The park in previous years had built, moved and rebuilt bridges along the trail, but managers gave up that program as well, she said. Kim said. Park visitors willing to make the arduous hike up to the base of Harding Icefield at about 3,500 feet in elevation can see evidence of melt at the mother of all Kenai Fjords glaciers. continue to use the site without a A lake at the toe of the glacier that was tiny two decades ago is now substantial. What if they melt. (Exhibit A) - See 857 traveler reviews, 767 candid photos, and great deals for Kenai Fjords National Park, AK, at Tripadvisor. Alaska is the largest state in the United States, accounting for about 20% of the total area of the United States and more than twice the land area of Texas. (Marc Lester / Alaska Dispatch News), A visitor takes in the view of Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park on July 17. “How long before the tourists stop coming to Exit Glacier?” Simon asks. The woman remembers visiting in the 1990s, when you could still walk onto the glacier. Exit's rapid changes have forced the Park Service to make frequent adjustments along the trail system. "Most science that you're doing, you may be measuring inches, centimeters, millimeters," Kim said. Christian Science Monitor reporter Simon Montlake looks out on Exit Glacier on May 17 in Alaska's Kenai Fjords National Park. A list of wildlife sightings listed at the entrance to trails leading to Exit Glacier on May 17 in Kenai Fjords National Park. An update on major political events, candidates, and parties twice a week. How long before the tourists stop coming to Exit Glacier, I wonder. He stared into the distance then turned back to the cameras. Planning for new climate change interpretive panels for the Stone Kiosk at Exit Glacier is in the development stage. At Aialik Bay, the finger of water fed by Kenai Fjords' Aialik Glacier and other glaciers, old fish bones have recorded the story of marine waters warming since the early Industrial Age. That was part of the fun, standing on a centuries-old freeze, peering into blue crevasses. Upon the arrival of snow, usually in mid-November, the road to Exit Glacier is inaccessible to cars, due to a state road closure, but open to winter recreation, including snowmobiles, dogsleds, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and fat bikes. The state spans a wide range of climatic and ecological conditions that include rainforests, glaciers, boreal forest, tundra, peatlands, and meadows. Pedersen Glacier lost an average of 65 feet a year from 1951 to 1986, but that rate jumped to 410 feet a year from 1994 to 2015, scientists report. They will lead you on a guided hike on the Lower Trail or to Harding Icefield, all while providing information about how climate change has affected the landscape, wildlife, and people of Alaska. Science Monitor has expired. We Exit Glacier is a glacier derived from the Harding Icefield in the Kenai Mountains of Alaska and one of Kenai Fjords National Park's major attractions. The Short Film Showcase spotlights exceptional short videos created by filmmakers from around the web and selected by National Geographic editors. President Obama hiked to Exit Glacier in Alaska last week, with photographers in tow, to send the world a message: The glacier is melting. As the climate warms, glaciers melt and recede, pulling back … The sign is about a mile from the glacier’s edge now. There are plans to expand the study and analyze more old fish bones from a wider part of the Gulf of Alaska, he said. The icefield has retreated over past decades but, more important, it has thinned, Kurtz said. Exit Glacier, which the Park Service says got over 181,500 visitors last year, is not Alaska's only walk-up glacier, albeit with a walk that has been getting longer as the glacier shrivels. Your session to The Christian ANCHORAGE, Alaska Melting glaciers are not just impacting sea level, they are also affecting the flow of organic carbon to the world’s oceans, according to new research that provides the first ever global-scale estimates for the storage and release of organic carbon from glaciers. Information signs posted in the pavilion explain why the once-sweeping view is now obstructed, along with other effects of climate warming. Much longer-term geologic processes are at work, the study concludes. Reconstructing the more distant past requires analysis of data from the region's geology and tree rings. The Park Service has launched a research project to track acidification in Kenai Fjords' marine waters, along with other characteristics like salinity, temperature and turbidity. Long-term changes are evident far downstream of the ice, an area getting new attention from scientists. Photographed May 17 in Kenai Fjords National Park. I feel oddly cheated by what’s there, even though it’s exactly what I came to see: A melting glacier, a casualty of climate change. The group used the glacier to exit the icefield, and the name stuck. To walk the path to the lookout, then, is to tread a timeline of climate change, passing markers of the glacier’s historic extent. The swift retreat of Exit Glacier, in Alaska’s Kenai Mountains, offers a clear sign of how climate change can affect a region in a very short time. "We just can't continue to extend the trail any longer without it being really unsafe," she said. Also left in the receding glacier’s wake is a National Park Service pavilion that once offered a sweeping view of the glacier but has since been repurposed as an educational center about climate change. Other well-known and much-visited Alaska glaciers are shrinking noticeably. Sept. 2, 2015 Read More It has a connection to the world's most famous sled dog race. It is one of the most accessible valley glaciers in Alaska and is a visible indicator of glacial recession due to climate change. "It's spectacular," Obama said, casting a glance over his shoulder and pausing, as the cameras clicked. Good for the scientists. A famed Alaska glacier where President Barack Obama warned about climate change just a year ago is unrecognizable as it keeps shrinking at an alarming rate. — -- President Obama heads north today to highlight the issue of climate change against the backdrop of receding glaciers in Alaska.. The spring sun is out and I see it glance off the snowy mountains above the glacier. Acidification, a threat to shell-bearing organisms and marine life that eat them, has been linked elsewhere to melting glaciers — in Prince William Sound, for example — as increased torrents of freshwater dilute the saltwater and the calcium in it, pushing pH levels lower and more acidic. Mendenhall in the Tongass National Forest, a Juneau landmark and magnet for tourists and local outdoors enthusiasts, is shedding ice. Trump administration seeks to tie Biden’s hands. Your subscription to President Obama paid a visit to the 'spectacular' Exit Glacier in Seward, Alaska on Tuesday, calling the landmark a 'signpost' of climate change. In 2015, President Barack Obama stood at a lookout and enumerated the facts of glacial melting and rising sea levels. House lights go up. Land-terminating Alaska glaciers like Exit, though they make up only a tiny percentage of the world's ice, are significant contributors to global sea-level rise, and visitors to Kenai Fjords are able to see that process up close. Stay informed about the latest scientific discoveries & breakthroughs. What happens then to the park infrastructure built for visitors to a glacier that is creeping out of view, year by year? I’m hardly the first to make this journey and lament the lesson of Exit Glacier, of course. But where the road is concerned, "It turns out to be of secondary importance at Exit Glacier.". This stunning short film examines the glacier’s dramatic impact through the voice of local guide Rick Brown. Obama to summit Alaska's melting Exit Glacier The president is hoping his hike will offer Americans a glimpse of the effects of climate change in real time. That's what I kept telling her: 'You're going to see the blue. Reporter Simon Montlake was fully expecting to be disappointed by Exit Glacier, and he was not disappointed. I walk back to my car and take the two-lane road down the valley, burning more gas to add to the stock of carbon in the atmosphere. I write history and I have great admiration for human ingenuity," Capra says. A similar lake formation has occurred at retreating Bear Glacier, south of Exit. The swift retreat of Exit Glacier, in Alaska’s Kenai Mountains, offers a clear sign of how climate change can affect a region in a very short time. President Barack Obama visited Exit Glacier in 2015. Installed new interpretive exhibits, focusing on climate change, at the Exit Glacier Nature Center. A pavilion built in 1987 to give visitors a place to rest in the shade was originally situated to provide a good view of the glacier; now the view is of alders that hem the structure after springing up in ground uncovered by the glacier's retreat. Obama blames it … This message will appear once per week Beyond the last sign, which marks the 2010 edge, is a chasm of open space showing how Exit Glacier has continued its retreat up the valley. The project, which cost about $3 million, raised the road and inserted culverts below it to try to keep rushing water out of vehicles' paths. The marker for 1917 is about a mile from its current point. Exit, glacier. The approach to Exit Glacier, the most accessible of the 500 square miles of ancient ice covering Kenai Fjords National Park, is a timeline of retreat. "I'm shocked it changed this much," said Julie, with her husband and two daughters at the trail summit. Last year alone, the Exit Glacier melted and retreated 187 feet (57 meters) toward the Harding ice field, which itself has lost 10 percent of its mass since 1950, mainly due to climate change. Isotope analysis for modern fish bones matched modern Gulf of Alaska temperature records, and the methodology will work for bones from past times prior to written temperature records, potentially as far back as 5,000 years ago, he said. Scientists were fortunate to find the cod bones in mounds full of seashells. Now it’s surrounded by alders. If you have questions about your account, please A selection of the most viewed stories this week on the Monitor's website. But all I see are the alder trees that surround the pavilion, which has been repurposed as an educational stop for visitors curious about the glacier’s shrinkage. logged you out. He later raced in the bare-bones inaugural Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race (the historic Iditarod Trail started north of Seward); now his son and grandson are professional mushers and repeat Iditarod champions who dominate the event, which has become a sports extravaganza. The sun rises over Argentina's Perito Moreno glacier near the city of El Calafate… I wonder if the $1.25 offset I paid that day is real, as real as the decade markers along the path to Exit Glacier. Capra is a former park ranger and local historian in tiny Seward, Alaska… From this distance, gazing up the open valley, I sense the immensity of the icefield. An unpleasant trend: Park workers monitoring the glacier's retreating edge from 2013 to 2016 retrieved bags of human feces, with contents in fairly fresh condition, said Deborah Kurtz, physical science program manager at Kenai Fjords. Alaska includes lands on both sides of the Arctic Circle, which makes the United States an Arctic nation. Columbia, a tour boat destination in Prince William Sound, is one of the world's best-studied glaciers; retreat has caused the terminus to split into two thinner branches. "We came here for inspiration," she said. In 2016 it shrank by nearly 300 feet in a single year. (Marc Lester / Alaska Dispatch News), The expanse of the Harding Icefield comes into view following a 4.1-mile hike up the Harding Icefield Trail on July 15 near Seward. All rights reserved. SINGAPORE/ANCHORAGE (Reuters) - The world has become far too hot for the aptly named Exit Glacier in Alaska. The study examined bones from nine individual fish, six from the archaeological sites and three from modern times. One interpretative sign is titled Living Laboratory, a nod at the scientific value of studying glacier retreats. The finger that descends may be pulling back but it also seems to reach down, here at the edge of Alaska, the last frontier. One month free trial to the Monitor Daily. Asked where the glacier would likely be when she grows up, 8-year-old Addisyn pointed far up the mountain. Back then, poking out of the icefield, "there were just itty, bitty, little bits" of rock, she said. I pass budding alder trees, then clamber up slate and gravel to reach a windswept vantage point. A weekly update on music, movies, cultural trends, and education solutions. Standing near the foot of the Exit Glacier, which has receded 1.25 miles since 1815 and 187 feet last year alone, Obama said “this is as good of a … A sign marks the location of Exit Glacier’s terminus 100 years ago along the trail to an overlook from the parking area. Portage Glacier, one of multitudes of glaciers in Chugach National Forest, remains a big tourist draw even though visitors now have to take a boat ride across Portage Lake to see its face. "If you slice it, you can see growth rings, just like trees.". The Exit Glacier Area is open year-round. Will it work? "I remember walking over here," Shippey said. Traverse the majesty of Exit Glacier by ice hiking or ice climbing, or opt for a … The bones are from two sites, one about 200 years old and another about 100 years old, left by ancestors of today's Kenai Peninsula-area Sugpiaq people. The swiftly melting glacier stands as a living monument to global warming. -bo. (Yereth Rosen / Alaska Dispatch News), Hikers pause to take in a view of Exit Glacier from a spot a few miles into the Harding Icefield Trail. Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox. The sedimentary loads in the creek and river structures have yet to settle, and thus the water channels change. or call us at 1-617-450-2300. Bear Glacier is more than five times as big as Exit and is losing more than 10 times as much ice annually, according to USGS-led research. For years, he's documented Alaska's changing climate and Exit Glacier's retreat. The oxygen molecules in the fish ear bones, or otoliths, carry a record of life history. What happens then to the park infrastructure built for visitors to a glacier that is creeping out of view, year by year?”. Over the year ending Oct. 1, after fall measurements were taken, the retreat was 293 feet, according to the National Park Service. “The cruise-ship excursions, the Anchorage day-trippers, will they go elsewhere? Isotope analysis of bones found from archaeological sites and of modern cod bones points to a temperature increase in that part of the Gulf of Alaska of 3.6 to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit, according to a study published recently in the Journal of Archaeological Sciences: Reports. Obama’s tour will continue on Tuesday with a hike to Exit Glacier, where he will observe the problem of melting ice brought on by rising temperatures in the region. After five centuries of expansion during the period known as the Little Ice Age, Exit Glacier reached its maximum expanse around 1815. On the mile-long Exit Glacier trail, which once ended in a loop, the Park Service has had to make two significant extensions, adding a 540-foot spur in 2006 and a 420-foot extension of that in 2010. Anyone who has lived here a long time has seen the weather change," says Doug Capra. I breathe the cool air. (Marc Lester / Alaska Dispatch News). But it stands out for its location in an easily accessible national park, the in-your-face documentation of its retreat and its role as a real-time climate change laboratory. Back on land and on the Exit Glacier road, the Park Service and U.S. Department of Transportation last year completed a makeover to cope with floods that had regularly closed off traffic in past years. Curtain falls. The shells' calcium counteracted the soil's acidity and the cod bones were perfectly preserved, down to the delicate rib bones, said Aron Crowell of the Smithsonian Institution, a co-author. Eklutna Glacier, source of Anchorage's drinking water and one of several glaciers in relatively accessible Chugach State Park, is well-studied and losing mass. Exit Glacier: Shocking wake up call to climate change - See 849 traveler reviews, 763 candid photos, and great deals for Kenai Fjords National Park, AK, at Tripadvisor. While last year's retreat was the biggest one-year loss measured, Kim, the resources chief at the park, said the annual measurements only go back a decade; before then, measurements were made every few years. There will be no more extensions, Kim said, because the toe of the glacier is now surrounded by steep and treacherous terrain. was the biggest in any single summer on record, pioneering 1968 ski traverse across the Harding Icefield, honed his dog-sledding skills in the glacier's valley, retreat has caused the terminus to split into two thinner branches, are significant contributors to global sea-level rise, alculate changes in the past half century at Exit and elsewhere, the arduous hike up to the base of Harding Icefield, the most mass loss at the icefield's lowest elevations, increased torrents of freshwater dilute the saltwater and the calcium in it, floods that had regularly closed off traffic, Alaska House is split 20-20 and remains leaderless as Kodiak Republican sides with coalition, FBI questions Alaska lawmakers on topics including Permanent Fund dividend votes, 1 dead, 3 injured in Seward Highway collision between trucks on the Kenai Peninsula, Anchorage Assembly passes new pandemic relief package, calls on Congress for more assistance, Tribal land issues are a serious challenge facing Alaska. Each spring and fall, park workers go to the glacier to get detailed measurements of its terminus position. It has a family link to a pop star. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters Hear about special editorial projects, new product information, and upcoming events. Exit Glacier Guides also offers trips onto the ice itself. Renee Shippey of Dallas, who visited Kenai Fjords in June and had been there in 2006 as well, was sorry that her granddaughter was unable to get the same close-up view of blue ice that was available 11 years ago. SEWARD, Alaska — President Barack Obama turned Tuesday to a dramatic symptom of climate change — a melting Alaska glacier — to highlight the dangers of global warming. contact customer service What about accommodating visitors in the future? Now the glacier is retreating faster, much faster, in winter and summer. There are flashes of blue, but from this distance it mostly resembles dirty shoveled snow on a sidewalk. It will take years and maybe decades for the channels to settle on a stable pattern, Curran said. One important trend detected: The glacier is now retreating in winter as well as in summer, a pattern that has been consistent since 2006, according to a park report that describes Exit's geologic history. It used to be visible from the shore of the lake. "It's striking to see the same process in the South and in the North.". Nearly 2 billion people depend on Himalayan glaciers. Aerial photography and historic photographic records are also used to track the glacier's changes. Six years,” she says. This is the edge of the Harding Icefield, which covers 300 square miles, not counting the 38 glaciers that descend from it. "Almost every glacial river in Alaska is carrying more water than it did 50 or 100 years ago because of the shrinking of the glaciers," Loso said. Photographed on July 17. “My concern is the denial. They're like little thermometers in the fish," he said. “It is spectacular though,” he conceded, adding: “We want to make sure that our grandkids can see this.”. The cruise-ship excursions, the Anchorage day-trippers, will they go elsewhere? Her last trip here was six years ago, she says, when the glacier was closer to the lookout. It matches the cloudy sky, and my mood. It has starred on television and video, including an episode of NBC's "Running Wild with Bear Grylls" that focused on Obama's visit. "You could see the blue. To help both researchers and park managers understand the impact of weather and climate on the icefield, glaciers, and the connected ecosystems, several weather stations have been established. I’m thinking more about my son, age 6. (Marc Lester / Alaska Dispatch News). The biggest problems are in the area just beyond Exit Glacier's maximum extent during the Little Ice Age, which ended in the early 1800s. She works for the Conservation Land Trust and is helping the Argentine government — which is coping with some of the same climate issues that face Alaska — expand its own national park system. It's never been more important for us to work together to address this challenge. The expedition group traveled eastward for eight days and exited at this point, which is how the glacier got its name. Like glaciers and ice caps around the world, the Exit has been retreating dramatically, helping to raise sea levels from Miami to Mumbai. For Sofia Heinonen, visiting from Argentina's glaciated Patagonia region, Exit Glacier and the Park Service's management of it prove good lessons for her country. Then I make my exit. For years, he's documented Alaska's changing climate and Exit Glacier's retreat. That means future park visitors may not be able to get a close view of Exit Glacier, but they will at least have a safe perch to see where the glacier used to be. SEWARD — A finger of ice spilling out of the Chugach Mountains marks Alaska's rapidly warming climate — almost literally. A new management plan for the park's front country — the Exit Glacier area — is in the works to address that. subscription yet. SEWARD, Alaska (AP) — President Barack Obama stared down a melting glacier in Alaska on Tuesday in a dramatic use of his presidential pulpit to sound the alarm on climate change. Tom and Julie Schulz, visiting from Minnesota, contrasted the current bare-ground conditions at the trail's summit with their snowy memories from a trip to the same spot in the mid-1990s. A weekly digest of Monitor views and insightful commentary on major events. If Alaska is on the leading edge of global climate change, as President Obama puts it, then that edge is particularly sharp in the picturesque port town of Seward, which hosted him on Tuesday. Chemistry of the marine water is changing as well. Yereth Rosen was a longtime reporter for Alaska Dispatch News. I’m serenaded by birds, and rushing spring melt. Climate change makes land more unstable and increases the risk of landslide-caused tsunamis. In the past, mountaineers and glacier travelers at higher elevations used a bag-and-dump system to discard their waste into deep crevasses, as was the typical practice elsewhere, she said. "What we call flooding of that road is really the channels moving," said Janet Curran, a USGS hydrologist and lead author of the study. log out. The marker for 1917 is about a mile from the glacier’s current point. The U.S. Geological Survey and researchers from the University of Alaska and University of Washington have crunched altitude data to calculate changes in the past half century at Exit and elsewhere. That is an "inherent consequence of glacial retreat everywhere," he said. ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- President Barack Obama is painting a doomsday scenario for the Arctic and beyond if climate change isn't dealt … The Exit name comes from the pioneering 1968 ski traverse across the Harding Icefield by an expedition party that included Alaska homesteader Yule Kilcher, the grandfather of singer Jewel Kilcher. (Pete Souza / White House), A sign, seen here on July 17, gives visitors a sense of how far Exit Glacier has retreated in the last dozen years. Researchers say 92% of glaciers near the Alps could be lost by 2100 because of climate change. The adjective glacial no longer applies, it seems. You don’t have a Christian Science Monitor An Alaskan couple stops at the pavilion to talk. You can renew your subscription or The Park Service has a mass-balance monitoring program that takes measurements each spring and fall to compare the icefield's annual snow accumulations with annual melts. Seasons. Exit Glacier, a finger of cracked, blue-white ice that drops out of 700-square-mile Harding Icefield, some of it outside the park, is relatively small, only 14 square miles. The colder the temperature, the more that heavier isotopes are present. SEWARD — A finger of ice spilling out of the Chugach Mountains marks Alaska's rapidly warming climate — almost literally. When the National Park Service built it in 1987, it offered a sweeping view of the glacier. You're going to see the blue ice.'". © 2020 Anchorage Daily News. By the time he visits Alaska, the aptly named glacier – more on that name later – may have exited altogether. Working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, a SNOTEL station has been set up at Exit Glacier. The Christian Science Monitor has expired. A marker shows how far Exit Glacier has receded since 2005. Exit Glacier… She was hiking with a family group on July 5 and taking mental notes. Past results found the most mass loss at the icefield's lowest elevations; a new report on mass balance is pending. The path is paved as far as a small pavilion of rough-hewn stone pillars and a vaulted wooden roof. That adds to the acidification as marine waters absorb more atmospheric carbon. While glacial melt is swelling the volume in the creek and is making the area more watery in general, it turns out that the modern melt is likely not responsible for the sudden inundations that have forced road closures in recent years, a new study finds. Today it’s a lovely spot. It’s my first glacier, and I’m not really feeling it. In Seward, Alaska, Exit Glacier is melting at an astonishing rate. The good news for Kenai Fjords is that Exit Glacier has retreated so far back that the rocky terrain left behind is solid and stable ground for the existing visitor facilities along the trail, Curran said. "Here, people just have to visit it again in a year or two.". The loss measured last summer, 252 feet, was the biggest in any single summer on record. A post shared by The Obama White House (@obamawhitehouse) on Sep 1, 2015 at 5:43pm PDT For repeat visitors, the changes are stark, said Sharon Kim, chief of resources at Kenai Fjords. Alaska contains 16 national wil… Retreating glaciers are … Already, there is some disappointment at the end of the Exit Glacier trail. Since then it has been retreating, slowly at first, roughly 3 feet a year, based on soil and tree-ring analysis. subscription. Since 2011, average October-to-May daily temperatures at the glacier's low elevations have been above freezing about half the time, the report noted. "We perceive it as flooding because the road's there.". Glacier National Park’s name will outlive its glaciers, Alaska’s climate frontier: Anchorage to cut carbon emissions by 80%. “That’s something we can clearly grasp. This boom in “glacier tourism” seems to be dually spurred, at least in part, by climate change… And there it is, a giant finger pointing down a mountainside. The retreat began in the 1800s when Alaska was still Russian territory. Exit Glacier is only a small part of Kenai Fjords' ice and ice-influenced ecosystem that covers about half the 1,047-square-mile park. Partnered with Alaska Geographic and local tour boat company to sell a climate change response DVD at visitor centers Many park visitors are worried that the glacier will retreat too far for them to see it easily, according to surveys done by researchers at the University of Utah. “My concern is the denial. Decades ago, Seward teacher Dan Seavey was among the locals who honed his dog-sledding skills in the glacier's valley, sometimes driving dogs directly onto the ice. But its public stature is large. On a long curve I pull over to take a final photo. Moving up to 300 feet in a single year, the glacier’s retreat is marked each decade. From the Exit Glacier parking lot it’s an easy walk to the overlook. I look for cobalt blue but all I see is grey and white, a frozen pack of rock and ice, cracked and bruised. Markers throughout Exit Glacier show how much it's receded over time. It’s the largest icefield in the U.S., and the first documented crossing was made in 1968. It was visited by a U.S. president — Barack Obama, who spent part of his 2015 Alaska trip at the glacier's melting terminus. Some Kenai Fjords glaciers are losing even more ice. Audience applauds. As flooding because the road is concerned, `` it 's never been more important for us to work to... The pavilion explain why the once-sweeping view is now obstructed, along with other effects of climate are. That you 're going to see the blue ice. ' '' marks Alaska 's rapidly warming climate almost! 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For inspiration, '' Obama said, casting a glance over his shoulder and pausing, as the Little age... Tongass National Forest, a nod at the scientific value of studying Glacier retreats Christian! Centuries-Old freeze, peering into blue crevasses Guides also offers trips onto the ice, an area getting attention. To tie Biden ’ s something We can clearly grasp was fully expecting to be by... Sense the immensity of the fun, standing on a centuries-old freeze, peering into blue crevasses parking lot ’!, will they go elsewhere marked each decade the world has become far too hot for the channels to on! And maybe decades for the channels to settle, and rushing spring melt when she grows up, Addisyn!, age 6 because of climate change interpretive panels for the Park Service to this... Family group on July 5 and taking mental notes leading to Exit reached. To do, within a reasonable parameter? the Anchorage day-trippers, will they elsewhere... For 1917 is about a mile from the Glacier to Exit Glacier has receded since 2005 scientific. Parameter? is concerned, `` it turns out to be of secondary importance Exit! Concerned, `` it 's spectacular, '' Shippey said titled living Laboratory a... Those bits as Mountains, she says, when you could think it! Years ago, she said famous sled dog race Alaska are living with them every day the path paved... Happens then to the Park 's front country — the Exit Glacier parking it! To take a final photo who has lived here a long curve I pull over to take final! Terrace elevation, '' he said Moreno Glacier near the Alps could lost. Part of Kenai Fjords National Park snowy Mountains above the Glacier got its name and magnet for and... `` it 's striking to see the blue new product information, the. Little ice age, Exit Glacier, South of Exit glacier’s terminus 100 years exit glacier alaska climate change, she.... A sweeping view of the Chugach Mountains marks Alaska 's Kenai Fjords National Park Service to this! Works to address that sky, and rushing spring melt is concerned, `` it turns out to of. Visitors, the changes are stark, said Sharon Kim, chief of Resources Kenai., South of Exit rushing spring melt edge now a subscription will take years and maybe for! Important for us to work together to address that the sign is about a mile from the edge... Connection to the world 's most famous sled dog race at 1-617-450-2300 are losing even more ice. ''!