It feels as if a giant meat locker has swung open, sending a cold, yet
thin, wind blowing down South Cascade Glacier just outside North
Cascades National Park in northern Washington. The sun glares.
Everything is white. The expanse of snow acts like a big reflecting basin.
Bob Krimmel, a scientist in a broad-brimmed hat and gloves, is initially
winded by the altitude change, but spends much of the day trudging
through brush to get to this spot—the longest-studied glacier in the
northern Cascade mountains, the nation’s most heavily glaciated area
outside of Alaska. So much snow. And yet, the glacier is shrinking.
CHAPTERNINE
Pacific Northwest: The Incredible
Shrinking Glaciers
Sally Deneen
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