MELTING MOUNTAINS: A GLACIER IN RETREAT

View the online story and print replica, published as the A1 centerpiece on Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025, in The Seattle Times.

In the summer of 2025, I worked with Seattle Times’ Climate Lab reporters to illustrate a glacier and five alpine species in a special story about Washington’s melting mountains. Scientists recognize that snowpack is declining, replaced by rain and delayed by dry, hot summers. As snowpack disappears, glaciers are retreating and tree lines are advancing upward.

I wanted to show the anatomy of a glacier, with a couple twists. The focus needed to be what causes and accelerates ice melting. And, unlike other glacier diagrams, I thought it was important to represent a real glacier as much as possible. The diagram below is based on Mt. Rainier’s Emmon’s Glacier, the largest in the contiguous U.S.

Process

Here’s some of my preliminary sketches. I used a dry brush to get a sense of the shading in the glacier sketch.

To construct the glacier cutaway, I referred to Google Earth, topographical maps, and YouTube videos by Dr. Claire Todd of CSUSB Geological Sciences. Satellite views of glaciers are inordinately detailed—and I needed to simplify to show the most important elements. The subterranean portions of the cutaway are based on features commonly found in other glaciers.

The draft sketches were reviewed by Dr. Todd, who provided expert insight and helped fine-tune the definitions.

The “montane zones of life” illustration is drawn from my previous experience sketching red cedar and Douglas firs, and personal experience visiting Rainier’s popular Paradise Valley, a prime example of subalpine habitat.

See close-ups of the alpine species illustrations here.

I rendered the final art in Procreate on the iPad, which allowed me to make changes on layers as needed. The traditional ink linework—incorporating varied line weights—tends to reproduce well in print and online, and complements the classic feel of newspaper design.