its going to be difficult long term i think when people pull together they can do anything as he sees it theres no time to waste getting up to speed this research is important but its not worth dying for right there the team had hoped to dive into the frigid waters but science deep inside the ice sheet comes with risks to be able to help collective knowledge move forward that is really satisfying to me the united nations recognized gadds impact in 2018 naming him a mountain hero for his work in raising awareness on disappearing glaciers if the greenland ice sheet were to melt it would raise sea level about 5 to 7 meters weve got winds running around 50 miles per hour weve got temperatures that are dropping around zero the places gadd works in are really hazardous he said gadd teaches the basics to climate scientists so they can learn more about the future of the planet than anyone thought possible when i see this landscape somethings wrong you look at a desert and you dont think anything lives there yet quite a lot lives there and you look at a glacier and i would personally not think anything lives there but obviously quite a lot is living in here gadd said abc i am optimistic that we can stem the tide in some way but i think were going to have a lot of pretty wild change on our planet in a relatively short order gadd said ive been coming here for 45 years gadd told nightline there should be a glacier here gadd said abc gadd is a living legend in the climbing world you know you read in the newspaper about climate change its kind of abstract but you come here and its like the glacier has moved i remember being a kid in elementary school and driving out here in the family vehicle and the glacier being like right there and now its way back there i was afraid there was so much debris and so much power in there that it was not a safe place to be gadd said courtesy of the mountain legacy project today each return visit is a warning sign of the effects of climate change more images from this location at exploremountainlegacyca the athabasca glacier in alberta canada is seen here in 1917 wed drop into what turned out to be one of the coolest caves ive ever entered gadd took scientists down a plunging glacial cave called a moulin giving them unprecedented access if you are not afraid of that environment something is wrong with you where most see a remote and unforgiving landscape gadd sees a playground jason gully a glaciologist at the university of south florida recently enlisted gadds help on an expedition to the greenland ice sheet for will gadd fear and danger are constant they remind me to pay attention he told nightline he said he and the scientists