Mendenhall Ice Caves

Dani and I needed our hiking fix this week, so we scrambled out to the glacier via West Glacier Trail on Wednesday. The route was pretty icy but our trekking poles were lifesavers. When we did this trail in May it was considerably warmer and although the ice was beautiful in the sun, the ice caves were smaller and we didn't feel like going too deep because of their unstable condition in the summer heat. The glacier is constantly changing and moving, so new ice structures form all the time. When we went out there this week we discovered that a small stream had burrowed a cavern into the glacier. The ceiling of ice was relatively thin, so the entire tunnel was illuminated by the sunlight above. While it's not wise to lounge around down there for extended periods of time, we were able to dart in and snap some pretty rad pictures.

Opening of the ice cave

Cirque formed by the glacier

Saturday morning my buddy Ben and I went back (we left at 4:30am so I could be back to work by 2). I've been wanting to learn more about photography, and Ben was kind enough to bring his equipment and let me borrow a camera to get some experience with something other than my camera phone. I learned a lot from him and we got some sweet photos! Most of the ones shown here are courtesy of the professional. This time we brought crampons, so before we went down into the cave we trekked around on top of the glacier as the sun rose. It was incredible!

Should I be on the cover of Nat Geo or what???

The blue tunnel seemed to stretch on forever

On Sunday we enjoyed dinner with our friends the Fields. It was great to be with them and spend some quality time with our furry buddy, Fynn. With our plane tickets purchased it's becoming more and more real that we won't live in Alaska forever, and Dani and I agree that the thing we'll miss the most is the friends we've made up here and our fantastic ward family.