GLACIER HELICOPTER TOUR WITH TEMSCO HELICOPTER

My (Reid) 26th birthday! By far, the most adventurous birthday to date. Of all days, we packed two adventures into this one. Yes, it was completely exhausting but worth every joyful second! Unfortunately, our first tour, a dog sledding tour, was cancelled due to dangerous weather – giving us a perfect reason to come back to Alaska! Consequently, this made our first stop of the day, Meade Glacier. Yes, ANOTHER glacier. However, this tour was less physically exhausting compared to our first glacier visit and a lot more satisfying.

We rode via helicopter! Riding the helicopter was a thrilling experience in itself as we hovered above the beautiful scenery of ‘the last frontier’. If that wasn’t enough, the helicopter swooped in, landed on Meade Glacier, dropped us off, then flew away! – leaving us on a windy and cold glacier 12 miles away from any help. (Before boarding the helicopter we put on ice boats and life jackets). We were literally walking on a glacier; something that breaks apart without warning, cracks thunderously, moves slowly, and tears apart randomly – there we were, walking around as if taking a stroll in a park – insane. Luckily a friendly tour guide, Karly, was there to greet us and show us a base camp.

Glaciers form beautiful, natural wonders, within itself such as caves, valleys, and rivers – all made of ice! The grey-lunar looking surface, that you see in the pictures, is something amazing. As the glacier moves down the valley, the compacted ice grinds through the rocky mountain region that surrounds the area and turns it into a powdery substance known as ‘glacial flour’ or it just rips chunks of the mountains onto itself. The entire surface of the glacier looks like a conveyor belt from an old gold mine. Rocks of all shapes and sizes are littered throughout. The glacier could move as much as 10 feet/3 meters a week – If you visit the glacier now, all the unique features we witness may not be there allowing a new tourist to see something completely different! It is an ever changing environment.

To top it off – If riding a helicopter with an amazing view of nature or walking around and exploring a moving glacier wasn’t cool enough, we were able to DRINK OFF THE GLACIER! Yes. Pure, unaltered, natural ice melt water! Nothing was cooler (literally, hehe) than this. This was the highlight of my birthday. It lasted no more than ten minutes but will reside in our memories forever. I mean no exaggeration when I say this: It was the best water I’ve ever tasted. Better than rain water. Better than any river. Better than any Brita filtered water.

It was a mini river flowing on the surface and ultimately funneling down naturally made ice tunnels, escaping into the Pacific Ocean. We were also able to pick off pieces of ice and chew on them. A great aspect to take into consideration was that NO sicknesses ensued! By far, one of the coolest experiences in our lives.