Review of Stan Paterson’s, ICE MAN - by Ron Dart

Review of Stan Paterson’s, ICE MAN: The Making of a Glaciologist. Papyngay Press, Oregon, 2013.  Review by Ron Dart

I have had an abiding interest in glacier trekking and glaciers for many a decade. Many tend to see the multiple receding and melting glaciers as climate canaries of sorts, alerting us to the obvious shifts and changes in global temperatures. Needless to say, the political right and left tend to differ rather graphically and how they interpret the causes and reasons for global warming. But, there can be no doubt we are living through the midst of a very real transition environmentally and the implications are not yet fully with us. There are, of course, the predictable henny-penny catastrophic types and, their inevitable counterparts, the deniers of the problem. Those who have lingered with glaciers for many years or, more importantly, viewed their life and research on glaciers as a vocation, Ice Man: The Making of a Glaciologist is a must-read primer.

There can be no doubt that Stan Paterson has lived the glaciologist vocation and Ice Man is a must read page turner that recounts and records Paterson’s journey, in 15 ample chapters, from the early 1950s  when Paterson was involved with the British North Greenland expedition to the Canadian Arctic, Alps and BC Coast Range. The vocation of a glaciologist presupposes a range of mountaineering skills and Paterson’s well-told tale threads together, in exquisite detail, his mountaineering and glacier life. The publication of his standard text, The Physics of Glaciers, has gone through a variety of changes since it was initially published in 1969 and its most recent edition (4^th) in 2011.

Paterson was given a PhD from UBC in 1962 for his pioneering work and in 2012, rightly so, he was honoured with the Richardson Medal of the International Glaciological Society.

The Preface by I.H.M. Smart, Introduction by David Fisher and the charming Forward by Myrtle Simpson (“Mountaineering with Stan Paterson”) make for a generous foray into Paterson’s well lived life as a mountaineer and glaciologist. Those who are keen to follow the unfolding journey of Paterson should take their time to savour each chapter as his life matures and his experience makes him one of the leading authorities in the world of glaciers. The fact Paterson worked for the Polar Shelf Project from 1962-1980 positioned him well for in-depth research on glaciers. Those who have less patience for the long and twisting path (chapters are short and informative, though) taken by Paterson in his mountaineering and glacier journey should turn to the final chapter, “Summing Up” (15), although much will be missed by such a shortcut.

There can be no doubt that Ice Man is a superb aerial overview of one of the most significant glaciologists of the 20^thcentury, and the fact his journey from Scotland to Canada opened up such possibilities for him in an area that is now front and centre for much research in our growing ecological crises.

montani semper liberi

Ron Dart