Develop an inner candle flame that won’t flicker even when the worst goes before you.
For most of my stay, Bill had to work during the day but was nice enough to leave me his car. I wouldn’t normally take him up on his offer, but it pretty much rained my entire trip. He recommended I take it down to Exit Glacier near Seward because it’s supposed to be a beautiful ride. The entire time down I wished I was out on my bike, but I was happy to be inside away from the rain.
It only took me about 20 minutes to get up to a vista where I could see the glacier, but I wanted to get on it. They only way to really get onto the ice is to head up to the Harding Icefields. I started talking to a ranger about how long it would take to get up there and he said around 8 hours. It was about 8 miles round trip and I figured I could do it in about 5. I was just about to head up, but the ranger insisted I not try it since it was late in the day. By the time I’d be heading down I would probably be alone and it would be around the time when wildlife (aka bears) are roaming around. I decided to pin it for another day, and glad I did because I definitely wasn’t prepared.
Later in the week, Bill took off a day from work and we headed down to Seward to camp for the night. It rained all night and we ended up camping in the back of his Suburban. The next morning we woke up early and started to hike up to the Harding Icefields. We had light showers early on and it was somewhat cool out. I was only wearing shorts and a t-shirt under my rain gear. The elevation change was pretty steep and after a while we both took off our rain coats to cool down.
After about an hour we made it above the tree line and had a better view of the glacier. We couldn’t see the ice fields yet because they were covered in a cloud. It was starting to get cooler as we got higher up and I had to put my rain jacket back on. Unfortunately, it was soaked, but it still kept me warm.
For most of the hike up we were surrounded by trees, but now it was barren. The trail was covered in broken shale and granite boulders. Most people turn around once they hit the tree line, but we continued on. We had 2.5 miles to go.
The terrain started to get more difficult the higher we went. It was steep and the paths started to get more narrow. We took a lot of breaks on the way up, but they were only a few minutes to catch our breaths. We didn’t want to let our bodies cool down too much.
As we got higher we started to see snow around us. It wasn’t until we had to walk on it that we realized we may not have prepared as well as we should have. Remember, I’m only wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and waterlogged rain gear. Things like gloves and hiking poles would’ve been ideal.
Every time we’d hike up to a point we figured we’d have to be at the ice fields, but all we’d see is more trail going off into the distance. The temperature must have dropped 20° and the winds were starting to pick up. It got to the point where we felt like we were hiking Mount Everest or something. We couldn’t see all that far off in the distance, and we were surround by snow, ice, and rock.
We made it up to a storm shelter to take a quick break to eat some granola bars and write our names on the inside of the cabin. We only brought three granola bars, which would turn out to be a mistake on our 5 hour hike.
After another quarter mile we finally made it to the ice fields, but there was no easy way to actually walk on them. The winds had picked up to around 25 mph and you could almost lean into the wind and have it support you. We had to climb, not hike, down a slopping rock face to make it to the ice. I was getting pretty tired at this point and was dreading what the climb back up would be like.
At one point I feel like my butt was getting cold. I looked down and realized I had ripped the crotch of my rain pants straight down to my knees.
As I’m trudging down, I see bill running down a snow slope and falling to his knees to slide down. He probably slide for a good 200 ft before stopping himself to avoid some rocks. I didn’t feel like risking an injury 4 mile away from help.
There was one point where we had to pass over a snow patch, which got me a bit worried. We were right at the ice fields and all I could think about are all those stories where glacier hikers fall through the snow into a crevasse. I let Bill go first to try it out before I followed.
We finally made it down to the ice fields and I’ve never felt more accomplished. Too bad I couldn’t really enjoy it because my body was cold and exhausted. Bill’s hands were so cold he actually warmed them up in some of the glacier water.
After drinking some glacier water and filling up our water bottles we made the trek back up. The climb was brutal. We hadn’t really eaten all that much and I was low on energy. I was barely able to climb more than a few feet before I had to take a break. The winds had slowed down by the glacier, but picked up as we got higher. On multiple occasions I told Bill “I just wanna lay down here and die.” It was that miserable.
There was no stretch in the hike that took longer than the climb back up to the storm shelter. We made a quick stop to eat our last granola bar and Bill was nice enough to give me his. As we were standing there two guys showed up wearing only jeans and a rain jacket. I couldn’t imagine how miserable they were.
Luckily, the hike back down to the base was pretty easy. My quads had gotten pretty tired and I hadn’t realized how steep the climb was so my knees started to get sore. It took us about 3 hours to get up there and 2 to get back down. All that wast motivating Bill and I to get down to the car was the thought of some hot and spicy ramen soup. “Hot n Spicy Soup” was our mantra the whole way down.
As we were hiking down, we’d see people who were on their way to the ice fields and were even less prepared than we were. All I could think in my head was “You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into.”
We finally made it back to the parking lot, changed into some dry clothes, and heated some water for our soup. Bowl Noodles and a cold can of ravioli never tasted so good.
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