Here are a few photos from my first time setting foot on a glacier back in August of 2017. My good friends Dimitri and Teo had been on the glacier many times and wanted to show me around.
We went to Matanuska Glacier. This glacier is the largest in Alaska that you can reach by vehicle. It's roughly 26 miles (42km) long and 4 miles (7km) wide! The glacier lies just two hours north of Anchorage and is very popular among locals and tourists. Though, the tourists mainly come in the summer.
Alaska never ceases to amaze me. Where else in the world can you drive right up to a glacier and then spend the day exploring it! If you know of anywhere else let me know, I'd love to visit ;)
The glacier is in a valley surrounded by massive peaks. Because of the location, it is often sunny over the glacier and cloudy surrounding it. We got extremely fortunate with the weather and it started to rain just as we were getting back to the car.
Huge fissures line the the glacier. We had to be very careful to watch our step as we were walking around. If you fall in, there's no coming out!
This may not look like a large crack but this crevasse went down into darkness! I'm wearing metal chains on the boots to gain better traction on the slick ice.
Here are a few of the others who were traversing the glacier that day. You can rent a guide and they will take you down into some of the ice caves by way of rope. You have to rappel down massive ice walls to reach them.
I'm heading out to a new glacier this weekend with a group of friends and plan on camping overnight. The temperature will be fairly warm at 10 degrees Fahrenheit (-12 C).
I hope you enjoyed this post. If you did, please consider upvoting, commenting, and following along. Let me know if you plan on ever visiting Alaska, I can recommend some amazing places if you're adventurous! If you have questions about camera settings or techniques, let me know! :)
-Chase