Team Perspectives from 2026 North Cascade Glacier Climate Projects Field Season

Jill Pelto: Field painting of new large bedrock exposures in the big icefall on Easton Glacier, Mt. Baker. The 2026 field season of the NCGCP brought dramatic changes. While we expected most of these, it doesn’t make them any easier to physically navigate or emotionally experience. Even at 9,000 ft, the glaciers of Mt. Baker are thinning, with new bedrock emerging. Above about 7,000 ft, the snowpack was decent, which will slightly help to mitigate the losses from lack of snowpack at lower elevations. The atmospheric river carved a story across our field sites. From this big shift in snowpack up high, to washed out roads, and altered riverbeds. It was a year of fascinating, sad, and occasionally hopeful shifts. Abby Connor: Looking down at the terminus of the Lower Curtis Glacier on Mt. Shuksan, noticeably thinner than when I last visited. I grew up in Bothell, in a family that spends its weekends outdoors, assuming that massive and seemingly unchanging glaciers are a fact of life. But…