Approaching McCarthy from the South after a Day of Exploration |
Well, I’m a recovering perfectionist. :) And my wife couldn’t believe I wouldn’t dive in and do the whole video and collection over, after living with me for forty-two years. It’s evidence that I’m changing, and slowing down in my approach to life because I’m not doing that! :)
McCarthy Airport at the Foot of Two Combined Glaciers |
Here’s some interesting facts about glaciers that I have learned, after the fact. :)
[1] Presently, 10 percent of land area on Earth is covered with glacial ice.
[2] Glacierized areas cover over 5.8 million square miles.
[3] Glaciers store about 75 percent of the world's fresh water.
[4] If all land ice melted, sea level would rise approximately 230 feet worldwide.
[5] In the United States, glaciers cover over 30,000 square miles, with most of the glaciers located in Alaska.
Kennicott Glacier Left - Root Glacier Right |
The sight was awe inspiring and the sense of immensity and other worldliness has not waned. It couldn’t be processed at the time, or really since. But I felt OK with that. Just to be in close proximity to such a sight and phenomenon seemed so special and mystical that there wasn’t a feeling, with me at least, that it could be or should be understood, just experienced and appreciated… a new reality previously outside our experience. Majesty. Mystery. Marvel.
Flying North Up the Kennicott Glacier |
On first glance it appeared the very large foot of the glacier was all stones of undetermined size, type, and origin - with very little ice. As it turns out exactly the opposite is true. The stone covering is provided by land slides on the mountains as the glacier slowly passes through, and stone that is scooped up from the valley floor as it passes with enormous force and embedded within. But that stone covering varies in depth from only a few inches to about 15 feet. The main component is below what you see and, in the case of the Root Glacier, is ice 1300’-4000’ thick! That’s right, what appears as rocks is actually a thin covering of the densest ice imaginable which is 1/4-3/4 miles deep.
Flying South Down the Root Glacier |
That's enough minor descriptions and sparse facts of what is observable but not that well known nor understood. You can study these associated photos for yourself. And wonder and ponder as we did then, and since. :)
Flying Over the SaddleBack Between Two Glaciers |
On our day of exploration in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, after seeing ice fields and glaciers to stagger the mind, we purposed to fly once again up the Kennicott Glacier, over a saddleback mountain onto the Root Glacier, then back down it past our home for the evening, Kennicott Glacier Lodge, for our landing in McCarthy.
![]() |
The Root Glacier Looking North |
Kennicott Mining Ghost Town |
View of Glaciers North Over McCarthy |
South Foot of the Root Glacier |
“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, Or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,” (Job 38:22)
“From whose womb has come the ice? And the frost of heaven, who has given it birth? “Water becomes hard like stone, And the surface of the deep is imprisoned.” (Job 38:29–30)
[Click here for photos.]