Finally!

I have to admit when I'm out on the glacier and we're carrying all the gear

and we're at high elevation and you're working really hard

I definitely ask myself whether I really want to be doing this

But you look at the scenery and

there's really no other place that I would rather be at that moment

The logistical issues with monitoring these glaciers are about the toughest part

of this

Getting to them safely and back safely

requires an awful lot of work and so we depend on having

staff at Mount Rainier and at North Cascades.

There are several reasons we monitor these glaciers

They're habitat for certain species and they're part of the alpine food web

They're a tremendous indicator of climate change. But probably the most important

reason we monitor them is because of the water

These glaciers provide a substantial amount of water during the summer

that fuels the hydroelectric industry in the North Cascades.

The glaciers are also providing a

considerable amount of meltwater to our rivers and lakes

and so they provide what we call buffering capacity

in the summer when we get very little rain these

glaciers continue to provide water and buffer our lakes and streams from the

summer drought or droughts over a longer period. So we're connected to the lake and

the aquatic monitoring as well as providing this overall

weather and climate information.

So in the spring when we come out and we are placing the ablation stakes, we

rely on this steam drill. Which, the inside is basically like a camping stove

We have a propane tank. We fill it with water. We heat up the water and it

produces steam

You know the pressure builds inside. We release the pressure and then we have a

13 meter hose

that the steam comes out of that we drill directly into the glacier.

We drill 13 meters and we place the ablation stake down in the glacier

And then we can come back and watch it melt off that stake.

We monitor glaciers by visiting them at least twice a year. And the idea is that

we want to measure how much snow the glaciers accumulate

on their surface in the winter and then by melting stakes into the glacier in

the spring

we can monitor how much of that snow and ice beneath it melts through the summer.

Our observations have indicated that the glaciers in the North

Cascades have

decreased about 50 percent in area in the last century or so.

So we've been studying the two glaciers

Nisqually and Emmons at Rainier since 2002 and every year there's been a net loss

I think it's been about one to two meters of water equivalent lost

throughout the whole glacier. Which ends up being billions of gallons

of water

If the public could actually see the measurements that we are seeing

And see the glacier and how it changes every year and the amount that sometimes looks like

it's falling apart or the snow field looks like it's actually rotting

It just becomes much more real, the impact that climate change could have.

Monitoring glaciers is important because they're giving us a

really dramatic measure of the climate change and the global disruption that we're seeing

in climate right now

That has been really important for

for reaching the public and helping them understand this global

climate change that's occurring