Ice climbers and mountain adventurers fear climate change creates new unpredictable risks

As a pro athlete, William Gadd has climbed the ice of Niagara Falls, Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro and Greenland glaciers. But he says now climbing routes are changing or crumbling.

Living in Canmore, Alta., Gadd spends more than 200 days a year in the wilderness, and says glacial melt, forest fires, rock falls and wilder weather all have a visceral effect on him.

"This is where I live and work and my office is falling apart," said Gadd.

"Imagine if you showed up in downtown Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, and your office building either wasn't there or was on fire."

Climate change has already begun to change high elevation areas of the world. Researchers say that's expected to continue and at times be dramatic, as mountain faces and riverways are redrawn by the geological forces at play — at times creating sudden unexpected hazards for the people who adventure in remote mountain zones.

Extreme weather, floods, fires and landslides linked to climate change are shifting the way Canadian adventure sports enthusiasts approach the back country — as risks get harder to predict.

"The hard part for me now is figuring out what the new risks are," said Gadd.

Geomorphologist Dan Shugar from the University of Calgary confirms Gadd's observations. He says that as glaciers along steep rock walls thaw, the stuff that cements much of the high mountain areas together turns to liquid.

"Frozen water or ice that's contained in the rock permanently, begins to melt," explained Shugar. 

"The glue that's holding the cracked rock together is then liquid water. So those rocks can fall apart."

Glaciated rock has already been under excruciating pressures from the grinding and weight of ice over time. As that ice retreats — releasing its grip on the rock — the pressure release creates cracks, layering the rock with fault lines parallel to the surface like the layers of an onion.

When this rock is then subsequently frozen, thawed, flooded or hit with summer heat, this spreads cracks which then join, causing chunks to sometimes shear off.

Climate change researchers say this is just one of the processes beginning to cause massive change in mountain areas.

A study published this month by Shugar and John Clague of Simon Fraser University forecasts a reshaping of mountain faces and river routes in more dramatic shifts than have been seen in 11,700 years, since woolly mammoths roamed the earth.