Blue Glacier Then & Now:

A Personal Photographic Story of Climate Change Spanning 40 Years

Buy Blue Glacier Prints

Host The Exhibit

Interview and Q&A with the Washington State Sierra Club

watch the blue glacier
melt away

See how the glacier has change through a series of video clips that begin with an image of the glacier as it was in the summer of 1982 and then slowly fading into the image as it appeared in July, 2022.

**Explore Blue Glacier changes**

Use interactive sliders to see how the glacier
has change in the past 40 years.

Land Acknowledgment

We acknowledge that the lands on which this project took place are the appropriated homelands of Indigenous Peoples. The northwest corner of the colonial state of Washington, as most of North America, has been home to people displaced and oppressed my European colonizers. Eight tribes and their ancestors have lived upon the Olympic Peninsula for thousands of years. We want to express our deepest respect to those peoples past, present, and future, including the Hoh Tribe, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Makah Indian Tribe, Quileute Indian Tribe, Quinault Indian Nation, Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, and the Skokomish Indian Tribe, for their care of these lands throughout the generations.

In an effort to protect their people, culture, and way of life, from further harms of colonization, leaders of these sovereign nations ceded large portions of their ancestral homelands to the United States government in a series of treaties in 1854 through 1856. In 2008 the eight tribes entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the US National Park Services to establish a framework for cooperative government‐to‐government relationships to promote collaboration in the protection, use, and conservation of natural and cultural resources for the benefit of the present and future generations, among other goals.

Let us learn more about the histories, cultures, and traditions of Indigenous Peoples. Let us strengthen relationships with sovereign tribal nations to work toward solutions to mitigate climate change and its effects on our ecosystem, cultures, and economies.

Project Summary

What: A photographic project comparing the Blue Glacier as it was in 1982 with its current state in the summer of 2022.

Who: Photographic Artist, Chip Freund, and two of his adult children

When: July 22-27, 2022

Where: Olympic National Park, Forks, WA 98331

Why: The summer I spent working alongside the Blue Glacier left an indelible mark on my heart, mind, and soul. I have longed to return to that special place before it is changed forever, and the fortieth anniversary of my time on the mountain provides the perfect opportunity.
Over the past forty years the Olympic National Park has lost 34% of its glacial mass. At the current rate, the last glacier could be completely gone by 2050. Source: National Park Service

My Story

It was July 1982. I had just spent the past week and a half making my way across the country via Greyhound bus. A couple of weeks shy of my 18th birthday I found myself in the most spectacular and alien world, the alpine glaciers of Olympic National Park in Washington State.

I was in the park as a member of a Student Conservation Association backcountry trail crew. Our assignment for the next five weeks was a mix of trail maintenance and new trail cutting. Each day took us either, back down the mountain into the Hoh Rainforest, or up to the lateral moraine of the Blue Glacier.

I began taking photographs around age ten and had become an avid photographer by the time I reached the Olympics. So of course, my trusty Nikon FM and 50mm lens along with a dozen rolls of film came along on the trek. At the time I was enjoying capturing the singular beauty of the area and the day-to-day life of a crew of teenage trail hands.

Little did I know at the time that I was documenting a disappearing natural wonder.

SCA Trail Crew on Lateral Moraine of Blue Glacier, July 1982

View of Blue Glacier’s Lateral Moraine While Exploring the Glacier, July 1982

The Project

Unfortunately, the topic of climate change has become highly politicized. Misinformation and tribal politics have created an environment where civil fact-based discussions appear no longer possible. It is my hope that by sharing my story and images that I can open a discussion with those around me. Moving past lectures and rhetoric to meaningful dialog about our world and the effects we have upon it.

This summer I plan to recreate 10-12 images taken in 1982. The new and old images will then be displayed in an exhibition placed side by side. Each pair of images will include a brief narrative and the GPS coordinates where each was taken.

Project Goals

Share my story and reconnect with a place that played a significant part in my early life
Document the loss of glacial ice on the Blue Glacier over the past 40 years
Share my love of the Olympic Peninsula with my family
Use the photo exhibition to create a space for open dialog about climate change

How You Can Help

A project of this magnitude requires a significant investment of time and money to complete. You can help realize the goals of the project by becoming a project sponsor. Sponsor donations can be made in any amount. As a way of including, you in the project and saying thank you for your support the following sponsorship levels will receive the benefits noted below in addition to the knowledge that your support will help facilitate a meaningful dialog around climate change.

Any excess funds not used by the project will be donated to the Student Conservation Association.