Peyto Glacier in Banff National Park continues to melt at an alarming rate and may be gone in 10 years.
John Pomeroy, one of the world’s leading snow and ice hydrologists, said there has been about 450 metres of glacier toe retreat since 2019.
“When you take a look at the changes that have been occurring in Peyto Glacier, they’re dramatic,” he said Jan. 21 during the launch of the United Nations International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation.
“We’ve seen literally the disintegration of Peyto Glacier, a big response to the heat dome in 2021, but also to the exceptional heat and snow drought in 2023.”
Pomeroy said the five-year vertical ice loss on Peyto Glacier exceeds 50 metres in some parts of the glacier, which is a decline in the surface.
“Some of that is due to collapse of an ice cave, but ablation is resulting in about 35 metres of primarily melt over the lower part of the ice,” said the University of Saskatchewan professor.
“The result is, what we’re getting is a very truncated glacier that may not last the decade.”
Pomeroy made his comments via Zoom from his base at the University of Saskatchewan’s Coldwater Laboratory in Canmore for the official launch of the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation in Geneva, Switzerland. He is a co-chair of the UN’s advisory board facilitating discussions and activities.
He said the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation provides a mechanism to kickstart both renewed efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase science and adaptation to prepare for a warmer, less icy world.
“There is still time to turn this around,” he said in his opening remarks. “Let history record that 2025 was the tipping point, where humanity changed course, and eventually saved the glaciers, ourselves and our planet.”
Pomeroy explains that mountain glaciers have provided an ecosystem service by storing “water” over seasons, years and decades and releasing this meltwater during the hottest, driest periods, and as glaciers decline “we are losing this ecosystem service.”
He said the best way to protect glaciers is to increase snowfall in spring and summer, and this needs a cooler climate.
“We need to limit greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning – this is the only effective way to preserve glaciers.”
Peyto Glacier, located about 44 kilometres north of Lake Louise, is one of the longest studied glaciers in the world.
The glacier is one in a network of 35 high-elevation stations as part of the Canadian Rockies Hydrological Observatory, which is operated by the University of Saskatchewan’s Global Water Futures Observatories.
“They focus on forested or alpine or glacier environments, and everything from the snow and ice changes, to soil moisture, to stream flow to interactions with the vegetation,” Pomeroy said.
For Peyto Glacier, ongoing research recently involved a drone flying LiDAR sensors, which are essentially light-based measurement and mapping tools. There is also long-term data from instrument sites both on and off the glacier.
“These are part of a long legacy of instrumented measurements at Peyto that go back to 1965, which make it just a fantastic outdoor lab,” Pomeroy said.
“Dramatic changes in both streamflow and hydrological processes are predicted to occur in Peyto Glacier Basin with deglaciation and climate change.”
In his opening remarks, Pomeroy said many glaciers in the Canadian Rockies will disappear within this lifetime and the mountain snowpacks that supply the rivers are one-third lower than normal this winter.
He said global concentrations of carbon dioxide have risen from 315 to 425 parts per million and, as a result, winter temperatures in northern Canada have risen more than six degrees Celsius over his lifetime.
“Counter-factual industries and regimes around the world would deny these measurements but cannot deny their culpability in the destruction of glaciers that is occurring before our eyes,” Pomeroy said.
“Glaciers don’t care if we believe in science – they just melt in the heat for all to see.”
Glaciers and ice sheets hold about 70 per cent of the worlds freshwater. In 2023, glaciers experienced their greatest water loss in more than 50 years, marking the second consecutive year in which all glaciated regions worldwide reported ice loss.
Earlier this month, UN weather experts from the World Meteorological Organization confirmed that 2024 was the hottest year on record, at 1.55 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures, which Pomeroy said means the need for immediate and decisive action has never been more critical.
He said humans rely on mountain snow and ice to replenish their rivers, lakes, and groundwater to support ecosystems, agriculture, energy, industry and drinking water.
“All of this is now at risk as global heating causes rapid glacier retreat, glacier lake outburst floods, snow droughts, loss of sea ice, rising sea levels, permafrost thaw and wildfires,” he said.
“Global heating is causing cryospheric destruction right now, so we must work to both reduce greenhouse gases and prepare for the short-term impacts.” The cryosphere refers to Earth’s ice in all its forms.
Pomeroy said highly visible, melting glaciers around the world make their own strong case to act now to decarbonize economies, reduce carbon emissions and return the atmosphere to its state of 60 years ago.
He said restoring glaciers will take decades, but in the meantime, the world needs to prepare for “cryospheric destruction” through urgent policy changes and by expanding measurements to track change and provide early warnings of drought and floods.
“We need to deploy this intelligence globally in predictive models to provide early warnings of extreme events and guide allocation of declining water resources both strategically and compassionately,” Pomeroy said.
“We must build social capacity, infrastructure and water resource strategies to adapt so that our societies and ecosystems can still function without the benefits that the cryosphere has always provided to us.”
Corinne Schuster-Wallace, executive director of the Global Institute for Water Security at the University of Saskatchewan, was also a panel member at the launch of the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation. She spoke about the human dimensions and called for ongoing research and sharing of research.
“We have to recognize the fundamental value and emotional attachment that we have as researchers of snow and ice and mountains but also of individuals in terms of a piece of your heart gets left behind on the ice,” she said.
“And as you saw the drastic changes of Peyto, I am not sure my grandchildren will actually see where I undertook my PhD studies; again, we have these personal connections that we need to think about as well.”
Schuster-Wallace said between 10 and 12 per cent of the earth is permanently covered in ice and snow, with 30 per cent seasonally covered.
“That’s certainly the case here in Canada where 60 per cent of our land mass is covered for six months of the year,” she said.
“Given that our cryoscapes are changing, we need to better monitor and predict, but we also need to understand the impacts, the opportunities, and how to build resiliency to change for communities and economic sectors.”
There is a need to understand the health aspects, Schuster-Wallace said, not just the presence of disease, but also physical, mental and social well-being and how that is threatened by a changing cryosphere.
“Well, it’s outburst floods, avalanches, the extreme events, snow droughts and so this unpredictability affects our drinking water security and it also affects our food security,” she said.
From an economic perspective, Schuster-Wallace spoke to agriculture and hydroelectric generation, but also to tourism, which is the No. 1 economic driver in Banff National Park.
“Tourism is a huge issue in terms of the types of economic activity, we have mountain guiding, we have mountaineering, we have heli-skiing, we have skiing, we have snowboarding, we have ice climbing,” she said.
