Ep. 14 - Ice Climbing in the Age of Climate Change with Taylor Luneau

Ep. 14 - Ice Climbing in the Age of Climate Change with Taylor Luneau

The world is getting warmer. What's an ice climber to do?

🧊 About the episode

I’ve been drytooling more than ice climbing this winter, largely because it’s been frustratingly warm in New England. Call this my adaptation strategy — but really, I feel like I’m just getting ahead of the curve since trigger alert: dry-tooling is the future of ice climbing. #provemewrong(please)

Not to be all dire, dour and doom and gloom, but globally, climate change is leading to fewer days below 0°C, aka, the planet is warming. (according to an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report from 2021). Since ice forms below the freezing temp of water, it’s not hard to see that the result will be fewer climbable days of ice as a result.

So what’s an ice climber to do?

Today, we chat with Taylor Luneau, an ice climber from Vermont, former Policy Director of the American Alpine Club, and current Conservation Manager at The Wilderness Society. Taylor has spent the bulk of his adult working life in conservation efforts, protecting public land, and now, supporting climate change mitigation strategies through forest management policies.

During his time at the AAC, Taylor commissioned a first-of-its-kind study evaluating ice season length for one of the premiere ice climbing destinations in the U.S. — the Mount Washington Valley in New Hampshire. You might have seem the film that came out of this, freeze//thaw, which shares the scientific findings and socioeconomic impact on guides in the area. Definitely worth watching.

We talk about the study, how climbers can get involved in responding to climate change, along with mitigation and adaptation strategies in today’s episode.I get inspired to try new things, whether it's athletics or learning new things. I mean, I think just out of basic curiosity, like I, I love learning things. And with athletics, there's, I love the strategy, and the way to test that is by going to a new sport and having to learn about it and figure out how to use my strengths to be best at that competition.

I was seeing, you know, snow line receding, glaciers being impacted, having more concern about the objective hazards of rock and icefall as a climber. Um, all of those things were kind of, were, were formative experiences before I started to work in the field that I did, but I was able to bring those subjective experiences forward later on.

To learn more about the Mount Washington Valley study, here is the webpage that has “freeze//thaw”, an article by Jimmy Voorhis and Micheal Wejchert, and the full study by Voorhis, McDowell, and Burakowski, et al.

Nationwide forest plan amendment to conserve old growth: 

Remember that the scoping period runs through February 2nd. Here are some resources to learn more and get involved:

Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) Amendment:

The comment period wraps up on January 29th. Here are more resources and how to comment:

Make sure to get your voice heard!

You can connect with Taylor:

📸 @taylor.luneau | ✉️ tluneau@tws.org

🧊 Credits

Episode cover photo by Marcus Garcia.

Intro music by Hannah Noelle Enomoto (thanks, sis!).

🧊 Sponsors:

Big thanks to Blue Ice for supporting this show!

Blue Ice: Blue Ice is the best kind of ice, and also my choice when it comes to fast and light ice climbing gear. Their Aero Lites go in like a hot knife through butter and their climbing packs hit the sweet spot between function and lightweight. Designed to get to the point in the alpine, their gear is tested by mountain professionals between the Alps and the Wasatch. If you’re looking to get to the point too — and with a little less weight on your kit, check out Blue Ice’s gear at blueice.com or your favorite local retailer. 

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Written by

Aaron Gerry

Aaron Gerry

Ljubljana, Slovenia
Aaron is the host of Ice Ice Beta and one of the Online Editors of The Cooler.