The glaciers in the Olympic Mountains today are small indeed compared to the extensive glaciers that formerly filled the valleys and sculptured the mountains. The shape of the land testifies that a greater number of glaciers once were here. However, more than 60 glaciers, having a collective area of at least 20 square miles, are present today in the Olympic Mountains. Mount Olympus alone has 6 major glaciers, and the total area of permanent snow and ice on it is more than 10 square miles. Several other mountains also have glaciers, notably Mounts Anderson, Christie, Tom, and Carrie.
In addition, there are numerous snow patches that remain from one winter to the next but are not thick enough to form glaciers. Viewed from a high position, a panorama of north-facing slopes presents a profusion of snow and ice patches. The presence of so much snow and ice in mountains of modest height does not mean they are enveloped with inhospitable cold. It is due to the abundance of winter snow and considerable cool weather which retards its melting.
Glaciers are very sensitive to climate. Even slight changes in snowfall or temperature can cause them to advance or recede. Most glaciers everywhere have been shrinking during the past century. In recent years, western Washington climate has been cooler and wetter. As a result, many glaciers in this region, including Blue Glacier, have enlarged slightly.
ANDERSON GLACIER NESTLES ON THE FLANK OF MOUNT ANDERSON, ONE OF SEVERAL HIGH AND RUGGED PEAKS ON THE PARK’S EASTERN EDGE.
Climate and the Water Cycle
Of all inorganic substances, acting in their own proper nature, and without assistance or combination, water is the most wonderful. If we think of it as the source of all the changefulness and beauty which we have seen in clouds; then as the instrument by which the earth we have contemplated was modeled into symmetry, and its crags chiseled into grace; then as, in the form of snow, it robes the mountains it has made, with that transcendent light which we could not have conceived if we had not seen; then as it exists in the foam of the torrent—in the iris which spans it, in the morning mist which rises from it, in the deep crystalline pools which mirror its hanging shore, in the broad lake and glancing river; finally, in that which is to all human minds the best emblem of unwearied, unconquerable power, the wild, various, fantastic, tameless unity of the sea; what shall we compare to this mighty, this universal element, for glory and for beauty? or how shall we follow its eternal changefulness of feeling? It is like trying to paint a soul.—Ruskin
The earth’s supply of water is fixed—it is used over and over again. What falls on land as rain or snow runs off, evaporates, or sinks into the ground. That which sinks into the ground may return: (1) to the air, by transpiration from plants and by evaporation from soil; and (2) to the sea, as ground water either flowing into streams or directly into the sea. All water falling upon the land eventually returns to the sea or to lakes whence it came. It evaporates and precipitates again and again. This continuous round of moisture is known as the hydrologic, or water, cycle. It is impressively demonstrated in the Olympics.
Salt water borders the Olympic Peninsula on three sides. Lowland on the south completes the isolation of the mountains. From atop some mountain peaks one can see the Olympic water cycle in its entirety—ocean, “cloudscape,” snowfields, glaciers, streams from source to mouth returning water to the sea, and forests transpiring moisture into the air.
A landscape is an expression of climate. The Olympic landscape, with its rain forests, snowfields, glaciers, lakes, and numerous streams in deep valleys, is a superb expression of a superhumid climate. Abundant water is the prime source of Olympic’s character. The prevailing on-shore winds acquire much moisture in passing over the ocean. The windward slopes of the Olympics cause this nearly saturated ocean air to rise. Consequently, the western slopes of the Olympic Mountains receive the greatest precipitation in the conterminous United States.