Palisade Glacier
In 2024, our team backpacked to the Palisade Glacier at 12,500 ft in California. We made three wax negative molds of pieces of ice from the glacier. The Palisade Glacier is the southernmost glacier in North America, retreating rapidly due to a warming climate.
Our team, aided by two pack mules and two friends (Parker Lewis & Caroline Hackett), carried 400 pounds of gear to the Palisade Glacier in the John Muir Wilderness. Over the past century, this glacier has lost 55% of its area. We traveled 8 miles and ascended 5,000 feet, navigating rugged terrain to reach our campsite beneath the glacier’s moraine.
At the foot of the glacier, we made molds of three bergy bits that had been floating in the lake. Caroline Landau carefully selected the pieces, knowing they would be translated into glass. Madison Sankovitz, Caroline Hackett, and Parker Lewis melted wax while Landau painted the ice with layers of rapidly cooling wax, capturing its natural grooves. On our final day, after the ice had melted from the molds, we carried them down the steep trail.
Landau worked in her studio to transform the wax negatives into plaster-silica molds before blowing glass into the negative space. Once the molds were ready, they were pre-heated to 1000 degrees over 24 hours, and then Landau blew glass into them with the help of a five-person team. After she blew the glass, she placed the molds in a kiln to anneal for 24 hours. She broke open the single-use molds when the molds came out of the kiln.
