See a glacier up close

“I have arrived. There is a white fog everywhere, sweeping slowly down the face of Sperry Glacier, carrying with it moisture as rain, ice,snow, and then as a wind with ice, with rain, and snow pelting our faces. I shiver in the expected but unexpected cold of being in the presence of ice. I am glad I brought gloves.”

“We paddled across the lake up to the snout of the glacier, fighting into the cold wind that poured down off of it. The face of Grewingk grew more distinct as we neared. In some places its face was flat, where slabs of ice had obviously sheared away cleanly. Wind and rain had polished the definition out of these surfaces. In these places, the ice was dull white with lines of dark sediment embedded within it.”

“Never before had I noticed in such detail the reflection the mountains cast on Grinnell Lake or the intense color of the wildflowers and rocks contrasting with the blue skies. The highlight of the hike for us that day was reaching the glacier just in time to see and hear a large chunk of ice calve off the terminus of the glacier and drop into the icy blue waters below.”