Historic Photos of Mount Rainier

[JayB]

There was a great thread a while back in which someone (Lowell Skoog?) posted photos of some prominent peaks in the North Cascades taken decades ago, along with recent shots taken from the same Vantage Point.

 

I've heard quite a bit about the extent to which the glaciers have retreated over the course of the 20th century, and it would be quite interesting to see old panoramic photos from the old days in order to see just how dramatic the change has been. It'd also be cool to see climbing photos or any other photos from way back when.

 

If I recall correctly, I remember hearing something about either Stevens or Van Trump climbing Mt. Rainier 30 years after their first ascent, and commenting that in that time the Nisqually glacier had retreated by something like a mile. That seems impossible, but the retreat must have been considerable. Anyone know more about? How far out are the ancient moraines?

[JayB]

Good resource for old glacier photos...

 

http://nsidc.org/cgi-bin/gpd_run_search.pl

[Jim]

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

[JayB]

Nisqually Glacier Photo Assault. The photo series spans the time period from 1904-1969. All photos from:

"American Geographical Society/World Data Center-A for Glaciology

Photograph held by the National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology, Boulder."

 

1904

1912

1929

1931

1942

1955

1964

1969

 

From the last photo it looks as though the maximum advance was somewhere in the vicinity of the modern roadway. Anyone care to speculate where the 1904 terminus lies in the last photo?

[JayB]

Now that I've had a chance to look at the photos in a sequence, I think that you can use the rocky protrusion that I've circled in this photo as a common point of reference in all of these photos.

 

[JayB]

[Lowell_Skoog]

Here are some notes from "Wonderland: An Administrative History of Mt Rainier National Park:

 

http://www.alpenglow.org/ski-history/notes/book/catton-1996.html#catton-1996-p117

 

The road to Paradise was surveyed in 1903 and built between 1904 and 1910. In 1907, the road was completed from the park entrance to Longmire Springs, and the first automobiles were permitted in the park. In 1908, the road was opened to Nisqually Glacier--the first road in the U.S., it was said, to reach a glacier. In 1909, it was completed to within a few miles of Paradise Park, and in 1910 the last stretch above Narada Falls was built. President Taft received the honor of being pulled to the top in a horse-drawn automobile in October 1911. A car reached Paradise under its own power in 1912, but the road was so narrow above Narada Falls that it was not opened to cars generally until 1915.

I think the Nisqually bridge has remained in roughly the same place since it was built. So in 100 years you can see how much the snout has melted back.

[dmuja]

couple good links on a sad subject

 

 

http://www.nichols.edu/departments/glacier/intro.htm

 

http://www.nichols.edu/departments/glacier/north%20cascade%20glacier%20retreat.htm

 

The planets getting hotter, the glaciers will melt (sooner than most believe) and despite what some ill informed or ill intended people claim, human activity is greatly contributing to it.

[JayB]

Quite the dramatic retreat of the Whitechuck Glacier in the second link.