I grew up one hour East of Vancouver in a valley surrounded by mountains. On clear sunny days we had spectacular views of Mt Baker, the second most heavily glaciated volcano in the Cascade Range and the third highest peak in Washington State. Mt Baker holds the world record for most amount of snowfall in a year (29 meters) and Mt Baker ski area remains one of my favourite places to ski in the world. It is no surprise that when I started backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering, summiting Mt Baker was at the top of my list. In May, after our attempt at Rainier, Marian and I had the perfect weather window to attempt to climb Mt Baker with a ski from the summit. We had 2 clear sunny days and a deep enough snow pack for many of the snow bridges, which cover the crevasses, to still be in tact. After a long descent off Rainier the previous day, we arrived back in Vancouver with just enough time to unpack and repack for an early departure to the Schreiber’s Meadows trail head. We chose to climb up the South facing Easton Glacier. We made it to base camp with plenty of time to get settled in, eat dinner, and watch the sun set. We started up the glacier at 5 am and were on the summit at 3285m by 10 am, just as the face of the Roman Wall started to soften. Perfect spring corn on the way down was the cherry on the cake. As we carefully picked our line to avoid crevasses and softening snow bridges, we commented on how lucky we were that the higher than usual snow pack allowed us to ski all the way back to the car. The higher than usual snow pack and late closing of many of the mountains on the West Coast made me confident that skiing would continue well into the summer months. It was a shock when I read an article a few days later that said the Camp of Champions on Blackcomb Glacier in Whistler would not be opening for the first time in almost 30 years. Though I have never attended the Camp, it is a staple in the Whistler community (a place I have lived and spent a lot of time). A well-written letter from the director explained that though there was more snow than in previous years, the snowpack had too much air in it to (not enough soft wet snow) build the jumps required for the camps. On my most recent trip to Whistler in January, they has snow machines blasting on the glacier in an effort to preserve it, something that continued for the remainder of the season. The Blackcomb Glacier is currently 35 feet lower than it was in 1989 when the camps opened. Glaciers in the North Cascade Mountains have shrunk by 50% since 1900 and will continue to do so unless major changes are made. It is hard to imagine not being able to ski in the mountains I grew up in, not to mention the detrimental effects receding glaciers will have and are having on our current way of life.
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AuthorMarian Krogh Archives
August 2019
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