Traking Glacial Recession with Photography

[Steph_Abegg]

My parents hiked the Ptarmigan Traverse in 1979. I hiked it last week. It's been interesting to compare some of their old photos with mine to see how the glaciers have changed over the last 30 years. The glaciers are definely getting smaller!

 

Glacier above White Rock Lakes almost completely gone!

 

Le Conte Glacier shrinking...

 

Glacier recession around Dome Peak

 

Glacier on Formidable getting smaller. Anyone done one of the glacier routes listed in CAG? Looks a lot harder than it used to be!

 

 

Edited July 24, 2009 by Steph_Abegg

[needtoclimb]

Those are really cool shots. Thanks for posting

[off_the_hook]

Thanks for the photos. The recession over the past thirty years is significant and very sad, but even more alarming are the stark differences between 2003 and 2009, especially in terms of thickness. We've had a couple decent years for the glaciers recently in terms of winter snowpack and climatologically cool summers, but it seems as if the recession is accelerating notwithstanding.

[JayB]

Good photographic and scientific overview of glacial retreat in the North Cascades here:

 

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

[glassgowkiss]

I think even more dramatic pictures would be taken at the end of the third ice age