Ski It While You Can

??? Has anyone heard the recent story in the news about the Cascade snow pack? Scientists are predicting that with global warming the Cascade snow pack could decrease by 50% in the next 50 years. I don't know about you but I find that pretty disheartening. Now you would think that the ski culture and the ski industry in this country would be up and arms and outspoken about the issue of global warming but you barely ever hear a peep about it and usually no more than a short little blurb in the rags. Until recently I have seen very little advocacy support by the ski culture or the ski industry. Has anyone seen a full blown article about the current and potential affects of global warming on skiing in any of the industry rags - mainstream or backcountry? I have to wonder why this issue has not been out in the forefront. Are we all just out living in the moment and having too much fun making turns to care? <br><br>I picked up last months issue of Ski Magazine because it had an article about East Coast Extreme and having my ski roots in New England I had to check it out. There was an add from NRDC (Natural Resources Defence Council) concerning skiing and global warming. I was glad to see that the advocacy groups are finally trying to tap into the hearts and minds of skiers. I've been doing a lot of thinking about this subject ever since seeing that add. Yes, it has been in the back of my mind for years now, but seeing that add got me to check out their website, and do some google searches on global warming and affects on the Cascade snow pack. I think we need more support of advocacy so they can run adds like that and get people thinking about this and once we start thinking about it we may actually do something about it. We need more articles published in the rags and as a culture we need to speak out in order to preseve the mountains and sport we love so much. If we don't are our kids going to have the opportunity in 40 years to experince the bliss of cutting up an untracked slope? <br><br>Did you know that many of the glaciers in the Cascades have already receeded 40% since 1979. Did you know that when the Nisqually Bridge at Mt Rainier was built it was actually built to span over the Nisqually Glacier? Now you can barely see the foot of the Nisqually Glacier from the bridge. Even this year, which everyone would probably agree has seen great ski conditions for the most part, I have noticed that the creeks up at Snoqualmie Pass are not really filling in. Source lake is still open as of last weekend. I have also noticed over the last 13 years of my Cascade backcountry skiing experience that the snow line (the elevation at which the winter snow pack remains all season) has been slowly inching up. There are predictions that in 40 years the snow line which is now around 2,400' will be over 4000'. That means you can kiss a lot of the backcountry skiing at Snoqualmie Pass good by. Does the ski culture really want to continue to ignore this?<br><br>So I've started this thread, I'd like to see it grow and explode and turn into a movment just like a snowball falling from the limb of a fir tree onto the snowpack starting a small sluff that grows and gains momentum and mass until it becomes a class 4 avalanche.<br><br>Check out these links:<br> www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/default.asp

seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/100613_climatechange19.shtml

Well all of the diesel exhaust from ski lifts can't be helping either. Neither does the exhaust from all of the cars we use to haul ourselves out into the hills.<br><br>Dirty air deposits crap all over the glaciers, and that is thought to hasten their melting, and/or inhibit the retention of new snow. So what is more to blame, global warming, or air pollution itself? <br><br>Does this have anything to do with the rumors of millions of tons of dust and other various air contaminants flying over the Pacific from Asia? Or even, for the sake of argument, could this just be an ignorable "natural climate trend" as per the dogma of corporate industrialism?<br><br>Or should we just try to carpool to work instead of driving by ourselves in an SUV from Everett to Seattle twice a day? Since when did "one man, one car" become the creed of the modern metropolis?

Haven't you seen....sand dune skiing is already the rage!<br>Just imagine no more boiler plate to deal with on gnarly descents, just nice scree slopes....doesn't sound too bad.

Some scientists say we'll experience a mini ice age when the polar ice caps melt. If this is true, I'm all for global warming!

Lots of people are plotting glacial retreat using sat photos and surveys. The results fall mainly on deaf ears in this country. <br>I saw an old photo of Greenlake in Seattle, frozen with 100's of people ice skating on it. I don't think you'll see that any time soon. I believe it was the Economist that had an article recently that European banks are no longer financing new ski resorts built below 5000 feet.