Ice Climbing and Glacier Walking!

One day on our visit to to Wrangell we arranged for a tour to ice climb. Don, Matt and I were the only ones on our the tour with our guide, Nealy, a bright, enthusiastic graduate student. First we were fitted with boots which were quite heavy. He gave us crampons that would be attached and we were cautioned to wear sunglasses and sunscreen because of the powerful reflections off of the glacier. Then we began our hike about two miles to the glacier. My pack was somewhat heavy, but I didn't complain.

At the foot of the glacier we put on our boots and Nealy instructed us how to lace the crampons. He told us the glacier looks rocky but is really very slick. I compare it to walking with snowshoes. Your feet seems somewhat heavier as the crampons sink in the ice. Each foot has 14 pegs about 1 1/2 inches long and two pegs sticking straight out in front. We hiked for about 45 minutes before we came to our first climbing wall. It was a pretty significant angle. Nealy went to the top and placed an ice anchor and then repelled down with the attached rope. We each took turns. The idea was to first hit the wall with the ice axe and then kick in and walk up with your feet. Surprisingly, it was not hard or scary. The axe hit was similar to hitting a hammer and did not require much upper body strength which is a myth. Next we would move our feet up and kick in. Don and Matt both made it to look over the edge, but I didn't want to. Somehow that part did seem scary to me. When it was time to go down, we held the ice axe firmly as our arms were on our sides and then walked back down being guided by Nealy as he controlled the rope. Faith!

Matt and I climbed five times and Don six. After our first two climbs, we moved to a different wall which was nearly vertical. Fun.

After climbing we had lunch on the glacier also. We hiked back and I was tired and thirsty. Don "Sherpa-ed" my pack for me. We were gone from about 9 am to 7 pm. Very memorable!