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GRINNELL GLACIER, 2008
GRINNELL GLACIER, 1922
GRINNELL GLACIER, 2008
COURTESY LISA MCKEON, USGS
because Fagre isn’t adept at finding his previous mark, it’s because the landscape has changed dramatically even in just a few years. The snowpack, which can be 40 or 50 feet deep, can easily move rocks and rubble wherever it pleases.
Once the camera is set up, Fagre takes a photo and spins the camera to capture five or six more frames, which will all be stitched together to form one panoramic image. Before the first image is exposed, Fagre said there are already noticeable differences between the photos taken in 2013 and the scene in 2015. For one, in just two years the glacier has receded more than 50 feet in some places, evi- dence that the strengthening El Nino is already taking its toll.
However, the photos also reveal some good news: Grinnell is still a glacier, as evidenced by a massive boulder that had
moved 40 or 50 feet in the last two years. The fact that the glacier is still mov- ing was confirmed not long after Fagre arrived when a muffled boom could be heard from within the mass of ice, the sound of the glacier slowly moving downhill.
“This glacier still has some legs under it after all,” Fagre said.
After four hours of photographing the glacier (and a quick break to take a photo with some hikers who recognized him as a “celebrity of Glacier Park”), Fagre packed his bag and prepared for the six-mile hike back to his car. After that, it was a two- hour drive home to West Glacier. Fagre said days in the field can be exhausting, but that the information they provide can be priceless – “there is something to be said for seeing the beast on the ground.”
Fagre makes about six or seven trips to
COURTESY USGS
the glaciers every year. The most labor-in- tensive trek is to Sperry every spring when snow still covers most of the route. Fagre and a group of researchers will usu- ally spend two or three days in the field and can only get to the glacier on skis. The goal of the early spring trip is to measure how deep the snowpack is. They return to the glacier at the end of the summer to see how much has melted, which tells them if the glacier is growing or shrinking. More often than not, the glacier is receding at an ever-quickening pace.
Fagre said it’s not a matter of if the glaciers of Glacier Park will be gone, but a matter of when. However, he is hesitant to estimate an exact date when they will reach a vanishing point.
“We want to get away from putting a date on when the glaciers will be gone. We want to inform people of the process
COURTESY USGS
and how it is happening right now,” he said. “Will the glaciers be gone in 2037 or 2040? Who knows, but they will be gone within our lifetime.”
At 62 years old, a time when many people would start contemplating retire- ment, Fagre said he has plenty of things to keep him busy for the next few years. Even when he does step back from the research that he has been doing for nearly a quarter century, Fagre is confident it will continue, as other scientists step up to catalog a critical record of Glacier Park’s most iconic features.
“When I feel like I’ve gotten a few proj- ects wrapped up then I’ll think about retirement,” he said. “But until then I’m just going to keep my head down and keep working.”
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SEPTEMBER 2, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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