posted
Or more specifically, climate change and me, because I am selfish in the extreme.
Thanks to El Nino and the increasingly erratic weather we've been getting, my first year working and skiing in Whistler is not going terribly well, as evidenced by my increasing use of the internets.
Saturday night, it was a clear, cold -23C (-10F), which was pretty much the weather we've had for a month, excepting the one bit of snow, about 10cm (4in) on Christmas day. 24 hours later, it was 4C (40F) and pouring rain, which is still the case right now. We don't seem to be getting snow, just rain and incredibly cold weather. The last time we had more than 4in of snow in 7 days was the first week of December. We've had less than 10in since then. What I'm wondering is if this continues (by far the worst weather the resort has ever seen), if skiing on the west coast will remain. The glaciers have retreated so much this year that crevasses and meltwater caves are appearing everywhere. In 5 years, Whistler glacier could be entirely gone. Hell, I remember when it was twice as big. I don't know if things will ever be the same, or if my sport can survive something like this. Sure, everywhere else is having a good season this year, but if weather gets so erratic that resorts are forced to stay closed for some entire seasons, the sport could essentially go away.
Or course, all this pales in comparison to the wholesale destruction of our wilderness. The glaciers are retreating, and the treeline is moving up on the top and the bottom; the last remains of old growth valley forest are cut down with government subsidised logging meant to protect an increasingly uncompetitive industry. The desert to the east grows in every direction every year, helped along the way by bone-dry summers that burn huge tracts of forest. The smoke turns the sun into a weak red ember, and the sky a muddy brown. This is the sky we've had every summer this decade. One day last year the sun vanished completely; the sky was overcast with smoke from hundreds of fires burning all around us. Last year, perhaps the most beautiful place I have ever visited was carved out of a provincial park and opened up to strip mining. I know when I see this I think of the growing demand for molybdenum and other strategic metals. By the way, the hill I stood on to take that picture is made out of fossils. Any piece of rock that falls from it will be teeming with them. I guess that doesn’t even register in the mind of anyone but me.
The land I love is dying, and I can only watch.
Posts: 1769 | Registered: Feb 2000
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Chaeron, I lived in Vancouver for five years, and Kelowna for four years after that. I left Kelowna August 2003, days before the forest fires hit.
I didn't realize the glacier was retreating that much. Or, rather, I didn't realize the weather there had changed so much. Granted, I'm not a skier, but dagnabbit, I used to live close to Whistler! I've even been there a few times.
Thanks for the update, sad as it is.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Perhaps it's a good thing you didn't see Kelowna burn. The devastation was pretty immense. The fires the last two summers have literally covered the entire province in smoke. So much is burning it boggles the mind. Last summer, when the smoke blotted out the sun in Williams Lake, the fires that smoke was from were burning about 200 miles to the west, so that gives you some idea of the magnitude.
Right now, all the snow is melting and were're getting flooding here. I never thought I would see something like this in January. Thaws are common here, but this is unreal, especially for a year that has been almost exclusively cold and dry.
Posts: 1769 | Registered: Feb 2000
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Williams Lake! My best friends family is from there!
My friends from Kelowna sent me pictures and kept me updated. Some people I know lost everything in the fire - house burned to the ground. My bishop, in fact. Well, among others.
I didn't realize the fires were last summer as well. That's terrible. And now I'm going to have to find out where.
Thanks for the update, Chaeron.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Yeah, the weather during the summer was crazy. After all the fires, we were blessed with an enormous amount of rain. It caused a landslide that blocked the entire flow of the Chilcotin River for a whole day, right in the middle of the Chilko sockeye run too.
Right now, the forecast is for ceaseless rain. That's pretty much the story outside too. We've got flooding. Woo!
Posts: 1769 | Registered: Feb 2000
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