Glaciers bucking the trend

[JoshK]

So obviously it is pretty well known fact that the glaciers are receeding as a whole. Recently I have become really hooked on terraserver and I've actually found a few places where glaciers appear to exist where they didn't on the older topo maps. Below is an example of the Basin just east of Sitting Bull Mountain, in the glacier peak wilderness. You obviously can't tell for sure, but that large snowpack sure lookes like firn to me. Whadda ya think?

 

NOTE: The topo is at a slightly smaller zoom than the aerial because the topo becomes ridiculously unreadable zoomed any further.

 

 

[catbirdseat]

Yep, it's glacier, but just because it wasn't drawn on the topo, doesn't mean it wasn't there when the topo was made.

[ashw_justin]

It's gotta be a secret base.

[iain]

It's gotta be a secret base.

 

yep, you dig down 10 feet there and you'll find an old mx missle silo.

 

1000 feet below that, Dick Cheney.

[AllYouCanEat]

...1000 feet below Dick Cheney is oil.

[JoshK]

...1000 feet below Dick Cheney is oil.

 

 

If it was there when the topo was drawn I would be surprised. Doesn't it seem like they get every other miniscule piece of ice on the topos? They seem pretty accurate in that regard.

[Fairweather]

Josh,

 

You might find this website interesting. Follow the links...The Whitechuck Glacier has lost an entire km square lobe! It is amazing to see how comparable glaciers with the same aspect, and in close proximity to one another spend their budgets.

 

As for your 'new glacier' theory, I would not be surprised if you're right. Just look at that little pocket glacier on Slesse that builds up for several years, and then slides/melts away in less than one season...only to rebuild again. That big winter we had in 99 will help pay off some mass/balance equations, but unfortunately the long term glacier-deficit overall continues unabated.

 

http://www.nichols.edu/departments/Glacier/survey.htm

even better....

http://www.nichols.edu/departments/Glacier/deathglacier.htm

 

Check out those pics of the Whitechuck!

 

 

...Meanwhile, a new glacier is forming inside the crater of St Helens!

Edited April 22, 2004 by Fairweather

[EWolfe]

It's gotta be a secret base.

 

All your base is ours

[Off_White]

I think it's interesting that the PCT is so obvious.

[ashw_justin]

ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!!!!

 

 

Jagasssssssssss!!!

[Blake]

I see you're checking out your ski trip terrain josh. Lowell Skoog did a series of pics along the PT that showed the 1950s era glaciers juxtaposed with the current sizes of today. Maybe someone has a link.

[ski_photomatt]

The Honeycomb is retreating fast too. The nunatak pictured in the Beckey guide and indicated on the quad isn't a nunatak any more. There's also a decent sized lake below the snout that isn't on the map either.

[ski_photomatt]

Those are some interesting links Fairweather. I hiked through this area with my girlfriend last summer, from the Napequa up the Honeycomb, down the White River glacier to the White Chuck glacier and to Red Pass. We camped on the very top of the Honeycomb and were treated to a spectacular northern lights display. One point of the White River gets squeezed next to some rocks as it goes over a small roll; we were forced to scramble along the rocks as the glacier got too broken to follow. In doing so, we were able to look into the crevasses from the side directly into the glacier, all the way down to the bed. The bottom of the White Chuck is super interesting, the glacier gradually fades into thiner and thiner ice, tiny slits covered with debres and melt water channels. We could hear all the melt water running under our feet, then plop, stepped off into thick mud that presumably had been ice only a few weeks prior. The outwash area is made up of tons of braided channels and new lakes. It's completely baren and devoid of any life.

[Lowell_Skoog]

I see you're checking out your ski trip terrain josh. Lowell Skoog did a series of pics along the PT that showed the 1950s era glaciers juxtaposed with the current sizes of today. Maybe someone has a link.

http://www.alpenglow.org/climbing/ptarmigan-1953/index.html

[JoshK]

Great links Fairweather. It's kind of hard to look at that stuff and not be sad

 

The White Chuck glacier is one I have noticed personally. Just as Matt mentioned, the entire bottom basin looks like the moon; totally barren. I made the mistake of trying to walk directly up to the glacier a few years ago. I got stuck in thigh deep mud, volcanic and obviously, as you said, covered by ice not too long before. Pretty gross. It was a rather sad looking area.

[MysticNacho]

Oh yes, but there is no such thing as global warming of course.