Best Glacier Experiences in Alaska

Jennie and Jay talk about all the many ways to experience glaciers in Alaska and how to figure out which glacier experience is right for you - hiking? Driving? helicopter? fixed wing plane? boat? Glacier paddleboarding?? We'll help you figure it out.

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Music credits:  Largo Montebello, by Domenico Mannelli, CC.

Transcript

 Welcome to the Alaska Uncovered Podcast with me, your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming, my occasional co-host and full-time husband, Jay, and I bring you accurate, helpful, and entertaining information about Alaska Travel and life in Alaska.

This episode about glaciers. Jay and I originally recorded in January for our Patreon subscribers. As you know, by now, we have changed that up and we no longer have new episodes behind the paywalls, so we're bringing a few of those to the main feed. And this is a great time to let you know that you can still support us on Patreon by joining the Alaska Planning Club.

And it's $9 a month. It's on Patreon when you join, you can ask me all the questions you want anytime, and I'll answer them once a week just for those in the planning club. There's a few other benefits to you, like some discounts on my planning services and itineraries, you don't wanna miss the first one, which is happening Thursday. I've been reading through the questions people have already submitted. We'll be talking about things like tipping and this versus that, all kinds of really fun questions. So I am really excited to see you over there on Thursday.

All right, let's get to the glaciers.

You know, the glacier experiences or, and expectations, there's, I think there's probably two dimensions to think about.

One is access and one is the activity. Yeah, you're doing around them. I think cost is another one too. It varies so much. That played into, that plays into both of those too, right? Yeah. The more complicated or exotic the access, the higher the cost will be. Yes. And the, and the more. Of an activity as opposed to just viewing.

Yeah. Or you know, whatever the, the, in the insurance costs associated with that kind of thing. Also can, you know, play. So, but I think those are the two dimensions that I can kind of think that Yeah. We could divide this up by. Yep. So we, there are quite a few. I think one of the cool things about Alaska is there are quite a few glaciers you can get to with pretty easy access.

Yep. So there's some you can drive to by road. Yep. Um, or even take a close, almost take a city bus too. Yes. Not quite. Yeah, and that's tricky because like if you're thinking of Menden Hall, glacier in Juneau, you can drive there. If you have a rental car, but you can't drive your car to Juneau, you know? True. So it's like you'd have to, but if you were there with a rental car, then yes, you can drive to Men Hall.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, the other, the other big drive up, drive up, that sounds terrible, but I think. Um, not drive through. Open 24 hours, open 24 hours. Drive up glaciers, um, would be Matanuska Glacier on the Glen Highway, which is between Anchorage and Glen Allen and, um, Thompson Glacier, which is on the Richardson Highway, um, near Valdez.

Between. Uh, sorry. It's Thompson Pass the Worthington Glacier. Yes, Thompson. Yeah. That's one of the places that, um, we stop on one of the tours I lead. And then another one would be Exit Glacier near Seward in Kenai Fjords National Park. Mm-hmm. And you know all of those, you're not driving right up to the face of the glacier.

Right. That's not, there's not really anywhere you do that, but in all three of those locations without any walking, you get a good view of the glacier. Are there? Mm-hmm. Places you can think of Jay like that. There's other areas. Portage Glacier used to be. Yep. Right. And that's along. And, and if you.

You will probably still find what I would consider to be outdated information out there. Yeah. Um, and there are great pictures that people, you know, of people with Portage Glacier over the, like, parking lot. Yeah. No more that, that is no longer the case. Yeah. And Portage, uh, glacier has. Has retreated back around the bend Yep.

And is no longer visible from the road. Yep. Uh, anymore. Yep. And, um, so to get to see it, you do have to still take a, a very short boat, boat ride Yep. To see it or you can hike up there on Portage Pass. Yeah. Or in winter you can ski out. Um, yep. We've done that. If the condition is so fun, if the conditions are good, yeah.

Meaning if the lake is frozen enough. Yeah. It was a bit slushy when we were. On it last time on the surface surface. It was a little on the surface. Yeah. And it was a bit sketchy 'cause it just, it's a little unnerving to be skiing in like four inches of water on a lake. Yes. Even though there was plenty of ice under it.

Yeah. Um, I think we should also say while we're talking about roads, that anytime you're on a highway in Alaska, you can probably see at least one glacier. Yeah. These ones that I was mentioning and that you talked about, Jay, are ones that like. You can see like the definition of it. Yeah. From an official parking area next to the road.

Mm-hmm. Right. But when you drive on the Parks Highway, the Richardson Highway, the Seward Highway, the Glen Highway, the Denali Highway, the Alaska Highway, yeah. All of those. You see lots of glaciers in the mountains on both sides of view at a distance. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I think that's, I can't think of another one that you can get close access to.

Uh, I Well, what would you say though about, um, oh, I just spaced out the name of it near south of Delta Junction, uh, Castner Glacier. Yeah. You can't really see it from the road? No. You have to do, it's a short hike and I would say it's a winter only. Yes, yes. Yeah. My opinion, but I'm kind of conservative about things like off trail hiking and buggy areas and, uh, getting anywhere near glaciers when they're not frozen

you know, with a few exceptions to that. Um, yeah. But Castner Glacier gets pretty sketchy in the summer. Yeah. And, and, uh, actually, I, I wanna take a serious moment for just a second to, to say that I feel like it's really important to point out that glacier travel is dangerous. Yes. And you should not do it.

Uh, on your own, you should not Right. Enter onto the surface of the glacier. Um, without a guide. Agreed. Or I would not do it without a guide If you're an expert and I have two personal friends that have died on glaciers. Yeah. So it's, it's, it's a real thing and, and, you know, it's not, um, so, you know, walk up and look at it from a close.

Cool. Uh, but don't, don't actually. Walk onto the glacier unless you, uh, are, you know, if you're a subject matter expert and you're good at it, that's or, uh, like approach. The face of it, I would say is the same. Yes, I agree. I agree. Um, the face of the glaciers can be very active and it's not, glaciers are not snow.

They're not frozen lakes. They are moving, they're moving slowly, but they're moving and there's a lot going on and there's a number of things about glaciers that can be quite dangerous. Uh, you know, any good qualified guide in Alaska will will be able to safely get you. Yep. You know, on and off glaciers.

But I just wanna point that out. Like if you see one on a map and you're like, cool, I'm gonna hike up to that. Yeah, great. Just don't walk on it. Yeah. And it's not just about like the slippery surface. There's crevasses, there are, um. Uh, surface water runoffs that can then run down through, uh, through a blue, blue pool and go under the glacier.

Um, there's, there's a lot of issues and, and crevasses, for example, can be, can be hidden beneath very thin snow bridges. Yep. It can be completely, uh, not obvious to you and you can fall through and it, um, you know, it, it's a, a highly fatal. Uh, incidents in a lot of those cases. So yes, just, just as a serious note, I mean, um, not necessarily the, the right thing to DIY if you want to have a no, a personal, you know, a, an on top of the glacier experience.

Anyway, with that said, so then there are a few that are kind of easy to access, like I would say Portage Glacier. Yeah, totally. If you are, if you have a car and you get to Portage. It's really cool. Yeah. Even, even at the glacier. And you get by bus from downtown Anchorage too. Oh, I didn't know that.

You get a ride out to Portage and then you do the lake cruise, which is a really. Just to jump in on that, the glacier boat ride across Portage Lake is really wonderful for people who are really stressed about seasickness and don't hold out on the ocean, right?

It's dead calm, or it's also at a way lower price point. You know, I. I would love to see everyone do the 26 glaciers cruise or the Northwestern, is that a sorts, is that not sort of Whittier? I get them confused. Which is, uh, it's Whittier. It's whi Whittier. So yeah. And we had um, an episode about the 26 Oh yeah, yeah.

Glaciers cruise. Um, that was episode 92. It was in mid-November. Um, that also, they have a no sea sickness guarantee 'cause it's all in protected water. Mm-hmm. But it is a longer. Time, right? So Portage Lake is awesome. If you want something super affordable, very short. Mm-hmm. It's like an hour, the whole experience.

Um, or you're like just not super comfortable with boats, that's a great option. And the activity there, you know, from my like access activity is sort of rubric, is that they're going to cruise the boat out near the. Near the face of the glacier, which is retreated up off the like. Yes. Um, when last time I did it, you know, they pulled some chunks of ice on board and people were able to chip off a piece and put it in their drink or whatever and, and you know, they were able and it was cool.

You got, when you get below a glacier like that, there is a cold down slope wind. Yes. And it suddenly goes from being the cat about wind. Yes. For, yeah. For those who wanna nerd out about it. Willow was, if you're a, if you're a ship. Yes. Nautical person. Yes. And they can actually be quite strong winds. It's, it's an interesting thing that can happen, uh, which is that the cold air over the glacier descends rapidly and coMeares down across that.

Um, and then it's pulled up by the warmer ocean, air, or. Land, uh, and they can be quite violently surprising. In the day of sale it was a big deal that people would sail near the, um, but it's really fun in, you know, the modern era that like you go from 70 degrees and whatever, and then you suddenly are like this cool cold wind coMeares down off the way.

I found that really cool. Yeah. But you know, so there's a photography experience. You can get fairly close to the glacier. Um, you can, yeah. Potentially. Play with the ice a little bit. Yeah, it's cool. And I'd put the 26 glaciers cruise and, um, Stan Stevens and Lazy Otter and Valdez. Mm-hmm. You know, similar kind of experience.

And then in Seward, the um, Northwestern Fjords cruise, which is the all day one, goes up to the Tidewater Glacier. If you're focusing on glaciers just in Seward, be aware that the shorter. Cruises do not go up to the face of a Tidewater glacier, right? They're more wildlife focused and that the ones that do go out to the glacier are super bouncy.

So you gotta take seasickness. Um. Precautions. If you're doing that, if you do take the one out of a Seward, you can look for my best friend whale and her name is, yeah, Morgan Lafe. Morgan Lafa. Um, she's frequently there.

When we talk about wildlife, we will come to talk more about Morgan, but yeah, that, that trip is really cool. But the half day one does not get, or the, the shorter wildlife one does not get. A, a, a strong glacier experience. Yep. Yep. Um, one other thing I wanted to mention about this, if you're taking a cruise, you're going to have one sea day on your cruise that will be very glacier forward.

Mm-hmm. So it might be Glacier Bay National Park, it might be Hubbard Glacier, it might be Endicott arm. Um, haven't, which is DA Glacier. Haven't I haven't been. Might be College Fjord. Mm-hmm. And some have more than one. Day like that. Mm-hmm. So one question that I often get is like, oh, well my ship is going to Glacier Bay.

Should I still do something like the 26 glaciers cruise on my day in Anchorage or something like that? Yes. And my, yes. My opinion is yes. First of all, glaciers are amazing and second of all, the experience on your ship is gonna be incredible and. These tours that we're talking about are in a much smaller boat where you'll be closer, you'll closer, and it's just cool.

So you should do that for sure. I'm not, I will not, uh, downplay the coolness of sitting with a very, uh, fancy hot drink on the deck of your cruise ship. Yeah. And watching glaciers roll by. Yeah. It's amazing. But I, I realized, you know, the first time I, I think it was Hubbard, was the first time I saw. Um, from, and I was pretty blown away by it.

And I've gotten to be a bit of a, I've gotten to be a bit of a diva about my Tidewater Glacier experiences after having been on, um, small ships in the Canadian MaritiMeares. In Greenland. Yes. See episode 80, no. Is it episode? No. Episode 91 from November 6th. That was when you talked about that whole experience.

Yeah. They're pretty, pretty mind blowing. Yeah. But I think, um. You know, the experience of getting close in a smaller boat, it's just really, it's different and it's really cool. Yeah. So if, even if you've seen, you know, like if you're a person who's like, yeah, check that off. Saw that, you know, I'm good. Well cool.

Yep. But if you really want a, like a better feel Yep. For it. Yeah. It's worth doing another, yeah. Yeah.

Before we move on to the bigger ticket things there's kind of another category of pretty epic glacier experiences, but it's hard. Work. It's hiking, right? Yeah. So. There's three places that I think that is particularly fantastic in Alaska.

These aren't the only ones. Matanuska Glacier is the easiest. Um, again, all these, mm-hmm. Well, not all of them. The first two are guided. The the third one, you don't actually go onto the glacier. But, um, Matanuska Glacier, you know, you are gonna be walking for a couple of hours, but it's pretty chill as far as distance, speed, elevation gain.

You can do that in winter and summer. It's a different approach. Different experience. Mm-hmm. Um, and then the Root Glacier in Wrangell St. Elias National Park. Um, we had an episode about that. I'll find it here in a minute. Um, where we talked about with Avery, who was my guide on the root glacier. Oh yeah. Um, where we talked about Wrangell St.

Elias in general and McCarthy, but that. It's so hiking on the Matanuska Glacier is not free. It's relatively low cost. Um, there's a couple different ways to do it. If you drive yourself there. It's pretty low cost for Root Glacier.

So the thing is, it's a really hard place to get to. Mm-hmm. And you also, um, need to be with a guide, but hiking tours are super affordable. We've had, we've talked about that in lots of other episodes.

Mm-hmm. Um. . So it was episode 66 where we talked about Wrangell St. Elias anyway. And then the final one is one that is free and you don't need a guide for, and that's Hardy Nice field, um, at exit. Same place as Exit Glacier, right? Kenai Fjords National Park. I'm gonna just tell you, it's a very, very, very hard hike.

It's awesome, but it's super hard. It has about 4,000 feet of elevation gain and it's about 10 miles round trip. Mm-hmm. You can get a pretty great view of glaciers and ice fields. Starting at about two miles into that hike. And that's quite a bit more manageable. It's still steep, not easy, um, but all the way at the end of the trail , the view of the entire hardy art, not the entire.

But most of the hardy nice field is pretty spectacular. Mm-hmm. Okay. Let's talk about big ticket glacier experiences, Jay. Yeah, let's do it. Should we talk about. Fly in stuff then. Yeah. So as soon as you involve an airplane or a helicopter, prices go up a lot.

Yeah. It's just, it's an expensive technology, but 500 to a thou, well, 600 to a thousand dollars a person is what we mean when we say expensive. Right. They are however, nearly magical. They're magical. They can scoop you up and put you right there. Yeah. Uh, you know, it's, and I'll say we have other episodes about flight scene, if you feel like you can handle a small plane or a helicopter and you can in any way do it in your budget, there's nothing like flight scene in Alaska.

Not, there's no. That gives you a different vibe on the entire place and how large it is. Mm-hmm. It is true and I think a sense of scale is one of the things that you really would you want to try to experience when you're there. And that will give it to you in a big way. One thing is too, you know, if you're not that into small aircraft.

Some of the, some of the helicopter experiences are really short. Um, I'm thinking of the one that's off the Glen Highway. I, I just spaced out. Yeah. It's like a Alaska helicopter Tour. Tour. Yeah. The, the Knik Glacier tour. Yeah. That's like a 10 minute flight, right? 15. But yeah, it's short. Yeah. You can do it.

Yeah. Anybody, anybody could even, you could do it, Jay, the, if, if you're, if you haven't heard every episode. I have spent a lot of time in my life in helicopters, mostly professionally. Mm-hmm. And I have very mixed feelings about them. Yeah. Um, it's very fair. Uh, they are amazing. They're remarkable.

They do miracles every day. They're also, um, for me, quite stressful. Yeah. Long stories. Uh, but, you know, it, uh, also the helicopters that we are talking about tend to be quite, they're much quieter than. Construction or military or government oriented ones? Yeah, they're uh, they're quite comfortable. Yep. And you have a headset, so mm-hmm.

You can hear the pilot. Mm-hmm. And you have a microphone so you can talk to the pilot and the other guests you don't hot load, which is when you get in and outta the aircraft, while it's, while it's running, which is really stressful. Um. That kind of thing. So it's, it's, it's, it is a, a it's a very different kind of experience than the ones that Yeah.

That have, have made me more wary of it. Yeah. Um, even so, like, you know, there are things in the world where I, I cannot tell you I have, I have quite literally teared up when the helicopter came over to pluck me out of some God sake. It's like, yes, they're amazing. Yeah. Yep. Um. So, I'm trying to think. There are tons of places where you can do a helicopter tour.

Yes. With a, with a landing. Yep. When you and I met in Skagway, um, there's quite a bit of that going on there. Yes. They pick you up. I met at my desk next to a helipad. I know that was how, how is it Jenny? 50 feet from a helipad. How is it to have your desk next to a helicopter? It's challenging If you ever have to talk on the phone.

Did you say it was louder or wanna hear yourself think? Yeah. It is very loud. Yeah. And they took off and landed every few minutes. Yeah. Yeah. It was a lot. Yeah. So I think for this one, rather than like go into detail about every place you can do that, which is, I'm just, there's tons, I mean, you know, there's, yeah.

Juneau and Segway and Denali. And Anchorage. Mm-hmm. And Valdez and Seward. Yeah, that's nearly off the top of my head. I'm thinking about the questions people ask, and a lot of tiMeares people ask, where should I do this? And then also a lot of tiMeares people ask about the difference between the helicopter options and the fixed wing, right?

Which is a regular plane option. So I guess what I would say about that is do the flight scene tour in whatever place you have the most time. Mm-hmm. Because that gives you the best chance of managing a weather delay. So if you're choosing between a cruise ship port where you'll be there for four hours, and one where you'll be there for 12 hours, right?

Do it in the one that you're there for 12 hours, right? Or if you're in a cruise ship port for 10 hours, but you're going to be in Taina for three days. Do it in Taina. You know, unless you're doing both. Mm-hmm. But if you're choosing, and I think the other thing just to know about fixed wing and helicopters is they are pretty different experiences.

Mm-hmm. And I think a couple big things are if you're not wild about flying in the helicopter, you will be in the air for less time. Mm-hmm. Um. So that's good to keep in mind. I think the other thing is if you enjoy though, if you're enjoying, you know, being up there and getting the flight, yeah. You will get more airtime for, for the same money.

Fixed wing is better in a fixed wing because it is much lower cost to operate a fixed wing Yes. Aircraft. And so if you're going, again, you know, we're talking about glacier experiences. So if you are going to land on a glacier in a fixed wing. Ski plane. Right. It's gonna be a ski plane. Right. Um, at least when it's on the glacier, it'll be a ski plane.

Mm-hmm. You're not going to see those blue pools because the plane needs a runway. Right. And even if that runway is a glacier. Mm-hmm. It still can't have blue pools. You can't land on that, but they can't land on areas where the, the ice fall is steep because it leaves cracks and reassesses. Right. They need a, a large comb bowl of the Yes.

You know, to, to like, yeah. The Ruth Glacier in Denali National Park, for example. Right. Which doesn't mean it's not gonna be mind blowing, it's just a A different experience. It's just different. Yeah. Yeah. And then the other time that you won't see Blue Pools is if you're doing a helicopter dog sledding adventure, because again, again.

Yeah, for dog sledding, it needs to be a place where there is snow on top of the glacier for the dogs to run. Mm-hmm. Because they don't run through pools, right? Mm-hmm. That'd be very sketchy. So if you wanna see blue pools, then what you're looking for is a straight up helicopter experience without dog sledding.

Right. Um, because otherwise, and because of that, that's not gonna happen. Some of the other activities like paddle boarding, are helicopters. Are helicopters. Yeah. Because they can put you in the place where you can do that. Mm-hmm. Yep. So I think those are the main things I would say about SA glacier. What would you say, I, I know that I've heard this question myself, um, about as an accessibility thing.

First of all, like, do I have to be fit, et cetera to do it. And also what kind of clothes and gear do I need to do these? Yep. Yep. Good question. So, um, for, for helicopter, for, for landing on a glacier in a plane or helicopter, um. You, you will need to be able to get into and out of the helicopter. There's not an elevator or a ramp.

Mm-hmm. Now I have seen them do amazing things to get people who are, for example, wheelchair users. In and out of a helicopter or a plane, but just know they're gonna need to know about that in advance. Yes. And it helps if you have a companion with you. Again, they're gonna do everything they can, but like.

Ultimately it will be up to the pilot if he or she feels comfortable Right. With the setup. So, and I would say just keep that in mind. Yeah. And you and I have both, I think, uh, had the experience of, of being given free rides on helicopters from Yes. Tours we were associated with Yes. To be a. Companion for a a Yep.

A guest who had limited mobility Yep. To help get them in and out. So the, and it's amazing, the pilot. Yeah. Um, you know, can, can not have to worry about it. Yep. And, um, we both did that quite a bit. Yeah. In various places we've been. Yep. I would say the other thing though that I did notice was that in having done that, first of all.

Yeah, definitely. Some folks who were pretty mobility limited, uh, were able to do it. Yeah. But one thing to know is that when you're on the glacier, you won't be able to really move beyond where you're Yes. Set if you, yes. If you're not fairly decent on your feet Yep. You won't be able to move around with a walker.

Correct. Or a wheelchair. You won't be able to bring a walker or wheelchair. Exactly. In the. You know, clean, you know, you won't, there is no facility that you're flying to, you, you're just gonna be landing on a snow, a snow field, or a, a, you know, an active ice and, and snow, uh, surface on the glacier. So, so, you know that, I think that would still be totally worth it.

Yeah. But just as that, you know, if, if that is your situation and you asked about gear, um, if you're going to be getting out of, now if you're just flight scene over a glacier, which is, and there's no landing involved, then you can wear whatever you want. It'll just be like being in any other vehicle.

Mm-hmm. Um, but for a landing, they'll typically give you boots to wear and you can just pull 'em on over. So as long as you're not wearing like flip flops or stiletto heels, it doesn't really matter. Um, they'll just pull over, you know, those big glacier over boots. Um. People usually are mostly thinking about being cold on the glacier.

And what I wanna encourage you to think about is sun protection not being cold. Yes. Because mm-hmm. You know, it is gonna be colder, but if it's summer and it's 80 degrees in, say. Anchorage, it's maybe gonna be like 67 degrees on that glacier. Mm-hmm. It might be 40. Right. So don't count on this, but it's possible to be pretty hot if you're on ice.

And in the direct sun, there's no shade. The sun is really intense. Yeah. Yeah. And so you need sun protection, not only for your skin, but like especially for your eyes. Mm-hmm. Because you don't, you have to have sunglasses, even if it's not sunny, even if it's winter. Um. You know, you gotta have sunglasses.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And if you're sensitive to sun, you gotta take more protection than that. Mm-hmm. But sunglasses at a minimum. And, and, and one thing to note too is that at like a hat isn't enough because the sun bounces off. Exactly. And it depends a little bit of your, you know, what your surface time is gonna be.

Yep. If you know you're gonna have a 15 minute landing. Yeah, it's different than if you're gonna be, uh, landing and doing a, an hour and a half, you know, paddleboard or Yep. Snowshoe or something. Experience on. Um, I think also, um, a rain jacket is a really good idea, regardless of the weather, unless it's winter, then just a warm jacket.

But, um. It can be really, it can be windy. Mm-hmm. And a rain jacket's hopeful for that. It's also super wet if you're on a glacier in the summer, you know, everything is melting on the surface. Um, if you wanna lay down and make a snow, snow angel and you don't have a rain jacket, I've done this and it's fine, but you're gonna be wet weird for the rest of the day.

I don't, I don't understand. Yeah. So those are my thoughts on that. I don't understand these things. Yeah. And shoes wise, some. Tour operators actually give people like over boots or something for the like Yeah, most of 'em give you boots to wear. So I think, you know, um, yeah, I think especially the ones that do any kind of a tour, like the dogsled tours and that kinda stuff usually do.

Yeah. Um, sometiMeares, like I've been on, um, glacier helicopter tours where they were gonna be landing by a blue pool and they didn't give us boots in the summer. Um. You know, so, but they'll basically give you what you need. Yeah. Mm-hmm. What? Um, but you don't wanna wear flip flops or dress shoes on a glacier.

Just don't do that. Mm-hmm. Or Birkenstocks or whatever. Mm-hmm. Like, no sandals don't, don't do it. Yeah. Don't do it. Just don't do it. Yeah. I mean, think of it as, as a, you know, a, a mildly active outdoor activity. Yeah. And, um, yeah. Um. I was just thinking, uh, was there was some other, there was some other question about gear that I was gonna ask.

Oh. One of them is that, that depending on, on the aircraft you are in, you may be seated in a middle seat. So people in, I mean, most of the tours that I know of in Alaska either run, um, art Robinson, R 40 fours. Yep. Which is a workhorse piston engine. It's pretty quiet. Um, very, very efficient. Great, a great aircraft.

Um, others run the A star like three fifties, which is a Rocco, uh, Airbus made, uh, helicopter all over the state. You see them all over. Yeah. But I think the, the, um, the A stars, uh, they seat six. Is that about right? Um, I'm trying to remember. I'm not sure that I think so, but anyway, there, there will be like, uh, so, you know, that is just, I just bring that up because sometiMeares I know that folks have been disappointed that they didn't have a window in the, you know, there's usually someone who wants to be further away from, so it usually works out.

Oh, just usually there's someone. Yeah. SometiMeares, uh, you know, it can be. Because there's great visibility from Yeah. You'll still see just fine from the middle. So I was, that's where I was gonna go with that is that like, you will still have great visibility. It's gonna gonna be awesome. Yeah. Yeah. You'll still have great visibility, uh, from that, so Yeah.

Totally agree. Mm-hmm. I think, you know, Jay, as we're wrapping this up, I think that these big adventure things, I mean, they're just all really cool. So if one of them speaks to you, do it. Mm-hmm. Like, whether that's. Glacier Paddleboarding. I remember when that company first started doing that tour, which was about three years ago, and I was like, oh, I need to find a client who.

Wants to do this 'cause this is so awesome. Mm-hmm. Then I have this guy that told me he was traveling with his family and his two teenagers and he's like, our family loves big adventures and we wanna do something super epic. And I was like, I know. Just the thing. And they absolutely loved it. Right. So if something like that were ice climbing.

On Ru Glacier, which is another thing you can do in Wrangle St. Elias National Park or any other hella skiing or like whatever. If that speaks to you just, I think just know it's gonna be awesome and it's gonna be expensive, but I think, and it's gonna be really expensive, and so if it isn't speaking to you, then just don't worry about it.

But if it is, yeah, it's not, I wouldn't say those kinds of things are a must do. I think seeing, seeing a glacier up close to me is a must. Do agreed, uh, for a, you know, an Alaska, um, you know, for your checklist. I, I think getting up close to one, it's, it's a really big deal, but having the kind of on the glacier experience, uh, is less so.

Yeah. And I think, you know, everything that we've talked about is absolutely amazing. So, kind of like what you said, like I really, you know, I don't really believe in must use when it coMeares to Alaska, but like you. I think glaciers are an exception to that, but any of these ways is gonna be an amazing way mm-hmm.

To interact with the glacier. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. And, and at most people's itineraries to Alaska, whether it's a cruise only or cruise and land Yep. Combo or an independent land tour are, yep. They're all gonna have an option. There are a lot of glaciers in Alaska. Many of them have retreated dramatically, but they're still.

So much more accessible than they are. Yes. In most places in the world. Totally agree with that, uh, that their opportunity will be there. Yeah. Um. And I think it is a pretty, there's an accessibility point from almost everyone for getting a good glacier experience. Yep. Whether your physical fitness or the price or your choice of activities, I think there's something there.

You know, sometime I would, uh, although it's less of a concern today with modern, um, mobile phone technology, but. Uh, photography is actually kind of interesting on glaciers. It's, yeah, it's, it's a bit of a challenge for most, uh, phones to take. Great pictures. Yeah. But they're pretty, they're pretty good. I, I, I'm retracting that.

Okay. But it is, it is an interesting thing to uh, be willing to experiment with your, with your camera or phone. Um Yep. Because you'll find that, uh, especially the exposure gets really weird. Yeah. It's very glaring. It's a glaring environment. It's, and and your phone will try to make it more gray than it is.

Yeah. 'cause your phone is like this can't possibly be this way. It can't possibly be this way. Yeah. It can't really look this way. Right, right. So sometiMeares be be ready if, uh, if you are, you know, into the photography side of it too. Um, yep. Maybe, maybe do a tiny bit of reading up on it. Yep. Um, it's not a big deal, but you might need to just manually adjust your exposures.

Yes. Mainly and. You know, a couple other things I'll say about photography and glaciers, number one, get some kind of leash for your phone. Oh yeah, definitely. Do not. Definitely drop your phone on a glacier into a blue hole, into a crevasse. It's gone.

, And then the other thing I would say is don't spend the entire time looking through your phone. Oh yeah. You gotta discipline yourself.

And this goes for me too. And you know. I take photos professionally for my job mm-hmm. As part of my job. Mm-hmm. And every time I'm on a glacier, I set myself a certain amount of time that I won't be mm-hmm. Taking any photos. I'm, and I think that is crucial. When I'm a guide, I often make people put their phones away for a few minutes.

Yep. And me too, some of them can't do it for more than like 15, but I'm like, put everyone, put their phones away and just like, take a few steps and just kind of be there for a minute because it's a very cool experience. Yeah. It is. One of the tours, uh, that I do, we spend one day taking, a Stan Stevens cruise.

This, this is not, oh, so the Stan Stevens cruise is available to the public, but what we do is take it one way from. Valdez to Whittier, which is something before Yeah, that's charter, right? Before you go Google and figure out how to do that, that's a charter. Yeah. So that's not available to the public.

Mm-hmm. But, um, you can go to the same glacier that I'm talking about here, which is the Meares Glacier. And when we get to the Meares Glacier on that day, we typically have about half an hour. Um, and then it's usually right before lunch and I ask everyone to have a full minute of silence. Mm-hmm. No phones out, no photography, no talking.

Mm-hmm. Um. And sometiMeares people, people roll their eyes and then generally are like, usually that's really cool. And usually at least one person always hugs me after that. Yeah. No, it's, it's, it is, it's a powerful experience. Yeah. So it's cool.  📍 You can do it for yourself and, you know. Yeah. Anyway, so yeah. So glaciers are amazing.

Thank you so much thanks everyone.

Bye-Bye.