Columbia Glacier was our first destination. This
year we got to enjoy to the 1.5 mile warmup from the washout of NFS Road 63.
Looked like a little can do attitude could have
made the road ready, for at least this summers
use, in a few hours of work. The approach via
the Beckler River Road 65 and Jacks Pass proved
almost as fast as the North Fork Skykomish.
Quin Ourada from Oregon State, Tom Hammond, UW
and Ben Pelto joined me. Leaving the trailhead
at 5:30 I did not expect to reach our camp 3000
feet up and 4.5 miles later until near dark. I
had not backpacked all summer, as I had broken
my foot in late May.
Columbia Glacier: The berries and wildflowers
were clearly behind recent years on the hike up,
but snowbanks were about normal. This suggested
a late start to summer conditions, but a warm
early summer period. We made it to camp before
8:30 and have to admit the east coasters, Ben
and I were in bed by 9:00 despite the clear
starry skies. After crossing the logjam at the
outlet of Blanca Lake and circling the lake we
arrived to find a considerable change in the
region around camp. Flooding had covered the
heather region of camp under considerable rock
and sand, and the river bed had sharply eroded
its bed near camp. The first sign, that the
November flood was felt strongly in the alpine
region.
probing snow depth
The snowpack on the Columbia Glacier was the
best since 2002, but still not deep enough to
offset the amount of melting that has and will
occur. The lake at the end of the glacier has
grown, and even goes under the glacier in a
spectacular but dimly lit and water floored
cave.
We proceeded to probe snowdepth in more than 200
locations on the glacier and map its surface
elevation along a center profile. The result
the glacier will close to a meter of thickness
overall this year. Gorgeous blue skies
continued right up to our hike out from Blanca
Lake.
Easton Glacier: After fortifying at Index Café,
and swimming at Baker Lake, warm water this
year, we headed north to Mount Baker’s Easton
Glacier. The hike in that evening, is an easy
route, but after our 7 mile warm up hiking out,
up then down from Blanca Lake, it did not feel
easy. We arrived at the terminus of the glacier
camp shortly before dark, for Lipton Garlic
Shells. That night the clouds snuck up on us,
and by morning a light pitter, patter was
evident. A wet morning on the lower part of the
glacier probing snowpack, had us back for a
siesta in our tents, until the rain eased in the
late afternoon. Oh, the worst part was
collecting every insect we could find in 10
square meter area of the glacier in the rain.
Tom was delivering these bug collections to a UW
professor. Surprising how many there are even
if you wish there were none. Back on the
glacier we finished our glacier terminus survey
and found 20 meters of retreat since 2006, and
65 meters since 2004. Clouds descended around
us for our Lipton Teriyaki noodle dinner.
The next morning clouds again dominated, until
we climbed out of them ascending the glacier at
6500 feet. Snowpack was about normal from the
terminus at 5400 feet up to 6500 feet.
We found the number of crevasses reduced even
more from the peak in 2005 in the lower mile of
the glacier. The impressive massive serac zone
that dominated the east side of the glacier 500
meters above the terminus from 1990-2003 has
become a steep but relatively placid crevassed
blue ice zone. Above 7000 feet the average snow
depth quickly rose from 2.5 m to 4.0 m, by 8200
feet the average snow depth had leveled off at 6
meters. We enjoyed the sun, well the clouds
lapped against the mountain flanks below us.
The next morning we hiked out from the glacier
and circumnavigated to Artists Point on the
north side of Mount Baker. We met Maria Coryell
Martin, an artist who would be with us for the
rest of our research. From Seattle Maria is
pursuing a “Portraits of Ice, Witnessing
Climate Change through Art,” this project is
formally recognized by the International Polar
Year. The parking lot was jammed, but by the
time we we passed Table Mountain, we were nearly
alone. The afternoon hike out Ptarmigan Ridge
was even chilly, as clouds dominated again. We
arrived at Camp Kiser in the evening, and Ben
spied a herd of 12 goats east of us, we were the
only campers. Lipton Thai Sesame noodles never
tasted so good.
The next morning we headed to the Sholes
Glacier. Half way across the glacier we noticed
a small group of mountain goats, a moment later
we rounded a ridge on the glacier and could see
that these were merely the scouts for the
largest group of goats I ever saw. These herds
are not tame at all and do not allow for close
approach. We squatted down on the glacier and
observed them, coming to the consensus of 52
goats.
Take a look and come up with a count for
yourself. There are two outliers from the
group. We spooked the goats over to the Mazama
Glacier Sholes Glacier had thin snowpack, less
than 2 m across its lower two-thirds. And more
than 3 m in the upper third. The view from the
Upper Sholes Glacier showed steam from the Dorr
Steamfield. Upon our return we noted an
additional herd of 28 goats on the north side of
Coleman Pinnacle. The two groups ensured at
least 80 different goats had been seen, the 12
from the night before may have been part of the
28 goats. This is the highest population for
the area since we began our goat notes in 1984.
The clouds moved in that evening, and by
morning, it was blowing drizzle. We headed for
Rainbow Glacier through the whiteout, who knows
how many goats we passed. It was too chilly to
stop for long during the 9 hours we spent on the
glacier. Our only respite from rain and wind
was our ice cave we found for lunch. Rainbow
Glacier had a normal snowline for early August
at 4900 feet. The snow depth remained normal to
5600 feet. Above this point snow depth quickly
increased from 3 to 6 m, leaving the crevasses
on the upper glacier the easiest to navigate for
sometime. We wandered through whiteout from
crevasses to crevasse measuring snow depth all
afternoon. We arrived wet but warm in camp.
After warming and putting on dry clothes and
reading in our tent we had to emerge for
dinner. Not wanting to get new clothes we wet,
we put on wet clothes for our Lipton Alfredo
Broccoli dinner. Dancing around the stove well
it all cooked, we found the chill did not leave,
but on reentering the tents, we warmed up more
than before we had gone out.
Morning brought no change more drizzle and
whiteout as we packed our heavier packs due to
water absorbing powers and hiked out.
Lower Curtis Glacier: A quick trip to the
nearest laundromat in Maple Falls and we were
back at the Austin Pass trailhead for a chilly
cloudy hike into Lake Ann. We arrived in
cloud. After Lipton Thai Sesame noodles,
magically the clouds lifted for 30 minutes
before sunset, not that we saw the sun.
Whiteout prevailed in the morning, making for a
peaceful hike to the glacier. The outlet stream
draining the glacier had been on the west or
right side of the glacier as you face it, for 20
years. This year the stream had shifted and was
now coming out the east side of the glacier,
heading down a separate valley below the
glacier. This made it easy to traverse below
the seracs of the very impressive terminus.
This is the thickest most vigorous glacier
terminus in the North Cascades.
The terminus is thick enough that retreat has
slowed down, after rapid retreat in the last
decade, though the west side of the glacier
continues to retreat laterally. Snowpack on the
glacier was consistent in the 2-3 m range, not
good, not bad for the start of August. While we
probed the glacier Maria completed some
excellent water color studies of the glacier
terminus. Returning to camp the whiteout
prevailed right through the next morning, yet
nary a drop of rain.
Mount Daniels: An early morning hike out saw on
the road south by 8:30 headed for Mount
Danniels. A swim in the Cle Elum River at the
turn to Cooper Lake under a blue sky was just
what we needed after six of seven days in the
clouds. The November flood had significantly
changed the stream channel around this wonderful
pool. Instead of a gentle continuous rapid
above the main pool, there was now a single
steep nearly waterfall rapid with placid flow
above it. The pools had been deepened and
filled in various places, and large trees
littered the banks. The road repairs from the
washouts reflected a can do attitude in this
area.
The hike to Peggy’s Pond was not the normal
sweat ritual. The bugs also seemed to cold to
bother with us. Hyas Creek just passed Peggy’s
Pond had altered its channel and downcuts in
channel severely in many places, after looking
nearly the same for 20 years. The berries on
every hike had been late, yet once again the
snowpack in the lower alpine areas was normal.
The Ice Worm Glacier had only two tiny bare blue
ice spots, but snowpack was uniformly thin, less
than 2 m. We emplaced stakes to check in
several weeks. By that time the glacier will be
mostly blue ice. The glacier has shrunk to less
than half of its 1984 area and at the recent
rate of thinning has 10-20 years left.
We explored the iceberg lake that used to be in
contact with the glacier, but which now is
perched above the north side of the glacier. We
crossed the icebergs on the lake just for fun,
probing our way until we were 15 feet from the
far shore with a small berg in the middle of
this gap. Ben and Quin went for the iceberg
long jump, partly due to blue sky delirium I am
sure. Quin almost made it, fortunately it was a
barefoot attempt with pack and boots safely on
shore. The key lesson do not overstride on
takeoff.
The next morning windy whiteout had returned.
We circled the mountains east ridge to Daniels
Glacier. The glacier had good snowcover, which
was deeper than it has been since 2002. The
normal crevasse problems were all filled in,
with most of the glacier under 2.5-3.5 m of snow
still. The steep zig zagging traverse up this
glacier, required wearing all the clothes we
could in the biting wind. This glacier has lost
35% of its area since 1984 including the entire
section descending from 6800 feet to 6400 feet.
We crossed onto the glacier in a gale of a wind,
but still dry cloud. A brief view down and
across glacier was all we got before the cloud
settled around us again. Snowpack on the Lynch
Glacier like the Daniels Glacier was high above
7000 feet. As we descended to the terminus at
Pea Soup lake the snowpack was reduced to
normal. Crevassing had never been so limited,
as the crevasses were still filled and there are
less as the glacier has slowed. Conditions were
so foggy we could not accurately assess the
terminus retreat since last year, but that was
because retreat had been minor. Snowpack on the
ever disappearing Foss Glacier was not quite as
good, partly due to all the new exposed rock in
the midst of the dying glacier. We ascended
1700 feet from Pea Soup Lake to the summit of
Mount Daniels directly up the center of the
Lynch Glacier. Probing every 100 feet providing
the necessary breaks. We emerged from the
clouds right at the top of the glacier. Summit
views were limited but at least existed. We
arrived back at camp for our last Lipton meal a
smorgasborg of Alfredo dishes. The next morning
checking the melting that had occurred during
the last several days on Ice Worm Glacier we
found it had amounted to 1.6 inches per day.
Typical is 3.5 inches on a mid-August day.
Overall North Cascade glaciers had a better year
than any since 2002. The glaciers overall did
lose mass. Only Rainbow Glacier will likely
finish the summer with a positive balance.
There was a clear trend of typical snowpack at
lower elevations, with an abrupt increase at
7000 feet on Mount Daniels and Easton Glacier,
5600 feet on Rainbow and 6000 feet on Sholes
Glacier. Lower Curtis, Columbia and Ice Worm
Glacier all lie below these elevations and did
the poorest by far.
Due to the poor visibility I failed to get
pictures of the Yawning and Cache Col Glaciers
that can be seen from Sahale Arm. So if anyone
has or will have a chance to photographs these
glaciers in August or September I would
appreciate seeing the results.
Crossing outlet of Blanca Lake Below is the cave at the terminus of
the Columbia Glacier
Evening hike into the Easton Glacier. Crevasse Measurement on Easton
Glacier
Mountain goat herd below Sholes Glacier. Glissading to Rainbow
Glacier Terminus of Lower Curtis Glacier with annual layers apparent,
Glacier stream issuing from east side of the glacier terminus. Probing snowpack on upper Lynch Glacier. Daniels Glacier below.
Downcutting glacier stream on Rainbow Glacier. Penstemon flowers had a
banner year.
