The evolution of “riskscapes”: 100 years of climate change and mountaineering activity in the Lake Louise area of the Canadian Rockies

Abstract

Climate change is contributing to the rapid warming of mountain environments, resulting in glacial retreat, diminished snowpacks, and permafrost thaw. Such rapid changes have transformed the riskscape of mountaineering routes, altering climbing conditions and increasing objective hazards. In response, this study used a mixed methods approach that combines statistical climatological analysis with archival content analysis and semi-structured interviews with mountain guides to explore the relationship between climate change, route conditions, hazards, and adaptations in the Abbot Pass area of Banff National Park (Canada). Results revealed that long-term climatic shifts contributed to change in climbing conditions and objective hazards across all routes, creating a typology of climate-driven route evolution based on the original route characteristics. Mountaineers adapted to such change by employing spatial/activity and temporal substitutions to mitigate risks and exploit emergent opportunities. However, the use of such strategies was influenced by demographic (i.e., age, years of experience) and socio-cultural factors (i.e., place attachment, risk tolerance) and limited by hard limits to adaptation. Given the projected trajectory of climate change, our findings highlight the potential inevitability of mountaineers encountering such limits, resulting in forced transformations and significant loss and damages. Therefore, it is imperative to examine both the economic and non-economic consequences of these shifts and evaluate the ability of mountaineers and tourism providers to navigate a significantly transformed climate future in mountainous areas. While focused on a Canadian context, the findings and methodologies developed herein are relevant to other mountain geographies, where climate change is rapidly transforming environments frequented by mountaineers and represents a call to action for more research in field of climate change, adaptation, and mountaineering.