Ever wonder what’s going on inside of Mount Hood’s glaciers? It turns out there’s a whole world under there, and it is changing.
An Oregon Field Guide special program titled Glacier Caves: Mt. Hood’s Hidden World follows climbers Eddy Cartaya and Brent McGregor down the frozen rabbit hole as they explore a stunning hidden world of ice caves and tunnels under the Sandy Glacier.
The program will air Thursday night and twice on Sunday this week on OPB Television. Check out the awesome multi-media site at http://www.opb.org/
As Amelia Templeton reports for Earth Fix, “Climate scientists and glaciologists have tracked the melting of more than 200 glaciers around the world, but they’ve almost always gathered their data from the surface. Taking measurements from within a glacier? That’s a new scientific frontier.”
It takes some serious skills to rappel down into the frozen world beneath a glacier, but the rewards can be huge. Cartaya and McGregor have found three caves under the glacier and named them Snow Dragon, Pure Imagination and Frozen Minotaur. The Oregon Field Guide film crew and Earth Fix reporters joined them on their explorations, and judging from the previews this is going to be a show Mount Hood fans won’t want to miss, with history, science and the spirit of pure adventure.
Unfortunately, these caves probably won’t last for long. The Mount Hood glacier closest to Portland is melting and shrinking, and will likely go the way of the the Paradise Ice Caves on Mount Rainier, which I explored and photographed in the 1990s, and which sadly no longer exist. That’s because climate change or global warming or whatever you call it is real and it is serious. Anyone who loves mountains in winter should pay attention, because the future of snow sports could lie in the balance.
The Thursday night premiere of Glacier Caves should draw a lot of attention, but it isn’t the only one. Glacier Caves will also air Sunday, October 13 at 1:30 am for the night owls and again Sunday, October 13 at 6:30 pm on OPB TV. Plus, if you can’t catch the show then, don’t worry. Oregon Field Guide is really good about offering viewers access to past programs online through their searchable archives.
What: Oregon Field Guide Special, Glacier Caves: Mt. Hood’s Hidden World
Where: OPB. Channel 10 in Portland. See the full list of channels in Oregon here.
When: Thursday, Oct. 10, 8:30 pm and Sunday, October 13 at 1:30 am and 6:30 p.m.
Here is an excellent 31-second preview of Glacier Caves:
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Last modified: October 7, 2013
