of snowpack left. Rainbow Glacier has retreated 650 m since 1984.

Just getting to each glacier does involve overcoming various miseries.

A transect across lower Coleman Glacier, Mount Baker indicates 38 m of thinning since 1988.

Limited snowpack remaining on Columbia Glacier, with six weeks of melt left. Lake in foreground expanded dramatically in last two years.  Retreat ~45 m from 2017-2019 and 210 m from 1984-2019, more than 10% of its length.

Upper basin of Columbia Glacier mainly bare of retained snowpack.

Ice Worm Glacier terminates in expanding lake.

Ice Worm Glacier continues to retreat at the top and bottom of the glacier.  Mass loss is leading to a more concave shape each year.

Daniels Glacier had a maximum snowpack of 1.75 m, instead of 4 m.

Foss Glacier measurements discontinued as it disintegrates, only 20% snowcover in mid-August.

Lynch Glacier less than 50% snowcovered with six weeks of melt left.

 

The team which completed over 1200 mass balance measurements, 40,000 vertical feet and 110 miles of travel across glacier clad mountains.

 

35th Annual Field Observations of North Cascade Glaciers

On By mspeltoIn glacier climate change, Glacier Observations, North Cascade Glaciers1 Comment

The 2018 field season observations, conditions and summary. Field team Mariama Dryak, Erin McConnell, Jill Pelto and Mauri Pelto.

For the 35th consecutive year I headed to the North Cascade Range, Washington to monitor the response of glaciers to climate change.  Two of the glaciers the North Cascade Glacier Climate Project (NCGCP) monitors are now part of the 42 glaciers comprising the World Glacier Monitoring Service  (WGMS) reference glacier network, where annual mass balance has been assessed for more than 30 years consecutively.

The 2018 winter season featured relatively normal snowpack despite a winter of wide temperature fluctuations, February freezing levels 400 m below the mean and December 500 m above the mean. Summer melt conditions featured temperatures 1.1 C above the 1984-2017 mean. The summer melt season through August was warm and exceptionally dry, which has also helped foster forest fires. The melt rate during the August field season was 35% above normal.

Washington Climate Division Five, western North Cascades

We assessed the mass balance of eight glaciers.  All eight will have significant negative mass balances in 2018, between -0.5 m and -1.0 m.  Retreat was measured on seven of the glaciers where the terminus was exposed, all had retreated since 2017 with the retreat ranging from 7-21 m. This continues the pattern of significant retreat each year that began in 2014. The overall length loss as a percentage of total length falls into a relatively narrow range of 10-22%.  The mass balance losses has also led to additional rock outcrops emerging in what had been the elevation of the accumulation zone.  We continued to measure runoff below Sholes Glacier and to assess crevasse depth.  The average crevasse depth in 2018 was 10 m, with the deepest at 16 m on Lower Curtis Glacier.

Annual  mass balance of North Cascade glaciers 1984-2018 (right).  Cumulative glacier mass balance from NCGCP compared to WGMS global cumulative mass balance.  Below is the retreat of selected North Cascade glaciers during the last 35 years, in meters and as a percentage of the total length.  Locations for all but Columbia Glacier are in image below. 

Mount Baker and Mount Shuskan glaciers identified in a Landsat image from 8-9-2018. Blue indicates mass balance and terminus change are observed.  Orange indicates only terminus change is observed. C=Coleman, D=Deming, E=Easton, LC=Lower Curtis, M=Mazama, N=Nooksack, P=Price, R=Rainbow, Rv=Roosevelt, SH=Sholes. 

34th Annual, 2017 North Cascade Glacier Climate Project Field Season

On By mspeltoIn North Cascade Glaciers1 Comment

2017 Field Season Video

For the thirty fourth consecutive summer we headed into the field to monitor the continued response of North Cascade glaciers to climate change.  In 1984 when I began this program we selected 10 key glaciers to monitor.  Two of these have now disappeared.  All the glaciers have retreated extensively and lost considerable volume.  The mass balance loss is 19 m of water equivalent thickness, which is over 20 m of ice thickness loss on glaciers that averaged less than 75 m thick. This is significant with 25-30% of their entire volume lost. This project continues to monitor glacier loss and the runoff they provide.  We also complete an annual inventory of ice worms on Sholes Glacier and mountain goats on Ptarmigan Ridge region.  In 2017 our key project was a continue partnership with the Nooksack Indian Tribe monitoring glacier melt and runoff in the North Fork Nooksack River basin.  We have not yet had the chance to determine the daily glacier discharge and the resultant contribution to the North Fork Nooksack River. The dry conditions of August certainly will lead to many days with  more than 40% of the flow coming from glacier melt as was the case in 2015. 

The snowpack on April 1st snowpack was 110% of normal, by June 1st, the snowpack was trending down steeply, but
remained well above the last four years and similar to 2012. Summer turned out to be the driest on record in Seattle and

June 1 snowpack comparison

tied for the warmest for the June 21-Sept. 22nd period (KOMONews).  In the mountains the overall melt season temperatures for May 1 through Sept. 30th was 0.15 C cooler than 2015 values, due to a cooler spring.  The most striking feature of the field season was the forest fire smoke largely from British Columbia that obscured views most days. 

Of the glaciers observed one had a significant positive balance, one a slight positive balance-essentially equilibrium and seven had negative mass balances.  The two glaciers with the most positive balance were the Sholes and Rainbow Glacier, adjacent glacier on the north side of Mount Baker.  The nearby Mount Baker ski area reported 860 inches of snow in 2017, significantly above average.  Compared to other locations in the range this winter snowfall was a positive anomaly, that also was observed on the nearby glaciers. The snow water equivalent in multiple crevasses on Rainbow Glacier at 2000 m in early August was 3.8-4.1 m.  On both Easton and Rainbow Glacier the mass balance gradient was steeper than usual.  On Rainbow Glacier the mass balance was -3 m at 1500 m, 0 at 1700 m and +2.5 m at 200 m as summer ended. We also observed terminus retreat on every glacier.   Retreat averaged 12 m in 2017, lower than in 2015 or 2016.  More striking than retreat in some cases is thinning that reduces slope and frontal thickness.  On Lower Curtis Glacier the terminus seracs are 15 m shorter than two years ago.  On Columbia Glacier the lowest 200 m of the glacier has a slope that has declined by 5 degrees in the last three years and the glacier terminus has retreated 60 m in two years. 

 

 

34th Annual Field Program NORTH CASCADE GLACIER CLIMATE PROJECT 2017

On By mspeltoIn North Cascade Glaciers

 

2016 Field Season Video

NORTH CASCADE GLACIER CLIMATE PROJECT 2017

For the thirty fourth consecutive summer it is time to head into the field to monitor the continued response of North Cascade glaciers to climate change.  In 1984 when I began this program we selected 10 key glaciers to monitor.  Two of these have now disappeared.  All the glaciers have retreated extensively and lost considerable volume.  The mass balance loss is 19 m of water equivalent thickness, which is over 20 m of ice thickness loss on glaciers that averaged less than 75 m thick. This is significant with 25-30% of their entire volume lost. This project looks at the implications of the glacier loss as we complete an annual inventory of ice worms on Sholes Glacier, mountain goats on Ptarmigan Ridge region and monitor runoff all summer below Sholes Glacier with the Nooksack Indian tribe. 

Illustration of research (Megan Pelto and Jill Pelto)

The result of volume loss and area loss is that despite higher melt rates, the reduction in area of melting glaciers has led to a decline in glacier runoff in the region. The reduced runoff effects salmon, hydropower and irrigation. Details of the runoff impacts are detailed in a Book “Climate Driven Retreat of Mount Baker Glaciers and Glacier Runoff and summarized in Salmon Challenges from the Glaciers to the Salish Sea.

The focus will be on mass balance observations, longitudinal profiles and terminus observations. For Mount Baker, Washington the winter freezing level was much lower than the previous two winters, and was 100 m below the long term mean. The snowpack on April 1st snowpack was 110% of normal, by June 10th, the snowpack is trending down steeply, but remained just above average.  Since then a persistent dry period and the impending heat wave that begins today, Aug. 1 has led to rapid snow loss.  The most recent  comparable year is 2009, which featured a good winter snowpack and very warm mid to late summer conditions. We will first travel north to Mount Baker and the Easton Glacier.    Of the 40 glacier in the World Glacier Monitoring Service Reference glacier list we have two Columbia and Rainbow, as soon as Easton Glacier has 30 years, the minimum requirement it will be added, that is in 2019. The field team consists of Mauri Pelto, 34th year, Jill Pelto, UMaine for the 9th year, Anthony Himmelberger, Clark University 1st year.  Tom Hammond, 14th year will join us for a selected period as will Pete Durr, Mt. Baker Ski Area, 2nd year.   We will report on our findings in a month. Field photos will be posted periodically on Twitter.

Measuring terminus change and snowpack thickness in 2016

Aug.   2:  Hike into Easton Glacier
Aug.   3:  Easton Glacier
Aug.   4:  Easton Glacier
Aug.   5:  Hike Out Easton Glacier, Hike in Ptarmigan Ridge
Aug.   6:  Sholes Glacier
Aug.   7:  Rainbow Glacier
Aug.   8:  Sholes Glacier
Aug.   9:  Hike out and into Lower Curtis Glacier
Aug. 10:  Lower Curtis Glacier
Aug. 11: Hike out Lower Curtis Glacier- Hike in Blanca Lake
Aug. 12:  Columbia Glacier
Aug. 13:  Columbia Glacier
Aug. 14:  Hike out Columbia Glacier; Hike in Mount Daniels
Aug. 15:  Ice Worm Glacier
Aug. 16:  Daniels and Lynch Glacier
Aug. 17:  Ice Worm Glacier, Hike out Mount Daniels-Hike out-

2016 Field Season Results-North Cascade Glacier Climate Project

On By mspeltoIn climate change glacier retreat, Glacier Observations, glaciers salmon

For Mount Baker, Washington the freezing level from January-April 20 was not as high as the record from 2015, but still was 400 m above the long term mean. April 1 snowpack at the key long term sites in the North Cascades was 8% above average. A warm spring altered this, with April being the warmest on record. The three-four weeks ahead of normal on June 10th, but three weeks behind 2015 record melt.  The year was poised to be better than last year, but still bad for the glaciers.  Fortunately summer turned out to be cooler, and ablation lagged.  Average June-August temperatures were 0.5 F above the 1984-2016 mean and 3 F below the 2015 mean. The end result of our 33rd annual field season assessing glacier mass balance in the North Cascades quantifies this. Our Nooksack Indian Tribe partners again installed a weather and stream discharge station below Sholes Glacier.

The primary field team consisted of myself, 33rd year, Jill Pelto, grad student UMaine for the 8th year, Megan Pelto, Chicago based illustrator 2nd year, and Andrew Hollyday, Middlebury College.  We were joined by Tom Hammond, NCCC President 13th year, Pete Durr, Mount Baker Ski Patrol, Taryn Black, UW grad student and Oliver Grah Nooksack Indian Tribe.  The weather during the field season Aug. 1-17th was comparatively cool.

Mass Balance: Easton Glacier provides the greatest elevation range of observations.  On Aug 2, 2016 the mean snow depth ranged from 0.75 m w.e. at 1800 m to 1.5 m w.e. at 2200 m and 3.0 m w.e. at 2500 m. Typically the gradient of snowpack increase is less than this.  There was a sharp rise in accumulation above 2300 m.  This is the result of the high freezing levels.  The mass balances observed fit the pattern of a warm but wet winter.  The high freezing levels left the lowest elevation glaciers Lower Curtis and Columbia Glacier with the most negative mass balance of approximately 1.5 m. The other six glaciers had negative balances of -0.6 to -1.2 m. This following on the losses of the last three years has left the glaciers with a net thinning of 6 m, which on glaciers averaging close to 50 m is a 12% volume loss in four years.  We anticipate with that this winter will be cooler and next summer the glaciers happier.  We will back to determine this.

Snowpack loss from Aug. 5-Sept. 22 is evident in the pictures below on Sholes Glacier.  Detailed snow depth probing, 112 measurements, of the glacier on August 5th allows determination of ablation as the transient snow line traverses probing locations from Aug. 5. GPS locations were recorded along the edge of blue ice on each of the dates. Ablation during this period was 2.15 m.

 

Terminus Change: We measured terminus change at several glaciers and found that a combination of the 2015 record mass balance loss and early loss of snowcover from glacier snouts in 2016 led to considerable retreat since August 2015.  The retreat was 25 m on Easton Glacier, 20 m on Columbia Glacier, 20 m on Daniels Glacier, Sholes Glacier 28 m, Rainbow Glacier 15 m, Lower Curtis Glacier 15 m.  The main change at Lower Curtis Glacier was the vertical thinning, in 2014 the terminus was 41 m high, in 2016 the terminus seracs were 27 m high.  The area loss of the glaciers will continue to lead to reduced glacier runoff. We continued to monitor daily flow below Sholes Glacier which allowed us to determine that in August 2016 45% of the flow of North Fork Nooksack River came from glacier runoff.  This is turns has impacts for the late summer and fall salmon runs.