Each year we make a visit to Black Rapids Glacier to keep track of its mass loss or gains (mostly the former). The time series goes back to the early 1970s, but for the past decades it has not been funded anymore. We've been able to keep it going thanks to friendly helpers with airplanes. This year we were delayed for quite a while by weather, Covid-19 restrictions, and airplane maintenance issues. But then finally things aligned and the last two weekends we had perfect weather conditions. I enlisted my daughters as helpers, that way we didn't have to break any social distancing rules. I have not yet finished looking at the data, but it is already clear that 2019 was one of the biggest melt years in the entire, almost fifty year, record.
