A glacier, unnamed, somewhere along the ferry route, melting into the valley below.
Two days ago, Nod 432 left a comment: "Take a good look 'cause these things are melting fast!"
So true. So sad.
I have noticed, in the years since I left, that every year's crop of photos of my beloved Nusatsum mountain shows more rock, less ice.
As it was, once.(Government photo, from a defunct page)
Snootli Peak, also in the Bella Coola Valley. Barely a hint of ice on top now.
Today, browsing mountains in the area, I came across this ex-glacier.
(Image by Dru.)Dru describes it thus:
This lake was a glacier until about 1985, when it started to break up as melt water accumulated. Now it's full of giant icebergs that you can see the layering from the original glacier in. It will probably take another 30 years to fully melt. Located off the Satsalla River valley on BC's central coast at an elevation of around 1800m.What can I say? Will we get around to turning down the heat before our mountains are bare rock?
I'm not too hopeful.
WW:
ReplyDeleteJust a few weeks ago I was digitizing some of my Alaska photos from a 1998 trip, and I came across my mid-September photos of the Mendenhall glacier. I went to their web cam to look at it again and was shocked at the difference, even though the time of year was virtually the same. I'm glad I got to see it when I did.
Carolyn H.
http://roundtoprumings.blogspot.com
Carolyn;
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting.
I don't think we fully realize yet how important those piles of ice are to us, and how impossible it is to turn back the clock.
I remember, in my years up north, how I used to watch the snow cover, judging by it how much water we would have in the next summer.
And how the first sunshine of the year came a day earlier one year, because the mountain shadow had decreased by that much.
It is very sad to see the glaciers disappear. The before and after pictures really drive the point home. Very sad indeed.
ReplyDeleteUm ... while I agree the melting of the ice fields and glaciers are a HUGE problem and a sign of bigger problems ... Having lived in Bella Coola for four years and being VERY familiar with mountains you mentioned, and showed, with the exception of Nusatsum (a favourite of MINE too) ... the ice and snow on the mountains visible from the Valley is at best seasonal ...
ReplyDeleteThe permanent ice fields are NOT visible from the valley - you need to travel by plane, or up winding logging roads to get to the Monarch and the other glacier fields ... It IS true they are retreating at an alarming rate ... and something needs to be done ...
Thanks for the reminder though Weeta ...
Shawn; You're right, in that most of the ice visible from the valley is ice-cap, although there is at least one glacier visible, from half-way between Hagensborg and Firvale.
ReplyDeleteBut you were after my time; by the last few years that I was there, I was already noticing the difference between the summer ice cover on Nusatsum and Table Mountain and the cover in the first years' summers.
Yes, I know that most of the glaciers are farther back. I have seen them from the air, and my son and his friends have visited several.
BTW, did you read my Nusatsum story/parable? I think you would like it.
Until you see the before and after pics, one doesn't realize the extent of the melt. Should send them to the Sun or Province. Might stir something in peoples' conscience.
ReplyDelete