Delicate Arch – Alaska-style?

photo of a hiker atop an ice arch on the Sanford Glacier, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

Hey Folks,

Here’s an image from our first afternoon on the Sanford Glacier – well, on the moraine section of the glacier. We arrive at the landing strip, donned raingear to ward off the ever-present drizzle, and set off up the valley. Before long, we found a place to camp, setup camp, had a nap (always a critical part of a day’s hiking), and then we hiked up the valley to the moraine, and explored that a little. Right before we got on the moraine we saw a grizzly bear, maybe 75 yards away. The bear reared up on its hind legs, took a look at our intimidating crew, and then dropped to all fours and raced off into the brush. Good bear!

After hiking around the glacier a while, we found this arch, which was really cool. Of course, we didn’t have cameras with us, so we made sure the following day to take a short detour off our route up to this arch for some images. I’m glad we did, what a cool place this is. What’s really cool is that it changes on such a scale that it could well not be around next year. I hope it is, but I’m sure we’ll find something else equally as interesting if not. Such seems to be the way of glaciers.

I convinced Dan “Two Plates” Kelly to head up on the bridge of the glacier for a photo-opp. Dan’s never one to shy away from such a chance to shine, and he posed nicely for this. I’ll post another image soon of his brother, Steve “Don’t Dude Me” also at this arch, from below.

Cheers

Carl

5 thoughts on “Delicate Arch – Alaska-style?

  1. Guy

    What a great place! If it were anything like Delicate Arch, there would be an average of 73.2 photographers around it any time of the day or night, though. Oh, and your friend Dan would have been flamed on every Internet climbing forum for scaling it.

    Guy

  2. Pingback: Moose Rack, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska. - Stock Photos - Skolai Images

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