Hey Folks,

So I got back right on time – the last glows of the evening were just dwindling down, and I arrived back at the ‘house’ and grabbed my camera, and set up this shot. 10 minutes earlier and the color in the sky was gorgeous. 25 minutes earlier and the mountain was on fire. Zanetti and Wrangell, further south, were even more spectacular. As per usual, my impeccable timing got me a drab sky and no great light.

Cheers

Carl

Hey Folks,

Here’s Steve “Don’t Dude Me” New – posing in front of the Arch. Every so often a rock or three would fall from the bridge in the background, and crash down onto the ice below – pretty awesome stuff. We enjoyed the glacier and moraine, but the hiking is tough on that terrain. Fortunately we didn’t have to hike too far across the rocks and ice – and the moraine made the river crossing WAY simpler than it would otherwise have been.

Cheers

Carl

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

Hey Folks,

I just returned from a week on the Sanford Plateau. This is the view north from camp on our second evening. One of the few nice evenings we had – more rain, more wind, more clouds, more wind, and then crazy insane winds that nearly drove us off the range. Nearly. I was really hoping to get some nice stuff of the big mountains visible from up here, but the weather didn’t co-operate like I hoped it might. Such seems to be the summer. We had an AWESOME trip though, and thanks to Sergei, Steven, Daniel, Kevin and Wendell 🙂 – awesome folks, awesome fun, awesome times. And best of luck with Daniel who’s about to head off to MIT for his first year of college – I’ve never met an MIT person before – I’m still kind of in shock.

More to come over the next few days – while I’ll be gone leading a trip from Bremner Mines to Tebay Lakes in Wrangell -St. Elias National Park until the 20th – so I’ll schedule a few posts for while I’m gone. Pray for sunshine.

Cheers

Carl