Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

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  • A hiker explores an ice cave recently revealed at Mendenhall Glacier. As the glaciers in southeast Alaska melt, ice is exposed thousands of years after being buried. Some tunnels in the 1,500-square-mile Juneau Icefield are connected to ice caves, which formed as the glacier moved across uneven surfaces.<br />
During the Pleistoncene Great Ice Age several climate fluctuations created glacial advance and retreat, and vast sheets of ice covered nearly a third of the Earth’s land mass and one half of Alaska. As the climate warmed during the Holocene, ice retreated remaining in Alaskan at high elevations. The most recent variation in advance and retreat created the Juneau Icefield formed 3,000 years ago and ending in the 1700’s. Mendenhall Glacier has flowed for 250 years for 13 miles ending in a lake at its’ base.
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  • Equiped with crampons and emergency equipment, a hiker crawls through a blue ice tunnel formed in the Mendenhall Glacier. As the glaciers in southeast Alaska melt, ice is exposed thousands of years after being buried. Some tunnels in the 1,500-square-mile Juneau Icefield are connected to ice caves, which formed as the glacier moved across uneven surfaces.<br />
<br />
During the Pleistoncene Great Ice Age several climate fluctuations created glacial advance and retreat, and vast sheets of ice covered nearly a third of the Earth’s land mass and one half of Alaska. As the climate warmed during the Holocene, ice retreated remaining in Alaskan at high elevations. The most recent variation in advance and retreat created the Juneau Icefield formed 3,000 years ago and ending in the 1700’s. Mendenhall Glacier has flowed for 250 years for 13 miles ending in a lake at its’ base.
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  • An ice climber climbing an ice candle in Triglavski National Park.
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  • An ice climber climbing an ice candle in Triglavski National Park.
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  • Renown ice climber Marco Prezelj tackles an ice candle in Triglav National Park, Slovenia's only national park in the Alps. Frozen waterfalls are a technical challenge and Prezelj explained he listens to the pitch of sound of ice cracking to plan the safest route.
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  • Climbers leave their base camp to trek on the ice field of Mendenhall Glacier. The glacier is one of many that connect to the vast Juneau Ice Field, a 1,500 square mile remnant of the last ice age, cradled high in the coastal mountain’s lofty peaks in the Tongass National Forest.
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  • A hiker treks over cracking ice fissures of Mendenhall Glacier. Locals are drawn to explore newly exposed ice tunnels as the glacier retreats. The face of the glacier is an active calving zone. Ice near the face of the glacier is also weaker and can be treacherous due to the continuing movement.
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  • Waterfall of melting ice from glaciers in Stikine icefieds.
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  • Le Conte glacier in Stikine ice fields near Petersburg.
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  • Ice tunnels and crevices in Mendenhall Glacier.
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  • Thrill seekers wear dry suits to ice dive in St. Moritz Lake in the Swiss Alps. The Alpine resort town draws visitors year around and is known as a ritzy and glamorous playground for European tourists.
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  • Taku Glacier advances in the Juneau Ice Field.
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  • Ice on branches of trees near Mendenhall Glacier.
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  • Fisherman unloads halibut onto ice at the dock.
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  • Ice on a window.
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  • Hockey players brave the cold and the thin ice  for an afternoon game.
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  • Fish carcasses on ice.
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  • People ice-fishing on the Ural River in front of the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Plant.
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  • LeConte Glacier is marked by granite peak formations such as Devis Thumb in the background in the Stikine Icefield.<br />
It is one of the few remnants of the once-vast ice sheets that covered much of North America during the Pleistocene, or Ice Age, the epoch lasting from 2.5 million to 11,700 years ago. LeConte covers 2,900 square miles along the crest of the Coastal Mountains that separate Canada and the U.S., extending 120 miles from the Whiting River to the Stikine River in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.<br />
There are over 100,000 glaciers in Alaska and LeConte is the southernmost active tidewater glacier in the northern hemisphere.
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  • LeConte Glacier is in the Stikine Icefield is one of the few remnants of the once-vast ice sheets that covered much of North America during the Pleistocene, or Ice Age, the epoch lasting from 2.5 million to 11,700 years ago. LeConte covers 2,900 square miles along the crest of the Coastal Mountains that separate Canada and the U.S., extending 120 miles from the Whiting River to the Stikine River in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.<br />
There are over 100,000 glaciers in Alaska and LeConte is the southernmost active tidewater glacier in the northern hemisphere. Since first charted in 1887, it has retreated almost 2.5 miles but is considered stable.
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  • Glaciers hug the granite rocks in the Stikine-LeConte Wilderness near Devils Thumb. Although melting, the Stikine Icecap covers almost 3,000 square miles with many hanging glaciers along the Coastal Mountains in Southeast Alaska.
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  • A newly married couple dances on Mendenhall Glacier. They took a helicopter onto the icefield and celebrated after the ceremony. Although dressed in traditional wedding formal wear, they were careful to step over the melting ice in their crampons.
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  • Taku Glacier is a tidewater glacier and the largest in the Juneau Icefield. Long an anomaly among  glaciers, it was advancing but in recent years has started to succumb to climate change and retreat. The blue ribbon of ice is mixed with sediment with the terminus of the Taku River.
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  • A big congratulations wish to a couple dressed in formal attire who donned crampons to walk on ice to be married on the Mendenhall Glacier. They took a helicopter onto the icefield and said their vows, then were toasted husband and wife.
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  • Dressed in formal attire, a couple donned crampons to walk on ice to be married on Mendenhall Glacier. A helicopter swept them onto the icefield where they said their vows that were recorded by a videographer to save their memory.
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  • Devils Thumb stands distinctively higher than other granite peaks in Stikine Icefield. <br />
Cloaked with hanging glaciers, it's name is Taalkhunaxhkʼu Shaa in Native Tlingit language, which means "the mountain that never flooded." <br />
The sheer cliffs covered in ice are often unstable creating avalanches making it a technical challenge for advanced mountain climbers.
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  • Ice-covered peaks of South Chilkat Mountains appear to have frosting on their tops from melting snow.
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  • A Ladin man collects a pail of water from a cattle trough and traverses carefully across a sheet of ice. Life is hard in rural, isolated villages like LaVal in the Italian Alps.
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  • A couple arrives by helicopter and carefully negotiates walking on ice onto the Mendenhall Glacier for their wedding ceremony in Juneau, Alaska.
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  • After the wedding ceremony on the Mendenhall Glacier, a newly married couple waits to fly back to their cruise ship by helicopter.
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  • A couple rides in a limousine to the airport to take a helicopter to the Mendenhall Glacier for their wedding.
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  • A newly married couple dances while wearing crampons and formal attire as they celebrate on Mendenhall Glacier. Many passengers arrive on cruise ships making tourism the fastest growing industry in Southeast Alaska.
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  • Taku Glacier in the Juneau Icefield is the deepest and thickest alpine, temperate, tidewater glacier in the world. From the air Taku Glacier appears to be a ribbon that winds out of the southeast corner of the icefield as an outlet glacier with its terminus in the Taku River.
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  • Taku Glacier is the deepest and thickest alpine temperate glacier in the world. It originates in the Juneau Icefield of the Tongass National Forest, and converges with the Taku River.
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  • Warm light of the setting sun highlights jagged peaks of granite cloaked by hanging glaciers in the Stikine Icefield. The icecap straddles the US-Canadian border between the Stikine River and Frederick Sound in Alaska's Southeast.
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  • A waterfall flows from a melting glacier in the Stikine icefields near Devils Thumb. The Stikine Icecap which straddles Alaska and British Columbia is known to climbers for its technically demanding and dangerous peaks and spires of granite.
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  • Icebergs near the coast of Newfoundland.
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  • Small icebergs, mere shards of what threatens Hibernia in the open sea, cruise right next to the shore.
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  • Towing an iceberg from a collision course with Hibernia oil platform.
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  • Tracy Arms, a retreating glacier in Tongass National Forest.
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  • Crevace on Mer de Glace Glacier.
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  • The Taku winds blow icy ridges that  overlook the Inside Passage. Stillness is only broken by the sound of skiers breaking through crusty snow to view the sunset view on top of Douglas Island nearby Juneau.
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  • The Taku winds blow icy ridges that  overlook the Inside Passage, stunting the trees that frame the view on top of Douglas Island nearby Juneau.
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  • Dressed in elegant formal wear, a bride and groom walk to the helicopter to fly up onto a glacier for their wedding ceremony in Southeast Alaska.
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  • A bride and groom cut the cake and kiss after their wedding ceremony that was held on the Mendenhall Glacier. Champagne, flowers, music and a linen table cloth set the scene for their atypical, romantic celebration.
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  • A bride picks up the groom for the kiss completing the wedding ceremony. The couple strapped on crampons beneath their formal wear and flew by helicopter onto the Mendenhall Glacier for a memorable experience in Southeast Alaska.
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  • A surreal and beautiful setting for the wedding ceremony. A cake and champagne are placed on a table covered with a linen cloth. A camera on a tripod records the couple's wedding vows taken on the Mendenhall Glacier. They said they were married in "God's Cathedral."
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  • Cross country skier glides along side his dog as snow falls on frozen Mendenhall Lake surrounded by trees at the base of the glacier in Alaska's Southeast.
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  • The Taku winds blow icy ridges framing an overlook of the Inside Passage from Douglas Island and the Tongass National Forest near Juneau. Sunset comes early and days are short in the winter months with approximately 7 hours of light.
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  • Tracy Arm Fjord is formed by a retreating glacier melting between granite walls. Sawyer Glacier calves into the fjord in the heart of the Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness in Southeast Alaska.
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  • A man boards an icy lift up to Zugspitze, Germany's highest peak in the Wetterstein Mountains. Three glaciers flank the mountain that is just over 9,700 feet high. The first ascent was in 1820, but today cable cars transport skiers and sightseers to the top for a view that is obstructed on snowy white-out on this day.
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  • A young hockey player dressed in a red snowsuit heads for the frozen lake in Mount Royal Park. Montreal's city park is beloved by in all four seasons with skiers, skater, hikers and bikers. It is a magnificent urban green space featuring 200 hectares of biodiversity and natural beauty. Inaugurated in 1876, it was planned by Frederick Law Olmsted who is famous for creating New York's Central Park.
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  • Mussels served at a Paris restaurant.
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  • A bride and groom are fitted for crampons before taking a helicopter flight to the Mendenhall Glacier to be married in the icefield.
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  • A couple steadies themselves with crampons and kiss while waiting for their wedding on the icy Mendenhall Glacier in Southeast Alaska.
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  • A baker decorates a cookie with icing.
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  • High desert where Ice Age Columbian mammoths, camels, lions, sloths and ancient horse herds roamed lush wetlands.
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  • Fishing village of Petersburg with Glaciers of Stikine Ice Fields.
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  • Mer de Glace Glacier in the Alps has lost 1000 meters in 130 years and thinned 150 meters in the last 100.  Children don helmets and clamp on crampons and to run playing on crevices between the last bit of melting ice on the northern slopes of Mont Blanc.
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  • A glacier recedes near the Matterhorn leaving ridges and jagged peaks where there was once ice. Much of the iconic mountain was carved away by glacial erosion. <br />
The National Snow and Ice Data Center describes Matterhorn geology in "All About Glaciers." Cirques are rounded hollows or bowl shapes after a glacier has melted away. Aretes are jagged narrow rides created when two glaciers meet eroding on both sides. And horns are created when several cirque glaciers erode until all that is left is a steep, pointed peak with sharp ridge-like Arêtes leading to the top.
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  • Blazing sunset leaves in shadow the famous gap in Kiger Gorge, atop Oregon's Steens Mountain. Steen's Mountain Wilderness is “the largest fault-block mountain in the northern Great Basin.”  The aerial view shows a forty mile long escarpment in southeastern Oregon has a notch cut out of the top and drops abruptly to the dry Alvord Desert, 5,500 feet below.<br />
Bulldozing down to basalt, Ice Age glaciers carved our huge gorges out of the Great Basin's largest fault block mountain. Beyond, Steens's east face plummets a vertical mile.
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  • South Chilkat Mountain peaks are kissed with warm light at sunset above the Icy Strait. High winds sweep ice and snow from ridge tops creating a landscape that is severe, yet appears serene.
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  • Crew members refer to this maneuver as the  "fish walk" when they slide across a boat's deck to push pink salmon into the ice storage area. The fishermen were seining in the waters in Southeast Alaska.<br />
Alaska’s fisheries are some of the richest in the world, with fishermen harvesting hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of salmon, crab, herring, halibut, pollock, and groundfish every year. However, overfishing, exploitation, and poor fisheries management in the ‘40s and ‘50s took a heavy toll on the industry. The state adopted drastic measures that saved the fishing industry from collapse. Tough times again hit the fishermen in the 1970s as the number of boats grew and increasingly efficient gear depleted catch levels to record lows.<br />
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Permit systems and reserves helped the commercial industry recover in the late ‘70s—a trend that has continued to the present because of cooperation between scientists and fishermen.
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  • Family and friends build a bonfire on a secluded beach on Prince of Wales Island.<br />
The main island includes hundreds of adjacent smaller islands—a total of more than 2,600 square miles with 990 miles of coastline and countless bays coves, inlets, and points.<br />
The landscape is characterized by steep, forested mountains and deep U-shaped valleys, streams, lakes, saltwater straits, and bays that were carved by the glacial ice that once covered the entire area. The spruce-hemlock forest covered land is full of muskegs, or bogs. Most of the mountains on the island are 2,000 to 3,000 feet tall.
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  • Tourists are drawn to the beauty of Alaska and its glaciers, and some come for the ultimate and most unlikely experience—donning crampons for their wedding on ice.<br />
If the weather cooperates, couples can arrange for a limousine pickup from a cruise ship to the airport for a helicopter flight onto a glacier. They had a traditional ceremony with tuxedo and white wedding dress and extra touches including wedding cake, music, and flowers.<br />
The groom pops the cork on a bottle of champagne provided by the planner who married this couple on the Mendenhall Glacier.
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  • A blanket is rolled onto the Pitztal Glacier to keep ice from melting and  protect the ski industry in the Alps.<br />
Glacial melts first recorded at the start of the 19th century—a point that also coincides with the start of the industrial age and burning of large amounts of fossil fuels. Since then the glaciers have lost between 30 to 40% of their area and nearly half their volume.  The coverings remind us of little mountains they are creating out of felt.
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  • A blanket is rolled onto the Pitztal Glacier to prevent snow from melting. It is a method workers use to combat the effects of climate change and global warming.  Integral to the local economy, ski resorts need protection from higher temperatures that melt the ice.
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  • View of the iconic Matterhorn and surrounding mountains in the Alps.  First ascent of the 14,692-foot mountain was in 1865 although four climbers died on the descent. <br />
The National Snow and Ice Data Center describes Matterhorn geology in "All About Glaciers." Cirques are rounded hollows or bowl shapes after a glacier has melted away. Aretes are jagged narrow rides created when two glaciers meet eroding on both sides. And horns are created when several cirque glaciers erode until all that is left is a steep, pointed peak with sharp ridge-like Arêtes leading to the top.
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  • Red-suited ski instructors gather to play a game of cards before students arrive for morning lessons on the ice.
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  • Delicate rock formations shaped by wind erosion overlook the Grand Canyon. The Navajo sandstone layer formed 190 million years ago in the early Jurassic period. Southern Utah was much closer to the equator and giant, wind-whipped sand dunes dominated the landscape. Polar ice caps melted and the climate changed forming an inland sea that covered the Southwest. Water seeped down into the sand, carrying minerals with a mineral composition of iron, calcium carbonate, and manganese which gave the rock warm colors.
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  • Winter view of cascading Niagara Falls where mist and spray form a crust of ice that builds in the freezing water.
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  • A man eating ice cream on the front porch of an old general store in Lorman Mississippi.
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  • Synthetic blankets cover a Pitztal Glacial ski slope in an attempt to absorb the sun and reduce snow melt.  Such drastic measures to save the Alps' retreating glaciers may prove futile. If current temperatures trends hold according to climate scientists, half the Alpine ice will be gone by 2050 and two thirds melted by 2100.<br />
Loss of alpine glaciers would alter the region’s ecology–not to mention its economy. Workers are hired to cover the snow pack with a fleece blanket seems equivalent to putting a band-aid on a glacier.
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