GLACIERS:A LIFELONG LOVE

Glaciologist Dr. Alison Criscitiello was aged eleven and on a family trip to Montana when she saw her first glacier. “I was already enamored with glaciers from a short module in my science class. Growing up in Boston, I couldn’t believe that these things existed in the same planet that I was living on,” she says. The impact came not just from seeing a glacier firsthand, but from recognising it as part of a stunning but fragile ecosystem that was already being affected by warming temperatures. “Even at the time I felt the ephemeral nature of the glaciers I was looking at,” she adds.

From the unprecedented rate at which some glaciers are now melting, Criscitiello sees a clear signal of the stresses our planet is under. And the fate of the glaciers and that of humanity are intertwined. “Glaciers impact ecosystems in endless ways, from providing downstream environments with water from their outflow to creating micro-environments which modulate local temperature,” she says. Some of the effects of glacier retreat can negatively impact human livelihoods. For example, the melting of ice that serves as a “water tower” (a water source for humans living downstream) has an all-too-direct impact on populations that rely on it for their drinking water.

In her role as a glaciologist, Criscitiello drills ice cores that can provide a climate record reaching back tens of thousands of years. “Deep ice cores that go further back in time allow us to look at previous glacial-interglacial cycles and compare our current climate with previous parts of Earth’s history to help us better understand and predict future climate,” she explains. By contrast, shallower cores covering the industrial (human-impacted) era tell us more about recent change and the response to anthropogenic forcing of the climate.

When not in the field for scientific purposes, Criscitiello likes to explore far-flung frozen parts of the planet. Mountaineering highlights of hers include leading the first all-female ascent of Lingsarmo (6,995m) in the Indian Himalaya in 2010, and Borderski, a 2015 all-female ski traverse of the eastern Pamir mountains along Tajikstan’s border with Afghanistan, China and Kyrgyzstan that examined the effect tighter border security was having on migratory animals. In 2022, science and adventure fused during her ascent of Mount Logan (5,959m), Canada’s highest peak, when altitude sickness forced three members of her crew to turn back, greatly increasing the difficulty of drilling on the mountain’s inhospitable summit plateau. Despite the challenges, she and her team managed to extract a 327m-deep ice core from a record-setting altitude – a record possibly containing 30,000 years of climate history.

For someone legendarily tough who, by her own admission, actively seeks out discomfort, Criscitiello has a relatively relaxed training regime. “I just do every day what feels best to my body, depending on where I am and the season,” she explains. Even so, she runs at least one half-marathon per week, while also running, backcountry skiing or ice climbing on the other days. In the run-up to big mountain expeditions, she tries to have several consecutive long (12+ hours) days out.

Humanity faces a similarly long, hard slog if it wants to preserve the glaciers for future generations. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions will help slow the rate at which ice is being lost, which in turn will restrict sea level rise and preserve the health of glaciers and icefields. “If we take action to address climate change, we can slow glacial loss—and this needs to be done at a policy level,” Criscitiello concludes. “In doing so, we can help preserve the remarkable playgrounds, homes, cultures and biodiversity reliant on glaciers.”