born between glaciers

 born between glaciers

Sometimes history feels much closer when you realize you were born right in the middle of it.

I was born in January 1962.

Just weeks earlier, in December 1961, something extraordinary happened at Salmon Glacier in northern British Columbia.

Summit Lake, held back by Salmon Glacier, suddenly drained beneath the glacier. An enormous volume of water was released into the Salmon River valley, causing serious flooding and damaging roads and bridges.

And this wasn't simply a one-time freak event. Historical records document additional sudden drainages from Summit Lake in the years that followed.

I had no idea.

I was a newborn while this was happening.

Then, in 1993, I stood at Athabasca Glacier in Alberta.

I remember seeing that enormous wall of ice.

I didn't know then that I was looking at something that would become one of the most visible examples of Canada's changing glaciers.

More than three decades have passed.

Now I'm looking at Salmon Glacier again — and thinking about the water behind it.

We have learned that glaciers aren't simply beautiful frozen landscapes.

They are part of enormous, complicated water systems.

A glacier can hold back a lake.

Water can accumulate.

Water can find a pathway beneath the ice.

And when that happens suddenly, a mountain valley can experience an extraordinary flood.

That doesn't mean Salmon Glacier is about to collapse.

It doesn't mean another catastrophic event is imminent.

But it does mean we should pay attention.

We already have the historical record.

We have changing glaciers.

We have communities and infrastructure downstream.

And we have better technology today than the people who were trying to understand these events in 1961.

So perhaps the question isn't:

“Could it happen here?”

We already know that sudden glacial flooding has happened here.

The better questions are:

Are we monitoring these changing glacier-and-lake systems closely enough?

Do communities downstream have the information they need?

Would people know what to do if a major outburst flood began?

Are warning systems and evacuation plans keeping pace with a changing climate?

And perhaps most importantly:

How many warnings from the past do we need before we decide that awareness is part of preparedness?

I was born just weeks after one of Salmon Glacier's great floods.

I stood on Athabasca Glacier in 1993.

Now, in 2026, I'm watching the glaciers change.

Maybe it's time we all started watching a little more closely.

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