Each spring and fall, park workers go to the glacier to get detailed measurements of its terminus position. But where the road is concerned, "It turns out to be of secondary importance at Exit Glacier.". This boom in “glacier tourism” seems to be dually spurred, at least in part, by climate change… Seasons. That's what I kept telling her: 'You're going to see the blue. Since 2011, average October-to-May daily temperatures at the glacier's low elevations have been above freezing about half the time, the report noted. A weekly update on music, movies, cultural trends, and education solutions. While glacial melt is swelling the volume in the creek and is making the area more watery in general, it turns out that the modern melt is likely not responsible for the sudden inundations that have forced road closures in recent years, a new study finds. The good news for Kenai Fjords is that Exit Glacier has retreated so far back that the rocky terrain left behind is solid and stable ground for the existing visitor facilities along the trail, Curran said. There are flashes of blue, but from this distance it mostly resembles dirty shoveled snow on a sidewalk. House lights go up. (Pete Souza / White House), A sign, seen here on July 17, gives visitors a sense of how far Exit Glacier has retreated in the last dozen years. SINGAPORE/ANCHORAGE (Reuters) - The world has become far too hot for the aptly named Exit Glacier in Alaska. Exit Glacier, a finger of cracked, blue-white ice that drops out of 700-square-mile Harding Icefield, some of it outside the park, is relatively small, only 14 square miles. (Yereth Rosen / Alaska Dispatch News), Hikers pause to take in a view of Exit Glacier from a spot a few miles into the Harding Icefield Trail. Exit Glacier: Climate Change is REAL, Y'all! Portage Glacier, one of multitudes of glaciers in Chugach National Forest, remains a big tourist draw even though visitors now have to take a boat ride across Portage Lake to see its face. The Exit Glacier Area is open year-round. "Clearly, we have a situation where the glacier is changing. It was visited by a U.S. president — Barack Obama, who spent part of his 2015 Alaska trip at the glacier's melting terminus. Pedersen Glacier lost an average of 65 feet a year from 1951 to 1986, but that rate jumped to 410 feet a year from 1994 to 2015, scientists report. The swift retreat of Exit Glacier, in Alaska’s Kenai Mountains, offers a clear sign of how climate change can affect a region in a very short time. In Seward, Alaska, Exit Glacier is melting at an astonishing rate. A pavilion built in 1987 to give visitors a place to rest in the shade was originally situated to provide a good view of the glacier; now the view is of alders that hem the structure after springing up in ground uncovered by the glacier's retreat. For Sofia Heinonen, visiting from Argentina's glaciated Patagonia region, Exit Glacier and the Park Service's management of it prove good lessons for her country. Hear about special editorial projects, new product information, and upcoming events. On the road to the glacier's toe, on the trail winding below the forest canopy and, ultimately, on the mostly bare rock at the end of the trail are signs marking 195 years of accelerating pullback. The spring sun is out and I see it glance off the snowy mountains above the glacier. Will it work? logged you out. Beyond the last sign, which marks the 2010 edge, is a chasm of open space showing how Exit Glacier has continued its retreat up the valley. "Here, people just have to visit it again in a year or two.". "I'm shocked it changed this much," said Julie, with her husband and two daughters at the trail summit. What happens then to the park infrastructure built for visitors to a glacier that is creeping out of view, year by year?”. (Marc Lester / Alaska Dispatch News), The expanse of the Harding Icefield comes into view following a 4.1-mile hike up the Harding Icefield Trail on July 15 near Seward. -bo. He later raced in the bare-bones inaugural Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race (the historic Iditarod Trail started north of Seward); now his son and grandson are professional mushers and repeat Iditarod champions who dominate the event, which has become a sports extravaganza. A similar lake formation has occurred at retreating Bear Glacier, south of Exit. The finger that descends may be pulling back but it also seems to reach down, here at the edge of Alaska, the last frontier. The icefield has retreated over past decades but, more important, it has thinned, Kurtz said. I breathe the cool air. The sun rises over Argentina's Perito Moreno glacier near the city of El Calafate… "It's spectacular," Obama said, casting a glance over his shoulder and pausing, as the cameras clicked. The approach to Exit Glacier, the most accessible of the 500 square miles of ancient ice covering Kenai Fjords National Park, is a timeline of retreat. Also left in the receding glacier’s wake is a National Park Service pavilion that once offered a sweeping view of the glacier but has since been repurposed as an educational center about climate change. Her last trip here was six years ago, she says, when the glacier was closer to the lookout. A weekly digest of Monitor views and insightful commentary on major events. Eklutna Glacier, source of Anchorage's drinking water and one of several glaciers in relatively accessible Chugach State Park, is well-studied and losing mass. “My concern is the denial. For years, he's documented Alaska's changing climate and Exit Glacier's retreat. The swiftly melting glacier stands as a living monument to global warming. log out. continue to use the site without a Isotope analysis for modern fish bones matched modern Gulf of Alaska temperature records, and the methodology will work for bones from past times prior to written temperature records, potentially as far back as 5,000 years ago, he said. When the National Park Service built it in 1987, it offered a sweeping view of the glacier. The biggest problems are in the area just beyond Exit Glacier's maximum extent during the Little Ice Age, which ended in the early 1800s. Exit Glacier is only a small part of Kenai Fjords' ice and ice-influenced ecosystem that covers about half the 1,047-square-mile park. Climate change makes land more unstable and increases the risk of landslide-caused tsunamis. Acidification, a threat to shell-bearing organisms and marine life that eat them, has been linked elsewhere to melting glaciers — in Prince William Sound, for example — as increased torrents of freshwater dilute the saltwater and the calcium in it, pushing pH levels lower and more acidic. The … The swift retreat of Exit Glacier, in Alaska’s Kenai Mountains, offers a clear sign of how climate change can affect a region in a very short time. Reconstructing the more distant past requires analysis of data from the region's geology and tree rings. Glacier National Park’s name will outlive its glaciers, Alaska’s climate frontier: Anchorage to cut carbon emissions by 80%. Alaska includes lands on both sides of the Arctic Circle, which makes the United States an Arctic nation. It is one of the most accessible valley glaciers in Alaska and is a visible indicator of glacial recession due to climate change. I walk back to my car and take the two-lane road down the valley, burning more gas to add to the stock of carbon in the atmosphere. "I remember walking over here," Shippey said. One interpretative sign is titled Living Laboratory, a nod at the scientific value of studying glacier retreats. The Christian Science Monitor has expired. Trump administration seeks to tie Biden’s hands. Moving up to 300 feet in a single year, the glacier’s retreat is marked each decade. All rights reserved. SEWARD, Alaska — President Barack Obama turned Tuesday to a dramatic symptom of climate change — a melting Alaska glacier — to highlight the dangers of global warming. A sign marks the location of Exit Glacier’s terminus 100 years ago along the trail to an overlook from the parking area. President Barack Obama visited Exit Glacier in 2015. The meandering, braided creek and river channels that run down from the end of the glacier to the Seward Highway — and along the corridor that holds the road — are typical of the unstable waterways left behind after a glacier retreats. Yereth Rosen was a longtime reporter for Alaska Dispatch News. The bones are from two sites, one about 200 years old and another about 100 years old, left by ancestors of today's Kenai Peninsula-area Sugpiaq people. I write history and I have great admiration for human ingenuity," Capra says. The retreat began in the 1800s when Alaska was still Russian territory. SEWARD, Alaska (AP) — President Barack Obama stared down a melting glacier in Alaska on Tuesday in a dramatic use of his presidential pulpit to sound the alarm on climate change. Installed new interpretive exhibits, focusing on climate change, at the Exit Glacier Nature Center. Planning for new climate change interpretive panels for the Stone Kiosk at Exit Glacier is in the development stage. Decades ago, Seward teacher Dan Seavey was among the locals who honed his dog-sledding skills in the glacier's valley, sometimes driving dogs directly onto the ice. “It is spectacular though,” he conceded, adding: “We want to make sure that our grandkids can see this.”. The path is paved as far as a small pavilion of rough-hewn stone pillars and a vaulted wooden roof. I pass budding alder trees, then clamber up slate and gravel to reach a windswept vantage point. Information signs posted in the pavilion explain why the once-sweeping view is now obstructed, along with other effects of climate warming. Markers throughout Exit Glacier show how much it's receded over time. The more modern melt at Exit Glacier and nearby Paradise Glacier is adding to that condition, said co-author Mike Loso, a National Park Service glacier expert. President Obama hiked to Exit Glacier in Alaska last week, with photographers in tow, to send the world a message: The glacier is melting. Standing near the foot of the Exit Glacier, which has receded 1.25 miles since 1815 and 187 feet last year alone, Obama said “this is as good of a … Much longer-term geologic processes are at work, the study concludes. "We perceive it as flooding because the road's there.". or call us at 1-617-450-2300. The woman remembers visiting in the 1990s, when you could still walk onto the glacier. “My concern is the denial. Explore the trails with Seward Wilderness Collective or Exit Glacier Guides. Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox. Partnered with Alaska Geographic and local tour boat company to sell a climate change response DVD at visitor centers From the Exit Glacier parking lot it’s an easy walk to the overlook. Exit Glacier, which the Park Service says got over 181,500 visitors last year, is not Alaska's only walk-up glacier, albeit with a walk that has been getting longer as the glacier shrivels. Obama to summit Alaska's melting Exit Glacier The president is hoping his hike will offer Americans a glimpse of the effects of climate change in real time. There are plans to expand the study and analyze more old fish bones from a wider part of the Gulf of Alaska, he said. "You could think of it as a terrace elevation," she said. Kim said. This stunning short film by Raphael Rogers, Paul Rennick, and Kristin Gerhart examines the glacier’s dramatic impact through the voice of local guide Rick Brown. Now climbers are instructed to carry out their waste, but past years' deposits, after being churned through the moving and melting ice, are now turning up at the end of Exit, she said. “How long before the tourists stop coming to Exit Glacier?” Simon asks. Obama’s tour will continue on Tuesday with a hike to Exit Glacier, where he will observe the problem of melting ice brought on by rising temperatures in the region. Sept. 2, 2015 Read More But it stands out for its location in an easily accessible national park, the in-your-face documentation of its retreat and its role as a real-time climate change laboratory. Traverse the majesty of Exit Glacier by ice hiking or ice climbing, or opt for a … Now the glacier is retreating faster, much faster, in winter and summer. The marker for 1917 is about a mile from its current point. By the time he visits Alaska, the aptly named glacier – more on that name later – may have exited altogether. Audience applauds. Park visitors willing to make the arduous hike up to the base of Harding Icefield at about 3,500 feet in elevation can see evidence of melt at the mother of all Kenai Fjords glaciers. Christian Science Monitor reporter Simon Montlake looks out on Exit Glacier on May 17 in Alaska's Kenai Fjords National Park. ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- President Barack Obama is painting a doomsday scenario for the Arctic and beyond if climate change isn't dealt … The Short Film Showcase spotlights exceptional short videos created by filmmakers from around the web and selected by National Geographic editors. The Exit name comes from the pioneering 1968 ski traverse across the Harding Icefield by an expedition party that included Alaska homesteader Yule Kilcher, the grandfather of singer Jewel Kilcher. Over the year ending Oct. 1, after fall measurements were taken, the retreat was 293 feet, according to the National Park Service. "Almost every glacial river in Alaska is carrying more water than it did 50 or 100 years ago because of the shrinking of the glaciers," Loso said. (Marc Lester / Alaska Dispatch News). Curtain falls. If you have questions about your account, please Working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, a SNOTEL station has been set up at Exit Glacier. 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