Studies Made During 1933

During 1933 members of the American Alpine Club have made a number of valuable contributions to the study of North American glaciers. Several members from California have helped to form a Committee on Glaciers in the Sierra Club to organize this work in California. This committee, under the chairmanship of Oliver Kehrlein, began its activities during the summer of 1933. The season’s work was largely of a preparatory nature, nevertheless the following glaciers were visited and described, and measurements were made on which to base future observations.

North Palisade Glacier. This glacier, the largest in the southern Sierra Nevada, is situated on the east side of the crest in Inyo County, Calif. It has a frontage or width of one and one-half miles with a maximum length or depth of seven-tenths of a mile. It occurs at an elevation of 12,500 to 13,000 ft. The condition of the glacier in August, 1933, is described in great detail so that it will be possible to record very slight changes that may occur in the future. The same observers had visited the glacier in September, 1928, and concluded that in the intervening five years, the ice level had been lowered several feet and slight changes had occurred in the appearance of the ice surface.