This dramatic picture of two of my children tells an even more dramatic story knowing what the glacier looked like 40 years ago. In 1982 the ice came up nearly to where they were standing.

Chip Freund Photography

7/26/2022

I was surprised by the significant increase in vegetation along the moraine (compared to the image on the opposite wall) and elsewhere above the tree line. As the climate has warmed, extending the growing season the desolate mountainsides have been able to grow.

Chip Freund Photography

7/26/2022

The Hoh River known in Quileute as chalak’At’sit (“the southern river”) is fed by the melt of the Blue and Hoh glaciers and runs just 56 miles down through the Hoh Rainforest to the Pacific Ocean near Oil City, WA.

Chip Freund Photography

7/26/2022

A double exposure created by overlaying the two images from Stop 19 (Blue Glacier Terminus). As with so many impacts resulting from climate change, the loss of glacier ice is hard to see in the short term, but with longer study the changes begin to come into focus.

Chip Freund

7/30/2023

The annual snowfall on Mt. Olympus (t́ist́iláalati) is estimated at approximately 50 feet! Annual precipitation is variable, so the difference in snow cover below Mt. Tom may speak more to the combination of snowfall and average daily temperature in the years these images were taken. However, given the rise in global temperature it is likely that summer snow cover is down over this time period.

Chip Freund Photography

7/26/2022

In this view of the glacier the changes are harder to see. Upon closer inspection they are no less dramatic. The slope down from Glacier Pass is now much steeper and the eastern edge of the valley floor has become visible. I also found it interesting that the direction of the crevasses rotated a full 90 degrees. This may indicate that the glacier is no longer moving down the valley.

Chip Freund Photography

7/30/1982

Turning around and looking up the glacier, the ice loss is less noticeable until one looks carefully at the amount of rock exposed on the right side of the frame. There is also a great deal more rock of the far ridge exposed versus 1982.

Chip Freund Photography

7/30/1982

Glaciers are constantly on the move. As they flow down the valley the ice is stressed causing cracks to form resulting in the formation of crevasses. Here a large crevasse toward the terminus glows vivid blue in the sunlight of the summer of 1982. The deep crevasses I saw then are all gone now due to the significant loss of ice.

Chip Freund Photography

7/29/1982

In this view of the glacier the changes are harder to see. Upon closer inspection they are no less dramatic. The slope down from Glacier Pass is now much steeper and the eastern edge of the valley floor has become visible. I also found it interesting that the direction of the crevasses rotated a full 90 degrees. This may indicate that the glacier is no longer moving down the valley.

Chip Freund Photography

7/26/2022

Stop 19 - The terminus of the Blue Glacier has receded by over 1,000 feet in the past 40 years and lost approximately 100 feet in thickness on the ice that remains. The deep blue crevasses seen in 1982 have melted away leaving a mere shadow of the glacier’s former glory. These two images were combined to create the work “Vanishing Ice” (Stop 21).

Chip Freund

7/26/2022

The terminus of the Blue Glacier has receded by over 1,000 feet in the past 40 years and lost approximately 100 feet in thickness on the ice that remains. The deep blue crevasses seen in 1982 have melted away leaving a mere shadow of the glacier’s former glory. These two images were combined to create the work “Vanishing Ice” (Stop 21).

Chip Freund

7/30/1982

The terminus of the Blue Glacier has receded by over 1,000 feet in the past 40 years and lost approximately 100 feet in thickness on the ice that remains. The deep blue crevasses seen in 1982 have melted away leaving a mere shadow of the glacier’s former glory. These two images were combined to create the work “Vanishing Ice” (Stop 21).

Chip Freund

7/30/1982

Rocks picked up by the glacier and exposed to sunlight during warmer months, absorb heat from the sun and melt the ice below. As the rock sank into the ice, it left a seemingly bottomless blue hole of crystal-clear water on the glacier’s surface.

Chip Freund Photography

7/30/1982

The primary access to the Blue Glacier is a 17 mile hike up the Hoh River Trail. The first 10-12 miles are relatively flat along the floor of the river valley. The trail then turns south and crosses the Hoh River. From there you climb 3,700 feet in just 4.5 miles. Much of the trail passes through the lush temperate rainforest where every square inch is covered with life, thanks to the abundant annual precipitation.

Chip Freund Photography

7/26/2022

The annual snowfall on Mt. Olympus (t́ist́iláalati) is estimated at approximately 50 feet! Annual precipitation is variable, so the difference in snow cover below Mt. Tom may speak more to the combination of snowfall and average daily temperature in the years these images were taken. However, given the rise in global temperature it is likely that summer snow cover is down over this time period.

Chip Freund Photography

7/30/1982

Over the past 40 years the glacier has retreated some 1,100 feet back up the valley and lost approximately 100 feet of thickness at its terminus. The loss of ice is clear in this pair of images. The image taken in 2022 shows little to no ice versus the 1982 picture.

Chip Freund Photography

7/30/1982

Over the past 40 years the glacier has retreated some 1,100 feet back up the valley and lost approximately 100 feet of thickness at its terminus. The loss of ice is clear in this pair of images. The image taken in 2022 shows little to no ice versus the 1982 picture.

Chip Freund Photography

7/26/2022

Turning around and looking up the glacier, the ice loss is less noticeable until one looks carefully at the amount of rock exposed on the right side of the frame. There is also a great deal more rock of the far ridge exposed versus 1982.

Chip Freund Photography

7/26/2022

It was July 1982,. a couple of weeks shy of my 18th birthday I found myself in the most spectacular and alien world, the alpine glaciers of Olympic National Park. I was a member of a Student Conservation Association backcountry trail crew. Each day took photographs, many of the Blue Glacier. Little did I know at the time that I was documenting the disappearance of a natural wonder.

Chip Freund Photography

8/23/2023

The lateral moraine of the glacier is a pile of glacial till (rocks and gravel) pushed to the side by the movement of the ice like a bulldozer plowing a new roadway. The loose nature of the till results in a symmetrical ridge as the loose rocks slide down until the slope reaches the “angle of repose”. Compare the amount of vegetation and snow here in 1982 with that of 2022 on the opposite wall.

Chip Freund Photography

7/30/1982