Around 10,000 years ago the world was in the grips of an Ice Age, the Wisconsinan Glaciation. Most of Canada and the border regions of the northern United States were covered by a giant sheet of ice. But because of the way the mountain slopes directed the flow of ice, some areas were never covered by glacier floes. These were islands of land surrounded by deserts of ice, scientists have dubbed these oases “nunataks,” from Inuit term nunataq. One of the best examples of a nunatak is the Cypress Hills…
