Mauri Pelto

Nichols College, Dudley, MA 01571

Glacier Golf with Bill Prater below Cathedral Rock

The reports were early and frequent last winter of, “deep snow extending to unusually low elevations”. “The most snow since the mid-1970’s.” I was happy for the glaciers, and envious, since Massachusetts could only boast, thick lake ice with no snow during a nearly snowless winter. The US Department of Agriculture maintains a web site (www.nrcs.usda.gov/data/snow/) that reports weekly and daily snowpack conditions throughout the west. I was able to follow the snow depths of the past winter and compare them to other winters using this data. Table 1 compares snow depths at three sites during the last 14 years, only 1991 compared to 1997. My main concerns, gleaned from 1991, how terrible would the bugs be and how many measurements could I complete?

Upon arrival July 29, Kate Johnson (U. Puget Sound), Seth Lemke (Michigan Tech U.) and I headed to Artists Point, Mt. Baker. The road ended at Heather Meadows. From there it was an all snow hike to Artists Point. The descent from the normal parking area to the Ptarmigan Ridge trail was quite difficult. Hiking out the always popular Ptarmigan Ridge trail on a beautiful evening, we not only saw no one, but there were no tracks. The next morning we finished our hike to Camp Kiser, and surveyed the terminus of the Sholes Glacier. The glacier was entirely snow covered and the terminus had retreated only 9 m since 1994. The next morning we skiied across the Sholes Glacier, through the Portals and down onto the Rainbow Glacier, Mt. Baker. Many of the crevasses were still closed. We skiied from crevasse to crevasse (75 in all) checking snow depth. The typical depth of 1997 snow remaining was 3.75m versus the normal 2.75 m. Snow extended all the way to the terminus. The terminus was exposed and had retreated 22 m since 1995 and 135 m since 1984. Only in 1991 had snow reached to the end of the glacier.

That night high winds drove us out of our tent, which we carried downslope to a sheltered locale. We hiked back to Artists Point, again seeing no footprints on the ridge, 3 days no hikers. After descending to Austin Pass we hiked into the Lower Curtis Glacier. This dramatically crevassed glacier had considerable blue ice on the steep serac riven terminus. The terminus has now retreated 98 m since 1985 and 8 m since 1996. Snowpack on this glacier was also 0.8-1.1 m above normal.

With the weather looking good, we hiked into Glacier Peak the next day. We hiked in the early morning hours to Kennedy Hot Springs, lounged there until late afternoon, and then ascended to the terminus of the Kennedy Glacier, where we made camp. The strong glacier winds precluded setting up a tent, but given the clear sky and steady altimeter this was a wonderful opportunity to observe the heavens. Our goal on Glacier Peak was to finish mapping the terminus changes on this glacier that had occurred since C.E. Rusk’s visit in 1906. The first day we ascended from camp at 5800 feet to the top of the Vista Glacier at 8000 feet then descended to the terminus at 6200 feet. The terminus of both the Ermine and Vista Glacier are right next to each other and were both snow covered. Through tedious probing through the snow we were able to locate the termini of both. Retreat since 1984 had been 105 m on Vista and 108 m on Ermine. Both termini are flat and lack crevasses indicating retreat will continue. We measured the snowpack thickness in each crevasse on our way back up the Vista Glacier, finding snow depths to be 1.2 m greater than in 1994. The ski down the Kennedy to camp was wonderful.

The terminus of the Kennedy Glacier advanced 320 m from 1949-1979, and has since retreated 151 m. The terminus is currently at the top of a steep Basalt flow cliff, and will quickly retreat up this slope. After navigating through the crevasse maze of the lower Kennedy Glacier, we exited to the Scimitar Glacier. This glacier has a steep rock strewn terminus that advanced 350 m from 1949-1979, and has retreated 98 m since. The lower 200 m of this glacier is stagnant, without motion this section will melt away, but because it is still quite thick, this will take time.

The following day was our longest march of the summer. We left camp at 6:30 to ascend in the shade to the Dusty Glacier on the east side of the Peak. This 3000’ climb was much easier in the cool shade, with crampons providing perfect traction. At 9000’ we traversed across the top of the Ermine and Dusty Glacier to North Guardian Glacier. The crevasses on the Dusty Glacier are the largest I have seen in the North Cascades, not as numerous as Boston or Coleman Glacier but awesomely wide. We were able to observe several accumulation layers in some of these crevasses. We then measured there thickness just as you would the thickness of tree rings. In this case 1996 was close to as thick as 1997 would be by summer’s end, then 1992-1995 were all thin, and 1991 was similar to 1996 in thickness. Thus, three of the last seven years have seen healthy snowpacks on the upper portion of Glacier Peak. We descended the nose between the Dusty and North Guardian Glacier, steep to be sure, forcing us to kick many steps. The final 2000’ glissade to the end of the North Guardian Glacier took 5 minutes. The termini of both the North Guardian and Dusty had advanced from 1949-1975. Retreat had begun by 1979 on both glaciers and has totaled 120 m on North Guardian and 210 m on Dusty Glacier. Dusty Glacier is terrribly crevassed and active at the end, and would probably not be retreating much except it ends on a very steep andesitic rock slope. North Guardian is very active and crevassed above, but has a thin inactive terminus that will continue to retreat up to 6400’ where it ended in 1946.

We also observed the terminus of the Chocolate Glacier from the North Guardian. This glacier descends a narrow canyon, allowing the terminus to extend down to 5900 feet, a 230 m retreat since 1979. The last 200 m of the glacier is debris covered and relatively inactive. Like the Boulder Glacier on Mt. Baker this glacier after advancing 450 m from 1950-1975 is now going to complete a retreat to this same point in the near future.

Table 2 lists the terminus changes of the last century on Glacier Peak area glaciers. All of the glaciers on the immediate slopes of Glacier Peak advanced from 1950-1975. The remaining glaciers except for the Suiattle, which barely advanced, maintained a steady retreat. The difference is due to the steep slopes down which the Glacier Peak glaciers flow, which result in rapid adjustment to climate change, such as the warmup after the Little Ice Age (1350-1850). The Kololo Peak glaciers on much gentler slopes have yet to complete their adjustment to the post Little Ice Age climate. In the case of Milk Lake Glacier this meant complete dissappearance by 1995.

The 3000’climb back to the Kennedy Glacier went very quickly, it was too steep to rest comfortably, and we switched leading the step kicking up the steep half of the glacier every 5 minutes. The weather remained fine for the ninth straight day, but hazy conditioned prevailed again, not one day did we have a truly clear view spanning the North Cascades.

In camp that evening our altitude began to rise. My rule is if the altitude rises by 200 feet at a given location watch out, if by only 100 feet or less not to worry. If the change is between 100 and 200 feet then a minor front is approaching. I also know that this pressure drop and consequent elevation rise usually occurs more than 12 hours before bad weather arrives. At 5:00 am the altitude was up 200 feet, we left. Gale force winds in the morning literally pushed us down to treeline. It was not until mid-afternoon that thunderstorms struck, by then we were on the banks of the South Fork Skykomish River at San Juan Campground. I always do extensive stream measurements here and most years it is a pleasant and refreshing wade. This year it was in most places impossible to cross the stream because of the high water.

The next day found us the Columbia Glacier above Blanca Lake. Only the very end of the glacier was not snowcovered. Three weeks prior to our visit Harvey Schmidt of the Mazama’s had led a group of three into the Columbia Glacier and had emplaced stakes in the glacier to measure the melt rate. Melting in the previous 20 days had been 1.78 m, quite high. Snow depths on Columbia Glacier were 1.2 m greater than normal. The terminus had retreated 3m since 1996, 105 m since 1984. Streamflow was 60% above normal forcing several bone chilling fords of the glacial stream.

Our next stop was Lyman Glacier. It was amazing on the hike to Spider Meadow to see avalanche snows in the woods below Spider Meadow in mid-August. We had managed to camp very high thus far, and bugs had been only a passing hazard during are hikes in. Spider Meadow was our first true illustration of the oft repeated phrase in Pack and Paddle this year, the bugs were innumerable and hostile. After enjoying the meteor shower we headed at first light to Lyman Glacier. This glacier ends in a steep 80 foot high cliff into the uppermost Lyman Lake. This lake was still frozen and we were able to observe the ice cliff from up close. This glacier continues to rapidly retreat, 88 m since 1986 778 m since 1929, and will soon follow the example of Milk Lake Glacier. However, the rapidly expanding upper Lyman Lake will be another wonderful alpine lake.

The last field area Mt. Daniels was as in the previous two years still deeply wrapped in snow. The snowpack was slightly less than in either 1991 or 1996 on both the Lynch and Daniels Glacier. Daniels Glacier for the second straight year remained snowcovered right to the terminus allowing no retreat. The end of the Lynch Glacier above the beautiful new jade green lake continues to retreat slowly. The snowpack on Lynch Glacier averaged 3.1 m in 1997, 3.25 m in 1996 and 2.15 m from 1985-1995.

Overall North Cascade glaciers gained volume in 1997. The gain averaged close to 0.5 m in thickness added to the average spot on these glaciers. The termini continued to retreat as it would take several more good years such as 1996 and 1997 to halt the previously rapid retreat. Snowpack west of the Cascade divide was much higher in 1997 than in 1996. East of the divide 1996 snowpack was quite similar or even higher than 1997 at elevations above 6000 feet. The 1997 snow season provided extensive snowpacks for longer than 1991, but the overall snowpack depths in early summer were the same or slightly less than in 1991, which featured a very snowy spring.

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