Alaska. This word spins up a cocktail of emotions inside me.
The first time I visited Alaska was August 2017. Since then, I've had an irresistible urge to go back every year. Every time I return from a trip to Alaska and someone asked me, "How was it?" My reply would be, "Life changing."
I am writing this blog 4 years after my visit, but the memories are fresh in my mind like it all happened yesterday. We were 3 girls - Eshita, Rafica, and I, and we had exactly 3 days to pack in all the fun we could. Our destination - Kenai Fjords National Park. I remember having a group call in the middle of a workday because there were limited spots available on the itinerary we were planning, and we had to move quickly! Little did we know that this trip was going to be one of the most amazing things we'd do.
Kenai Fjords National Park is located in the south-central Alaska, and is home to the Harding Ice Field. Nearly 40 glaciers flow from the icefield resulting in more than half of the national park being covered in ice. The word 'wilderness' was going to be redefined in my mind.
DAY 1: BEAR GLACIER ICEBERG KAYAKING
We landed in Anchorage Airport and drove to the coziest little town - Seward, where we were scheduled to meet our guides, Liquid Adventures for an afternoon of Iceberg Kayaking. Our guides provided us with all the gear including drysuits and drybags. We loaded our gear onto a jet boat and in about an hour, we were at the Bear Glacier lagoon. After parking the jet boat right outside the lagoon, we walked over the small embankment of the glacial outlet to see Bear Glacier for the first time, and the sight was unbelievable. It was a river of endless ice!
17 miles in length, bear glacier is the park's longest glacier. As the glacier calves, pieces of chunks of ice break off and drift into the lagoon and float around. It is a magical sight to see - towering mountains on both sides, a gigantic glacier opening into the ocean and icebergs floating all around us.
We quickly got into our kayaks and set off to explore the icebergs. Some of these ice blocks were the size of a small building. It felt scary and awe-inspiring at the same time.
Remember, most of an iceberg is under water? Yep. Scary. Icebergs can be very dangerous - remember to stay a safe distance from them.
As we floated around, we saw so many deep blue colored icebergs of all sorts of magical shapes. A couple of hours of kayaking later, we got back to shore and our guide surprised us with hot chocolate and some brownies! I couldn't have been happier! We soon got back to our jet boat and started our journey back. We also saw some seals, otters and orcas in the ocean.
What an exhilarating day one! We got back to our hotel and started packing our bags for the second leg of our trip - backpacking!
DAY 2: HARDING ICEFIELD TRAIL BACKPACKING
Alaska is one of the few places in the world where you can casually walk up to the foot of a glacier; but standing at the edge of an icefield is a whole other experience! Our plan was to hike up to the end of the Harding Icefield Trail and set camp. Turns out, we'd be the only people staying up there that night.
The Harding Ice Field hike starts at the bottom of exit glacier. and climbs up 4000ft skirting Exit Glacier. The views are incredible all along! As you climb higher, the expansive Harding Icefield starts to come into sight. The scale of mountains in Alaska can be intimidating, especially if you're going there from the lower 48.
4 miles and 4000ft later, we veered off the end of the trail and found a spot to pitch our tents. We were relatively new to backpacking and there were quite a few things that we didn't anticipate. Our campsite was exposed to the elements and had no wind protection whatsoever - rookie mistake. I also wasn't quite proficient in setting up a tent. It got crazy windy through the night and our tent kept flapping and shaking. Our spot wasn't quite "flat" and I kept rolling off to one side all night. In short, we barely got any sleep.
After what seemed like an endless night, we woke up to clear skies and an absolutely calm day. Ice as far as the eye could see - it was an unforgettable sight!
I could have spent the entire day staring at the endless ice-field, but we had to quickly pack up and make our way to our the last part of our trip - Seward Airport.
DAY 3: GODWIN GLACIER ICE CLIMBING
To realize the true vastness of Alaska, you must take a flight. Alaska's terrain is so vast and rugged that most places are inaccessible by road or foot. Heck even Alaska's capital city, Valdez, is not accessible by road! Lol.
The biggest realization from this trip was what wilderness truly meant and how large swaths of areas in Alaska are truly untouched. National parks in Alaska don't have more than a handful of trails - you have to travel off trail to explore the parks. Kenai Fjords National Park, for instance, has only two trails - Exit Glacier trail and the Harding Icefield trail. To truly experience the depths of Alaska, you will have to take a helicopter or a bush plane and fly in.
For the last leg of our adventure, we were flown in a helicopter to Godwin Glacier. We were going Ice Climbing with Exit Glacier Guides. One of the reasons we chose this trip was because it was the only thing we could squeeze in between hiking out from harding ice field and catching our flight back to Seattle later that day.
After landing on the glacier, we put on our harnesses, helmets and crampons and started walking up the glacier. The glacier was filled with crevasses and moulins and we could see streams flowing through the ice. Eventually we stopped at a place and our guide set up anchors in the ice to belay us, and slowly lowered us into a crevasse. It was a chilling feeling to be inside a crevasse, where you can hardly see where it ends. We used two ice axes and the front points of our crampons to dig into the ice to climb out. We took turns and each one of us tried out harder and deeper crevasses as we we got more comfortable. New skill unlocked!
After a couple of hours later on the glacier, we flew back to Seward Airport and started our drive back to Anchorage.
What an incredible three days surrounded by ice - from floating amongst icebergs, to sleeping at the edge of an icefield, to ice climbing out of crevasses. We did truly use every single minute and turned it into an unforgettable journey. I'm greatful to have had crazy friends who were willing to do this with me. Thanks Eshita and Rafica, for being part of this madness!
In the months after we returned, I devoured every book, magazine, tv show and map I could find about Alaska. I learnt about the Gates of the Arctic National Park, Denali, Wrangells St.Elias National Park, the Dalton Highway, and so much more. In my mind, I had trips to Alaska planned out for the next 10 years. I guess we could call this life changing?
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