I forgot that I had collected these images from a few weeks ago while talking with Jon Riedel and Jeanna Wenger of the glacier monitoring team. Looking through them again, I realized they are pretty good competitors for the Mountain Lakes crew in regards to having the coolest job ever. Literally, of course.

I’ll do my best with the captions, though Jon and Jeanna will have to double-check for me.

Jeanna inserts a rod into Emmons Glacier on Mount Rainier, Spring 2008. After marking the snow level, the team will return later in the season to see how much has melted.


A hot steam wand assists in the creating the initial hole for the rod.


Oops. Something got stuck and they had to dig it out. That’s gotta be at least a 10’ hole.


(Is this too large to view?)



Noisy glacier, Summer 2007


Silver glacier, Fall 2006


These are images from the United States Geological Survey monitoring of South Cascade Glacier. While technically not within park boundaries, these photos are often used because the change is so visibly dramatic. Photos were taken in: 1928, 1960, 1967, 1979, 1991, and 2000