Melting Ice

[i_like_sun]

Does anyone know just how fast Washington's glacier's are melting? I know the Nisqualy is undergoing measurable retreat every year, but whats interesting is that when I spoke with a park ranger on Rainier a while back he said that glaciers on the other side have actually showed advancement (ie. the Emmons).

 

On Mt. Baker I've seen changes in my own life, but I'm just curious if there is anyone on here that knows about any current research.

[lizard_brain]

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/pubs/0711016.pdf

[Fairweather]

Does anyone know just how fast Washington's glacier's are melting? I know the Nisqualy is undergoing measurable retreat every year, but whats interesting is that when I spoke with a park ranger on Rainier a while back he said that glaciers on the other side have actually showed advancement (ie. the Emmons).

 

On Mt. Baker I've seen changes in my own life, but I'm just curious if there is anyone on here that knows about any current research.

 

Why bother asking? If the answers you receive don't fit your world-view you'll likely just go on spouting the same old regurgitated crap anyway.

[i_like_sun]

There is nothing regurgitated about this, dickbreath.

 

This stuff is important.

[olyclimber]

[Fairweather]

N a t u r a l C y c l e.

 

...but if you saw it on Reuters it must be true.!

[sirwoofalot]

I heard, with out any scientific data to back it up, that at least one glacier in Alaska is expanding. I can't remember where it was, or its name. Maybe the Stekien in S.E. AK?

 

 

[sirwoofalot]

N a t u r a l C y c l e.

 

...but if you saw it on Reuters it must be true.!

 

in 1979 we have the worlds first "Global Summit" to talk about enviromental issues. And do you know, or remember the main topic?

Yes, it was Global COOLING!

 

I vote for Natural Cycle. Oh, unless of course the other has political implications that support my choice of political party....

[i_like_sun]

Amazing...

 

For me, losing glaciers is such a sad thing. Can you guys just imagine what it would be like to climb mt. rainier on nothing but patchy snow and rubble? Its pretty hard to say that that is exactly whats in store, but just the fantasy is terrifying.

[Fairweather]

True. Glaciers bring mountains to life, IMO. And it is sad. But I would just as soon blame soot/dust, solar output, or planetary cycle for their retreat. Regardless, they'll be back. Probably won't even disappear completely.

[i_like_sun]

Also true, and also probably not in our lifetimes. Well, I suppose Rainier could blow up in our life times....... and also Baker, Adams, Hood, etc. for that matter. Then the ice would be gone in a hurry.

 

I think we will see many north cascade glaciers gone completely in this century though.

[olyclimber]

scientist, shmientist

[wayne]

Its not my fault! I blame everything but me. Arrogant Fuck!

[AlpineK]

I'm sure there will be some glaciers that continue to expand for a long time into the future, but the real trend is towards the majority of glaciers retracting.

 

Human caused global warming is fairly well accepted among scientists but I know there are a lot of disbelievers out there. You could look at the whole thing from a different viewpoint. We're also sending a lot of our hard earned money off to the Middle East to pay for oil when we should be spending our money here in the US to come up with home grown solutions.

 

I remember a time in the 60s just outside of Seattle when you could count on sledding every winter for days in a row just outside the house.

[ivan]

i think the beckey guide mentions the emmons is surging currently b/c of a massive rockslide off of little tahoma a couple of decades ago covering and insulating the lower glacier against the nasty heat

 

the positive side to global warming - no more florida! too bad it couldn't have happened a little faster, say before 2000?

[W]

What's most unfortunate is how this issue has become hopelessly politicized by both sides. There was a time when someone's credentials meant something and experts were taken seriously. Now thanks to meddling by politicians, pundits, activists, and special interests, no one is respected or taken seriously regardless of their expertise. We're just left with a bunch of blowhards with political agendas pointing to isolated weather events as "proof" that global warming is/is not real. We've reduced this to a high school level debate over pollution limits versus the rights of industry to maintain profits. Are these mutually exclusive?

 

BTW, the Emmons, and I believe, the Carbon, are both advancing last I heard. It's believed that the cause is indeed the rock debris insulating the glacier.

[whirlwind]

the earth will survive and regrow, thats not the issue. even if it is a natural cycle (which is a load of crap thats is partailly true but the same as looking at a tree growing and saying it will produce more trees naturaly, then some people come in and plant a bunch of trees, and you say see, its all apart of the natural process.) , it is our best intrest to slow the process as much as posible. because humans may very well be one of the extinct species before the "natural cycle" runs its cource.

[i_like_sun]

"i think the beckey guide mentions the emmons is surging currently b/c of a massive rockslide off of little tahoma a couple of decades ago covering and insulating the lower glacier against the nasty heat"

 

 

I remember reading about this a few years ago. Also, whats interesting is how much volcanic debris is packed into the lower Emmons. Seriously, when I was a kid and hiked up to the mouth of the glacier for the first time, it took me about half an hour to even realized that I was looking at a massive body of ice. To the uniformed eye, it just looks like giant piles of rock. I'm sure that this factor may be a contribution the the Emmons glacier surving at lower elevations for so long.

 

Freaking interesting.

[kevino]

I heard, with out any scientific data to back it up, that at least one glacier in Alaska is expanding. I can't remember where it was, or its name. Maybe the Stekien in S.E. AK?

 

I think I remember reading that in the current issue of Climbing magazine...

[treknclime]

It's my guess that the "Crater Glacier" on Mt. St. Helen's is one of the fastest growing glaciers around. Was non-existent after the eruption, and is now like 400 feet thick, and the arms that extend around the dome...have just about completely encircled it in a layer of ice.

 

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/93350.html

 

As a postnote: There were a number of people involved in the naming of the new glacier, and most favored more native terms, versus descriptive ones, such as "Crater Glacier." My favorites were Loowit (as the natives once called St. Helens), or better yet, Austen Post and I favored the name, "cheechako," meaning "greenhorn." The problem with cheechako was...it used to also be used as a derogatory term, when one wanted to put down a new comer (usually associated with mining for gold, during the gold rush years in Alaska. I think, like Loowit, cheechako are from the Chinook family of languages). There used to be the "cheechako bar" in the Anchorage Airport. I didn't look for it when I was there last winter, so maybe it's still around? More trivia about cheechako...Robert Service used it in a title of one of his poems, Ballad of the cheechako," or something like that.

Edited August 5, 2007 by treknclime

[i_like_sun]

That was a really interesting article!

[KaskadskyjKozak]

I saw some melting ice today. :-P

[TREETOAD]

Talaskers glacier?

[Couloir]

Prolly in his glass of scotch.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Talaskers glacier?

 

Coleman terminus!

 

No scotch yet this weekend... beer though...