What mountain guides are seeing up in the Rockies can tell us a lot about the pace of global warming.A mountain ridge is a dubious spot to build a hut, yet in 1922, the Canadian Pacific Railway brought in guides from the Swiss Alps to do just that.
On July 6 and 7, 2009, a mountain guide named Barry Blanchard wrote in the register at Abbot Hut: “Three hours of heavy rain brought the approach gully to life. Lots of rockfall off Victoria, don't dawdle. One unfortunate fellow got hit by a large boulder the size of a goalie’s hockey bag when it was full of pads.”
“A big chunk of rock… came down and stapled this guy, basically pressed him,” he said in a recent interview. The man survived and was evacuated from the mountains by helicopter. For a mountain shelter perched atop a pass, this meant the erosion of the very ground on which it was built, ultimately leading to the Abbot Hut’s demise.
“Rising temperatures are generally causing glacier retreat and the loss of snow and ice,” said Hanly. “When the ice melts and there's nothing to climb, you can't work,” said Hanly. “If that's your main source of livelihood, it's a pretty significant impact.” Three years ago, Ian Welsted was out on Mount Athabasca in Jasper National Park off of the Icefields Parkway, a scenic highway that snakes through the glacier-clad mountains.
“It's becoming more and more difficult to plan ahead because we just don't quite know what's going to happen,” said Welsted.It’s not just for high-alpine expeditions that guides are altering the time, location and activities they’re choosing for their clients. More popular mountain sports, like hiking and snowshoeing, are also seeing an impact.
Zuc’min Guiding operator Tim Patterson, left, shown here with another guide on the Athabasca Glacier, says extreme or unusual weather opens up a bigger conversation about climate change. During busy times he now employs between six and eight people, and he gives them direction on how to approach the sometimes tricky topic sensitively.