Another One Off The Bucket List!

First, we forgot to post on Tuesday but HAPPY(belated) SOLSTICE.  The solstice is a HUGE deal in Alaska.  There are many celebrations and festivals as it is the lightest day of the year.  And in Alaska that means a lot.  We believe the sun rose around 4:30a and set around 11:45p here in Anchorage.  We played tennis and sipped wine until about 10:30p and it was still light when we walked home.  Crazy.

Second, yesterday we did one of the coolest things we have done in Alaska thus far (aside from getting engaged), and we are overly excited to tell you all about it.  You'll have to bear with us through a lot of pictures and stories, but we think it will be worth it.

On the drive into Anchorage back in August, we passed a glacier called the Matanuska.  We were told that it is a glacier you can actually walk on.  We were in a rush to get to Anchorage and the Alaska State Fair, though, so we did not stop.

Here's a picture of the glacier from our adventures yesterday:

A few months ago, while at Sheep Mountain, we learned that our friends Jimmy and Suzanne met in Juneau while Suzanne was vacationing there with her family.  It turns out that Jimmy was an ice climbing guide, and Suzanne had been on his tour (very sweet!)

We asked Jimmy and Suzanne if they would be willing to take us out ice climbing.  And they agreed!  So yesterday we rented the necessary gear (crampons, helmets, boots, etc.) and went out to Matanuska to explore.

Here we are totally geared up and ready to start exploring more of the glacier:

And here are our incredible friends and faithful guides:

Walking on a glacier is an amazing feeling.  These are geological creatures that have existed for crazy amounts of time.  And the rapidness with which they shift and modify form is simply stunning.  Here are some glacier pictures:

We walked around a bit to get comfortable walking with crampons.  They definitely made it easier to walk on the ice.

Along the way, Jimmy pointed out neat glacial features to us.  For example, he (thankfully) pointed out a few moulins.  Basically, these are never-ending holes in the glacier.  As Jimmy put it, if you fall into one of these, "you are never coming back."  He told us that people have tried dropping red dye into moulins in the past to see where it comes out . . . it never did.  Here's more information from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moulin_(geology)

And here is Tammy looking into the moulin.  Note the safety hookup to ensure Tammy did not fall in:

You can also see how blue the ice is.  That is because a glacier is highly compressed snow and ice that absorbs all of the colors in the spectrum aside from blue.  For more information, check out wikipedia's entry on blue ice: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_ice_(glacial)

The other thing about glaciers is that as they move they form crevasses.  This is a deep crack in the ice, as can be seen below.  Although it looks like it might be fun to explore, the quickness with which the glacier moves, as well as winds pushing the ice around, makes these things highly unstable.  These also make glaciers more difficult to explore in the winter and early-Spring, as snow covers the crevasses making it more likely that you'll fall into one if you don't know what you're doing.  Thankfully, going out in June meant most of these were fully exposed.  And Jimmy and Suzanne knew what to do!  For more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crevasses

We also got to do some ice climbing as part of the adventure.  We started by using ice axes (what Tammy is holding above) but soon moved into technical tools.  Here's Tammy scaling the first wall we did with technical tools:

And here's Steve:

Basically, you would dug the technical tools into the ice and then push your crampon into the wall to push yourself up.  It was a workout for the legs, but a ton of fun.  Then would come the coolest part:  to get down the ice wall you would simply lean back against the ropes and just walk down:

We were also really thankful to have a master knotsman, belay-er, and rope guide with us.  Jimmy was awesome.  Here he is getting ready for our final climb (described below):

At the end of the afternoon, we decided to try our hand at a more difficult wall.  This ice wall was above a pool of water with an unknown depth (Tammy stuck her axe in and it didn't hit the bottom).  We had to start to the left of the pool, then traverse over to the center, and then climb up.  It was terrifying, exhilarating, and rewarding all at the same time.  Here's Tammy:

And here's Steve:

Jimmy and Suzanne were awesome company and amazing guides.  We're so thankful that they gave us this opportunity and we hope to continue practicing on rock walls and (maybe) ice walls in the future.  Hopefully, by some point, we'll be able to get to this level:

Another one off the bucket list: Ice Climbing!  Hooray!  An amazing Alaska experience.  And we have progressed on glaciers since the beginning:  in July we took a boat to one, in the winter we walked across a lake to one, and now we have walked on one.

Steve's friend is coming in town next weekend and we're going to explore Denali (including white water rafting!)  Pictures are sure to come!