GlacierWorks’ Origins:

In  2007, I went to Mount Everest as part of a documentary for the PBS series FRONTLINE. I carried with me a black-and-white photograph taken in 1921 by the great English mountaineer, George L. Mallory. It showed the ice-encrusted north face of Everest and, below it, the great river of ice known as the Main Rongbuk Glacier, flowing in a sweeping, S-shaped curve down a broad, stony valley. I sat in the exact spot where Mallory had snapped his iconic picture and was stunned by the changes that had swept over the landscape. The wide river of ice had retreated more than half a mile, leaving a field of separated ice pinnacles melting into the rocky ground. Although I had already personally experienced the warming of this great mountain chain, I now fully grasped the magnitude of the melting in the region. It was in that moment that I decided to use match photography to bear witness to the warming of the Himalaya and the retreat of its glaciers.

 -David Breashears, Founder

GlacierWorks continues today under the leadership of Lisa Breashears, Executive Director; and Dr. Ulyana Pena, Glaciologist & Lead Scientist.