Let’s put our hands together for the Miss Iceworm contestants going on stage tomorrow…

Who says that us humans are always biased towards those charismatic megafauna. Here I was thinking that the poor little iceworm was a neglected creature (on two counts: it’s both small, and sort of gross looking) when it turns out that they’ve got their VERY OWN FESTIVAL, in Cordova Alaska going on this weekend! Now I’m already in love with Cordova for a number of reasons - this just seals the deal really. Apparently they have a large ice worm puppet that weaves through the main street just like a Chinese new year dragon. I love it!

The first iceworms I saw were almost mistaken for “yellow ice” only they were a shade too neon and we were high up in the BC mountains far from other hikers, and hence pee-ers. There was a little clump of them on this ice field. Way the hell in the middle of nowhere. Up close they were kind of gross in that way that swarms of little niggly things are. But from a distance there was something quite beautiful about the vision they presented.

Well I’ve since learned about these frigid worms. Get this, if their temperature reaches 5°C their membranes liquefy - good bye wormie. They’re just such strange creatures. So they burrow up from the bottom of the glacier and descend again to its depth in the morning and evening. It’s been suggested that they excrete some sort of antifreeze to facilitate their movement through the snow. They feed on snow algae (of course). And there are MANY of them around. There are some seven billion of them occupy the Suiattle glacier in the North Cascades alone, reports the North Cascade Glacier climate project. That’s like the entire human population. Turned into tiny worms. Stuck in a glacier. Craziness.

Anyways, so now that you know how rad these creatures are join me in celebrating ice worms from afar this Saturday. Huzzah!