Insects are “poikilothermic,” meaning they lack the ability to maintain a constant temperature independent of fluctuations in ambient conditions; in other words, they’re “cold-blooded.” Aside from a few species of butterflies that migrate south, most insects have to find strategies to survive through the coldest part of the year.

Some insects, like ladybugs, gather into clusters to overwinter in leaf litter or under bark. Similarly, stink bugs look for cracks and crevices to get out of the wind and find protection from the elements, which is why you’ll often find them in your home in the winter.

Honey bees group together in the hive and vibrate their wing muscles to generate heat; this costs a lot of energy which is why beekeepers make sure to leave a lot of honey on the hive to help feed their bees through winter.

Some insects cannot survive the winter as adults and have evolved complex life-history strategies to dodge this challenge. For example, many insects, including tent caterpillars and aphids, complete part of their life cycle as overwintering eggs. Similarly, insects such as mayflies, dragonflies, mosquitos, and others, spend a significant portion of their lives underwater as immature nymphs. Here, underwater, they are insulated from the often colder, fluctuating air temperatures above.

Some of these activities make sense to us. We head inside for protection when we get cold, we jog in place to generate heat, or we “huddle together” to maximize our collective warmth. But there’s one strategy that’s still hard for me to wrap my mind around; it’s called “cryoprotection.”

Many insects have evolved to survive freezing temperatures by pre-conditioning themselves to sub-lethal temperatures. In other words, their strategy is to avoid ice formation. If ice forms within the cells of an insect, the water crystals crack and kill cells. However some insects, such as some wasps, have the ability to produce complex, anti-freeze-like chemicals within their bodies, which prevents ice formation. Additionally, many of these insects can clear their gut in order to prevent undigested food particles from serving as ‘nuclei’ for ice formation. If water can be removed from the critical parts of the insect’s body, crystals can’t form, and insects can survive the freezing temps.

Imagine if you could go outside when it’s frigid, and turn on an internal process that pumps antifreeze through your blood. Think about that, and try not to be jealous the next time your feet go numb skiing, or you get the ‘screaming barfies’ in your hands while ice climbing. // (Matt Jones)

Matt Jones, PhD, is research faculty at Washington State University who enjoys alpine climbing, backcountry skiing, surfing, and gardening. He wrote about fastest known times in March.

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“Olympus (10h12, FKT)”

Wait—what!? This must have been a different Mount Olympus. NOPE. Sean O’rourke ran Mt. Olympus in 10 hours 12 minutes via the Crystal Pass route on June 30, 2015—the Fastest Known Time (FKT) for that peak. If you’re unfamiliar with this mountain, it’s 44 miles round-trip with 7,400 feet of elevation gain, a challenging glacial moraine, a traverse of the heavily-crevassed Blue Glacier, and a 4th class summit block—all in 10:12. My mind was blown.

I had heard about a few well-publicized speed records set on famous objectives, like Scott Jurek running the Appalachian Trail and Dean Potter speed climbing The Nose on Yosemite’s El Cap, but stumbling across the FKT on Mt. Olympus made me realize that normal people were competing for fastest known times on all kinds of objectives. As I started to explore this idea a little further, I began to uncover equally amazing feats on obscure objectives by people I’d never heard of: Leor Pantilat and Uli Steidle’s 12:17 Ptarmigan Traverse; Logan Greydanus, Niles Desmarais, and Cyrus Desmarais’ 3:38 up Mt. Shuksan’s Sulphide Glacier route; Gavin Woody and Richard Kresser’s 15:35 Tatoosh traverse. The list goes on and on—seriously, there’s a list.

Peter Bakwin, curates Fastest Known Time— an online forum devoted to the record keeping and discussing FKTs. By using this online platform, athletes can make their intentions for FKT attempts known and inform readers about beta, gear, and nutrition. Perhaps most importantly, though, are the posting of time splits, GPS coordinates, and photos, which are used to keep athletes accountable and to validate a new FKT. Here on the forum, folks can duke it out on technicalities like starting points and how official trail detours affects a FKT record. Mapping apps such as Strava and Gaia make it easier than ever for an athlete to share their waypoints and FKT route.

With such easy access to data sharing and record posting, you’re only limited by your fitness and creativity when coming up with new objectives. Think you can climb the Beehive Five the fastest? How about Ojibwe, Eldorado, or Gunsight? You don’t have to travel far to set an FKT. So get after it—but keep us posted on your splits.

Feature photo: Taking it all in. // Summer Hess

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Like many other specialists, these organisms have specific environmental requirements that create the particular microclimates they need to survive. Namely, these organisms have evolved to thrive in cold, snowy places, typically at higher elevations, and including the proper substrate to hide within. Picky, right? In our region, a goldmine of such habitat exists: our very own Mt. Spokane State Park. Ice crawlers have probably inhabited this mountain for hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of years. Historically, the north side of the mountain has provided the undisturbed habitat that ice crawlers require. In fact, this island of perfect habitat is home to a unique species (tentatively named Grylloblatta spokanistan), not known to occur anywhere else in the world!

James Bergdahl, a local insect taxonomist and complete grylloblatid guru (and the man who first identified this local species), says things may look rather gloomy for the species. Just this year, the concessionaire who leases the land from the State of Washington to run the ski hill, was granted the permission to develop an additional 279 acres on the mountain to enhance lift-assisted terrain in the state park. Unfortunately, the highest densities of this endemic insect have been found on the site chosen for the development. In a 2014 letter to the Washington State Parks & Recreation Commission, Bergdahl expressed that, “This is the only known population of the exceptionally unique and rare flightless insect in Washington State east of the Cascades Mountains.” He adds that, “individuals [of this group] have long life spans and low reproductive potential, which make their populations very vulnerable to an increase in mortality factors associated with habitat and climate.” Compared to large “charismatic mega-fauna,” sensitive insects rarely garner the attention required to gain any kind of protection from development.

Time will tell what the change in habitat on Mount Spokane will cost the ice crawlers who call this place home. More than just the conservation of a rare endemic insect, this situation gives us the opportunity to ask bigger questions: Since every natural area has unique organisms that have evolved to inhabit that specific place, are we paying enough attention to the species with whom we share these spaces? And whether it’s a strange, snow-dwelling, insect-carcass-consuming arthropod, or a recognized and well-loved plant or animal, are our recreational habits more valuable than their right to exist on this planet?

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