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. These changes modify conditions and increase objective hazard on mountaineering routes, threatening the safety and wellbeing of mountaineers. In response, this study used a mixed-methods approach that combines statistical climatological analysis with archival-content analysis to examine the relationship between climate change, route conditions, hazards, and adaptations reported by climbers in the Abbot Pass area of Banff National Park (Canada). Results revealed an increase in temperature and decrease in total precipitation, corresponding with considerable changes in climbing conditions and increases in objective hazards on approach and popular climbing routes in the area. These changes can be classified based on the original character of the route and their climate-driven trajectory, creating a novel typology that informs how mountaineers adapt (i.e., spatial vs. temporal substitution). This typology has substantial implications for mountaineers as it could enhance their decision-making processes by allowing them to proactively develop plans that reduce exposure to objective hazards and capitalize on climate-related opportunities. However, our findings also highlight the potential inevitability of mountaineers encountering hard biophysical limits to adaptation, resulting in forced transformations and significant loss and damages. 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.