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Warning: I looked at old photos of the Mendenhall Glacier from 2005 vs 2023 and the difference gutted me
I dug out a box of pics from a trip to Juneau back in 2005 and laid them next to shots I took at the same spot last August. The face of the glacier where the tour boats used to stop is now open water for almost a half mile. Same rock outcrop in both frames, but in 2005 the ice filled the whole right side of the shot.
One side of me says this is just what glaciers do, they've been shrinking since the Little Ice Age and we happened to be born in a warm stretch. The other side says the pace is the problem, that losing that much ice in 18 years is not normal cycling and the folks in town keep pointing at warmer winters.
I am not a scientist, I just drive and take pictures, so I want to hear from people who actually live up there. Has anyone been watching a specific glacier or bay up close for 15 or 20 years? What did you see change, and did anything ever make you change your mind about why?
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annahunt21d ago
My buddy grew up in Gustavus and said the same thing about the bay he fished as a kid, spots his dad marked on old charts are just water now. What got him was how fast it went, not that it changed.
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