Originally known as Sitaantaago ("the Glacier Behind the Town"), Mendenhall was renamed in 1892 in honor of Thomas Corwin Mendenhall, American physicist & meterologist.
The last 3000 years stretched as far as the eye could see.
The massive ‘River of Ice’ was raw and rugged and breathtakingly beautiful.
The massive ‘River of Ice’ was raw and rugged and breathtakingly beautiful.
Mendenhall was originally named Sitaantaagu (“the Glacier Behind the Town”) or Aak’wtaaksit (“the Glacier Behind the Little Lake”) by the nativeTlingit Indians.
It was humbling, standing at the foot of Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier (well, standing on the shores of Mendenhall Lake, the body of water separating visitors from the foot of Juneau’s most popular attraction), contemplating the eons of time and the enormous natural forces behind this 13-mile-long sheet of slowly moving ice. A sheet of ice 100 feet deep at its terminus.
Would you believe it takes 100 feet of snowfall to create one foot of glacial ice; small change during the Little Ice Age that gets most of the credit for the planet's icy tundra. The Juneau Icefield (one of the largest icefields in the Western Hemisphere) sits 13 miles up the valley that is home to Mendenhall Glacier, feeding Mendenhall and dozens more glaciers like it relentlessly sculpting this vast wilderness belonging to Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.
Would you believe it takes 100 feet of snowfall to create one foot of glacial ice; small change during the Little Ice Age that gets most of the credit for the planet's icy tundra. The Juneau Icefield (one of the largest icefields in the Western Hemisphere) sits 13 miles up the valley that is home to Mendenhall Glacier, feeding Mendenhall and dozens more glaciers like it relentlessly sculpting this vast wilderness belonging to Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.
The pink portion of the map ( courtesy of Wikipedia) represents the Alaska Range.
The Rhode Island-size icefield sits atop the Alaska Range (Denali, the highest mountain in North America, is part of this range), a narrow, 400-mile mountain range in the southcentral region of Alaska. All told it takes about 200-250 years and all kinds of gravity for the ice to travel from the Juneau Icefield to Mendenhall Lake.
Had we visited 300 years ago, Jimmy would have been kneeling on top of 100 feet of snow and ice.
Since 1929, when Mendenhall Lake was created courtesy of the melting glacier, that body of water has been gaining ground. Call it climate change or global warming; the evidence was pure and simple, and very cold.
Since the end of the Little Ice Age Mendenhall Glacier has retreated 2.5 miles with the first half mile of that retreat occurring between 1500 and 1958, the following two miles since 1958 (170 feet per year since 2005), at least according to the Juneau Icefield Research Program which began monitoring Mendenhall Glacier in 1942.
At today’s rate, Mendenhall Glacier will retreat another 2 miles in 62 years (yes, I’m a math geek!); which is pretty much the results of a recent University of Alaska Fairbanks study published by the Journal of Glaciology.
“By the end of this century, people will likely not be able to see the Mendenhall Glacier anymore from the visitor’s center.”
So predicted Regine Hock, a UAF glaciologist and one of several contributing authors who were part of the University of Alaska Fairbanks study; Hock suggested 60 percent of the ice in the Juneau Icefield feeding Mendenhall Glacier will be gone by 2099.
Holy hothouse!
Since the end of the Little Ice Age Mendenhall Glacier has retreated 2.5 miles with the first half mile of that retreat occurring between 1500 and 1958, the following two miles since 1958 (170 feet per year since 2005), at least according to the Juneau Icefield Research Program which began monitoring Mendenhall Glacier in 1942.
At today’s rate, Mendenhall Glacier will retreat another 2 miles in 62 years (yes, I’m a math geek!); which is pretty much the results of a recent University of Alaska Fairbanks study published by the Journal of Glaciology.
“By the end of this century, people will likely not be able to see the Mendenhall Glacier anymore from the visitor’s center.”
So predicted Regine Hock, a UAF glaciologist and one of several contributing authors who were part of the University of Alaska Fairbanks study; Hock suggested 60 percent of the ice in the Juneau Icefield feeding Mendenhall Glacier will be gone by 2099.
Holy hothouse!
This poster, by Gary Braasch, appeared in Reagan International Airport concourse in 2011 as part of a public education program on climate change.
While the debate on global warming ensues, I suggest you take action; power down your computer (after you finish reading today’s post, of course!); turn off the TV; pack your bags (don’t forget the camera), collect the kids and/or grandkids and head for any one of the planet’s 100,000 glaciers (any continent will do, with the exception of Australia), before these magnificent 'Rivers of Ice' go the way of the dinosaurs.
One of the few times I got to legitimately tell Jimmy and travel buddies Diane and Alan to 'take a hike'.
FYI; Mendenhall is the only glacier on the planet accessible by highway, although our up-close-and-personal experience did include a three-quarter-mile hike on a beautiful summer day;
Ice Caves are also part of Mendenhall, although they are not easily accessible.
and a rip-roaring Nugget Waterfall for good measure.
My philosophy? If you’re gonna show up, you may as well go the distance. The planet, humanity, and each new day deserve nothing less.
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My philosophy? If you’re gonna show up, you may as well go the distance. The planet, humanity, and each new day deserve nothing less.
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