Glaciers in CO

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Ptglhs
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Glaciers in CO

Post by Ptglhs »

I recently wandered up to st Mary's "glacier" and since it clearly isn't a glacier it left me wondering about the veracity of the claims of other purported glaciers in Colorado. Has anyone been on any glaciers in Colorado? Are they actual glaciers with the deep blue dense ice and crevasses and flowing ice or are they just permanent snow fields with some water ice at the bottom? I'm asking this question of people who have been places in the world with glacial ice. I did some glacier travel and climbing on Mt Baker July '16, and was in Jasper National Park in Canada in '14 which is why the comparison was such a let down. [Yes, I know we get less precipitation and cloud cover and we're further south! I'm not complaining about Colorado, I'm just asking if anyone here has been on a glacier which would be recognized as one by people from extreme northern or southern latitudes].
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SkaredShtles
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Re: Glaciers in CO

Post by SkaredShtles »

Ptglhs wrote:<snip> I'm just asking if anyone here has been on a glacier which would be recognized as one by people from extreme northern or southern latitudes].
Nope.
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Re: Glaciers in CO

Post by Liquid Shadow »

I've seen a small crevasse or hole on the Arapaho Glacier to the east of North Arapaho Peak. Saw a similar hole on the snowfield between Mt. Toll and Paiute Peak. Again not sure if they qualify as a glacier, but I've seen big gaps in them.
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Re: Glaciers in CO

Post by Scott P »

St Marys is not a glacier, but there are a few genuine, albeit very small glaciers in Colorado. Fair Glacier does have a sizable crevasse in most years.
Last edited by Scott P on Wed Aug 23, 2017 1:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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claytid
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Re: Glaciers in CO

Post by claytid »

Ptglhs wrote:I'm just asking if anyone here has been on a glacier which would be recognized as one by people from extreme northern or southern latitudes].
It's been answered but there's nothing in CO that would even kind of resemble what you can find in the Cascades, let alone in extreme latitudes.
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Re: Glaciers in CO

Post by Monster5 »

There are glaciers in Colorado per the criteria and definition, but they are neither large nor impressive relative to other regions.

I haven't seen evidence St Mary's still meets the definition but Arapaho and Fair certainly do.
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Re: Glaciers in CO

Post by kaiman »

Ptglhs wrote:I recently wandered up to st Mary's "glacier" and since it clearly isn't a glacier it left me wondering about the veracity of the claims of other purported glaciers in Colorado. Has anyone been on any glaciers in Colorado? Are they actual glaciers with the deep blue dense ice and crevasses and flowing ice or are they just permanent snow fields with some water ice at the bottom? I'm asking this question of people who have been places in the world with glacial ice. I did some glacier travel and climbing on Mt Baker July '16, and was in Jasper National Park in Canada in '14 which is why the comparison was such a let down. [Yes, I know we get less precipitation and cloud cover and we're further south! I'm not complaining about Colorado, I'm just asking if anyone here has been on a glacier which would be recognized as one by people from extreme northern or southern latitudes].
From a mountaineering perspective, Colorado doesn't have anything close to the active glaciers found in other ranges such as the Cascades, etc. Even the glaciers in the Wind Rivers of Wyoming, while only a couple hundred miles north, are much more glacier like than those in Colorado.

Colorado really only has glaciers in name only i.e. Saint Mary's Glacier, Tyndall Glacier, Row Glacier, etc. (most of the named ones are on the Front Range and in RMNP), which are really permanent snowfields that one point were active glaciers that have shrunk significantly over the past 50-100 years, and now often times melt out almost completely during low snow/warm weather years. While they are still technically classified as "glaciers", most of the ones in Colorado are no longer active (meaning that they aren't subjected to the whims of gravity and don't move, crack (crevasse), or calve), nor do they grow in size or volume from year to year like glaciers in other ranges such as in Alaska, the Alps, the Andes, the Artic, or the Himalaya tend to.

Many mountains in Colorado still have remnants of previous glacial activity such as "rock glaciers" which are really the rock moraines left by glaciers melting at the end of the last ice age that continue to move as if they were a glacier themselves or aren't related to snow glaciers at all but are caused by large scale erosion in the rock layers on mountains that in some cases occurs in similar way as glacial ice activity (see mass wasting).

Here is a shot of the rock glacier on Mount Sopris, Colorado (note how similar it looks to a snow glacier):
Sopris Rock Glacier1.JPG
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Also here's a link to some information on the history and location of Colorado's glaciers: http://glaciers.us/Glaciers-Colorado if you're interested.

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Ptglhs
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Re: Glaciers in CO

Post by Ptglhs »

Thanks Kai,

I actually read that article on us.glaciers before making this post. Nothing like asking the people who've had their boots on the ice/ground. That shot of Mt Sporis is pretty amazing!
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Re: Glaciers in CO

Post by pfiore1 »

Here's another "rock glacier" moraine. They're really cool looking and interesting to imagine how they were formed, especially if you love geology. They look like a blob made of rock. This one was somewhere near Sneffels.
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Re: Glaciers in CO

Post by Monster5 »

Arapaho Glacier, definitely still active:
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I really sucked at staying on top of photos this year, but here are a few glacier shots from this summer:

Coleman-Roosevelt, WA
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Bugaboo, Canada
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Ruth, AK
Image

Mooses Tooth, AK
Image

Dinwoody/Gooseneck, WY
Image
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Re: Glaciers in CO

Post by DaveLanders »

I've seen a crevasse on Andrews Glacier in RMNP, but I don't think it's there every year.

A bergschrund sometimes opens up at the top of Tyndall Glacier in RMNP, which would indicate that the whole mass is moving like a glacier sometimes.
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Re: Glaciers in CO

Post by Harlan U »

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I’m a little late to the party here, but I’d like to put my two cents in on this topic. I’ve done pretty extensive research on this trying to get old glacier photos for comparison purposes, and in the process I have come across some pretty convincing evidence that some of our named “glaciers” are still actual living glaciers. I feel like there is zero doubt in my mind that Arapaho glacier is a real glacier. The rest of them are more unclear. I can tell you that the largest St. Vrain Glacier, Fair Glacier, Andrews Glacier, Tyndall Glacier, and Navajo Glacier still show some crevasses. Rowe Glacier appears to have “died” sometime after 2014. The rest of them are in doubt, but every glacier except Peck, Moomaw, and Mills glacier have some photos that indicate they were real glaciers in the past.
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Last edited by Harlan U on Tue Aug 17, 2021 5:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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