July 22, 2014
What better way to celebrate our 14th anniversary than to go on a helicopter ride and trek on Mendenhall Glacier Harry and I once again took advantage of a certificate we had gotten during a fundraiser earlier this year. We have gone with Northstar Trekking 3 other times and each time it is a new adventure.
After realizing we were locals AND had gone with NST before our pilot Tracey wanted to know ‘what we wanted to see’, after telling her where we’d been before she headed N almost directly over our house then curved over towards the icefield.
flying over Herbert Glacier. We ride our bicycles to the face of this a few times a year
Eagle Glacier is receding quite rapidly.
looking into Canada, this is probably Camp Peak
some of the smaller glaciers in the icefield
the pointed tips were never covered by glaciers, but the more rounded peaks were made rounded by glacier ice smoothing them out.
other than being on the glacier this is my favorite picture of the day. This is Snow Tower Peaks
First we flew over Mt. Stroller White towards Herbert Glacier and continued N to Eagle Glacier. The amazing part of the flight was that we could begin to see Canadian Peeks. Along the way we also saw so many peaks that it is hard to describe let alone name them all, though Snow Tower Peaks were stunning.
swinging around to head down to our trekking spot
we’ve landed and I want to point out the people in this picture, it gives perspective of how large the glacier is.
The Juneau Icefield is the 5th largest icefield in America covering 1500 square miles. It is about 100 miles deep and 50 miles east to west. This icefield is about 3000 years old, so indeed there are pyramids older than this ice! Think about the icefield as one big lake with many rivers flowing out of the lake, these rivers are the glaciers. There are approximately 40 significant glaciers flowing off this field and about 100 smaller ones.
in front of a ‘cave’ that was not here last week and will probably be gone in a week..
Yes Mendenhall melting and yes it is moving. It takes about 10 feet of snow to create one foot of ice, so each winter a layer is established on the icefield, but it is not growing as fast as it is melting. I have seen significant movement in the glacier in the 19 years I have lived here, it is the sad truth.
filling water bottle to drink some of the clear, cold water flowing through the glacier.
just as we were to depart, the tent is there for staff to store things in or to get out of the elements on not so nice days.
These crevasses are about 150 feed down, you don’t want to fall.
again for perceptive, this has tent and helicopter as well as people.
This is the same glacier that we were able to hike in the ice caves earlier this year, sadly they have started to collapse and it is very unsafe to return now. http//timistravels.wordpress.com/2014/03/08/mendenhall-glacier-ice-caves-and-some-northern-lights/
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