Alsek River 2014

Day 9, Wednesday, July 2

I noted when I awoke that I had to look at my watch to determine what day of the week it was. It is interesting how there are so many cues and clues when you are back in civilization, but in the backcountry, you just go by what day of the trip it is, and how many more you have left. After some more sprinkles, we clamored out of the tent to sun and clouds. Breakfast was pancakes and sausage, always a winner. Sam had indicated that today we would focus on Walker Glacier, and move camp slightly in the afternoon. Under full cloud cover, we started our hike over to the face of the glacier. It is hard to tell how far away the face was from camp, but it looked to me to be far enough to wear real hiking boots, rather than rubber boots, the latter being fine as long as you are unloading boats, and keeping your sojourns to a few hundred yards or less.

Along the way, we found a great set of grizzly tracks and spent time sizing them by comparing the rear footprint to the size of a human boot. All I can say is that they seemed pretty darn large. It ended up being a fair piece, as they say, over to the edge of the glacier. We had to skirt the east edge of the lake that sits in front of the face, and that necessitated a very steep climb over very loose rock. Of course, the climb was followed by a steep descent. It was easy – way too easy – to trigger rock falls. Eventually, we were down and hiked over to the edge of the dirt covered ice. At one point, this necessitated climbing up on a knife edge, while Sam dislodged big rocks over one side. It did take some work, for sure. At the edge of the non-dirt covered ice, Joe walked out on the edge of the glacier and looked to see how it might be ok for boot travel. Most of the folks opted for joining the guides to travel further out on the ice. I, however, was not comfortable with doing so, given the size of the crevasses that I could see, along with their potential depth. The snow and ice climbing seminar on Mt. Rainer likely impacted how I might travel under these conditions. I did not have crampons with me, and it was a long way back to the rafts, where the nearest potential rescue-rope was. Sorry, call me a Wuss if you like, but I just was not comfortable. Well, it turns out neither was Sarah or Susie. So they stayed with me while the rest of the crew took off. Ultimately, Susie and I climbed out on to the ice just a bit and photographed some of the yawning crevasses.

We could see (and photographed) the main group way in the distance, and the tiny dots of their bodies provided perspective as to the size of the glacier They were likely standing on a hundred feet of ice, but the active face was likely another 150 feet.

Ultimately, as the group started to re-approach our spot, we signaled that we were headed back to camp. I thought we could avoid that awful climb and descent, as it looked like there were some potential stepping stones at the edge of the lake. Indeed there were, and as the rest of the crew caught us, everyone seemed glad not to have to make the climb and descent. We returned to camp around 12:45 and had lunch, packed the rafts and were back in the water about 2:15 pm. Our first stop was a water pick up. Susie got her chance to drop an empty bucket into a clear stream flow and try to lift the resulting load. With a bit of help, she pulled it off. We only had a little over 6 miles (as it turned out) so we were not in any hurry. The cloud deck was pretty thick, but occasionally, we could see some patches of blue. Fortunately, the cloud deck was also pretty high, so the peaks were not obscured.

We marveled at the number of glaciers we could see with a single head rotation. I took a panorama shot (actually, a set of shots that can be stitched together) but it simply does not do it justice. I recall looking at the Brabazon Range to our west (the direction in which we were headed) and realized that it was a photo of this general view that had originally triggered my interest in this river system. The photo was in a Sierra Club magazine decades ago, but I distinctly remembered the mountains, separated by glaciers.

We landed at a campsite that Sam reported he had never visited before. It was low, broad and open. (7V, 657919 E, 6584496 N) Most spectacularly, you could count 13 separate glaciers from the beach at camp. Amazing. Also, the sun was coming out, or at least, there were bigger patches of blue. I headed down the beach (upstream) about 300 – 400 yards or so, and found some nice small pools filled with sun warmed water. OK, maybe they were not WARM, but at least, they were not brain-freeze temperature. I reported back to Susie that I had found something she would like, since I knew she was looking to wash her hair. So we both headed back to clean up. Susie was looking for a relatively short operation, whereas I wanted the full deal, which, for me, involves pouring lots of fresh water over my body after I have rinsed any soap off and discarded, in an environmentally sound manner, the rinsate. Susie was reluctant to leave me because, after all, we were a long way from camp and while I did have bear spray, well, heck, you could figure out that, if you were a bear and trying to avoid a confrontation with those colorful bipeds that had just moved in down the beach, you would be traveling along the tree line that was very close to where that single ugly biped was pouring water all over himself. Anyway, I promised that I would be constantly on the lookout and I was, for sure. Boy, it felt really good to clean up completely.

The guides had set up the kitchen at least 100 meters from our tents. Most of us sat around chatting and watching the guides work hard. Dinner was posole with meat on the side, cornbread and salad - very nice and tasty. Susie and I had decided to go to bed early, but I think it was at least 9:30 before we crawled in our tents. Another great day on the Alsek.

Additional Photos and videos can be found here: The Alsek Days 9 - 12 album on our SmugMug Photo Album Site

You might enjoy reading a different perspective on this same trip: Sarah Boomer's Report on the Thermophile.org website

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