Shrinking Glaciers
- November 2011
- Travel
Dear Steph,
I saw the blurb in an article on Yahoo today about people who have the greatest jobs. It so captured my attention that I visited your website. It seems like you have a fantastic life, and your story is quite inspiring. I shall have to look for your books as well. I am sure that you make great sacrifices for the freedom that you enjoy. Kudos to you for being able to figure out your priorities and put your energy into things that you truly care about! I was inspired to see that you have sponsors to fund your climbing. I wonder if you have any advice for me.
I had the pleasure of living for several years in Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous country (peaks up to 7000 meters) with glaciers that supply water for all of Central Asia. I became fanatical about spending weekends trekking in the mountains, though I had a stressful day job and am certainly not an athlete. But I experienced many of the feelings you described on your website – the freedom, dealing with the fear. It also helped me escape the stress of my work, because when one comes down from a weekend in the mountains, many things seem irrelevant…. I was also captivated by the beauty of the remote alpine world, and the glacial lakes…. My most astounding feat was climbing to 4200 meters – certainly nothing to write a sponsor about- but it was one of the most satisfying days of my life. There are plenty of mountains in Kyrgyzstan in the 4000-5000 range that I would like to tackle. I was also trying to figure out a way to use my passion to draw attention to the effects of global warming on glaciers. Central Asia depends on the glaciers for its water supply, so predictions that the glaciers may be gone in 30 years are a huge worry for the economic and political stability in the region. Not to mention that in the process of glacial melting, many more glacial lakes will form, existing ones will burst or overflow, causing flooding to population sites. From your experience, do you think there is any way to connect the dots on these ideas? Are there would-be sponsors in the private sector working with an environmental angle? The outdoor companies would seem to also have a vested interest in protecting the outdoors – otherwise people will have nowhere to wear their jackets and pitch their tents… Ironically, in my job, fund-raising has always been a weak area for me. So I pretty much shelved these ideas until I saw your website. Would be grateful for your thoughts on the matter.
Cheers,
Donna
Hi Donna,
Thanks for writing! A friend of mine, David Brashears, has been working on documenting disappearing glaciers through photography. He continuously goes on expeditions for this project (I think he’s gone on one right now), but he is on facebook, and I would suggest talking to him about getting involved with the work.
Steph
