Matanuska Glacier
4 pm
One by one we climbed up ropes established by our wonderful guide to reach the top of the glacier. From here we searched for our final stop of the day, a waterfall. We walked across the ice in what had become our usual formation, a single file line like ducklings following their mama. Though usually chattering away, Emily and I barraging our guide with questions (we are very good at asking questions), this time we walked in silence giving me a moment to reflect on this experience which had exceeded my expectations hugely.
Honestly, in the days leading up to this trek I thought I would rather be up a mountain than cruise around a glacier, but I had no idea how mezmerizing a glacier is. The sculptures, textures, colors, a glacier is utterly tactile and stimulating. At the same time it is a cathedral, a museum, I walked through hallways built of ice quietly and filled with awe as if I were pacing along the walls of an art exhibit. My most profound realization of the day was learning about the role of water in the life and movement of a glacier. It seems silly now, extremely obvious, especially when I think about all the photographs I have seen of rivers carved through glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica, but I did not anticipate the amount of flowing water.
Maybe I assumed everything would be frozen solid, stagnant, statuesque, but the water flowing in so many different colors and forms was beautiful: the royal blue pools, the light turquoise streams, the dark blue veins of water trickling under a thin layer of ice, and now a waterfall.
After the waterfall we were trotting by a crevasse when our guide stopped and asked if we wanted to peer over the edge. Of course we did, this particular crevasse had a river of glacier water pouring into its unknown depths. We each had a turn climbing down into a path carved by the river water and then walked as close to the edge of the crevasse as we dared.
Eventually our day came it an end. We left the white ice of the Matanuska Glacier and removed our crampons. We journeyed back across the lateral moraine, a field of rock and debris torn from the landscape by the glacier as it carves its way through this valley. Underneath the rock there is ice, though it is not starkly white like the ice that makes up the main glacier, it is dark due to the debris on top of it.
Anyways, we made our way back along the moraine to the parking lot. We passed by the stretches of glacier sediment that we had painted our cheeks with many hours ago, and took one final look at the mighty Matanuska. Then, we piled back into the old truck to head back to the Mica Guides Headquarters, back to the car, and back on the road.
