Wednesday morning was white with blowing snow. With all the poor weather, it was looking unlikely that Liz and I would be able to make it out to Lake Hoare on our scheduled helicopter flight. Rae surprised us in town and was scheduled to fly out with us. After lunch, the snow ceased and visibility improved a little. Just 30 mins after our scheduled time we received a call notifying us that they were going give it a shot. We loaded our helicopter and were on our way. Our pilot, Paul, navigated out to the ice edge and then over to the valleys. An unusual sight welcomed us into the Dry Valleys... several inches of snow cloaked the valley floor all the way up to the peaks. It looked like a different place. I was quite happy landing at Lake Hoare. Sandra welcomed us and we began to unpack. Later in the evening I was overcome with joy.. eating some of Rae's famous pad thai, sipping a GnT and finishing the evening with a very fine moist German chocolate cake that Sandra made. Its good to be back.
I visited Mount Shasta on September 7, 2012 to reoccupy glacier photo stations established by Phil Rhodes in 1974. Phil is an expert on Mount Shasta’s glaciers and photographed the glaciers for several decades. I was fortunate to meet up with Phil for the first day of photographic surveys on Hotlum Glacier. Phil was invaluable in describing routes to stations and sharing his observations. I visited 10 of his stations at Hotlum, Bolam, Whitney, and Wintun glaciers over several days to record the station locations and rephotograph the scenes. Bolam Glacier: 1977 to 2012 The photo comparisons reveal the complex changes that have been occurring on Mount Shasta since the 1970s. Bolam Glacier receded, the Lower Wintun Glacier advanced, while others appear fairly stable. Past research has shown Whitney Glacier advancing since the 1950s through the early 2000s. The surface of Whitney Glacier appears to have lowered over the past 30 years from a photo station at 10,000 ft eleva...