I've been lucky enough to sleep at the bottom of a glacier.
Seward Glacier, in Alaska.
We set up the tent and emptied our bags of food and toiletries.
These smelly items were all locked away in the bear-proof shed.
(We didn't want to risk attracting any grizzlies to our tent as we slept!)
Any cooking had to be done in the "Kitchen Area".
This was another way of ensuring that bears would not be attracted too closely to sleeping people.
After we set up camp, we admired the view of the glacier. We wandered to the very edge of the glacier, reached out and touched it. The glacier looked a little like slushy ice, which had frozen and become hard and icy.
We found a group of people who had been catching halibut. One of them was a guy we had met on our travels through Alaska, so he returned to the campsite with us and we all sat down to a great feast of fresh fish, cooked over the coals. His clothes still stank of fish and he (wisely) decided not to sleep in the tent. He didn't want to wake up with a bear eating him! Luckily for everyone, he huddled down and slept in the bear-proof shed.
The next morning was clear and bright, perfect weather for climbing mountains.
We hiked up, up and forever up the hill which sat beside the glacier.
We reached tree-top level and kept climbing.
We hit the snow and kept climbing.
It took me a few falls before I got my snow climbing legs sorted.
Legs aching, lungs working overtime... we kept climbing.
... And then we met her.
Mother Bear.
Her twin cubs were playing happily in the snow.
They didn't care about us.
She did.
She stood. She wavered in the air.
She sniffed. She stared...
And then, she ran!
She ran at us! A bear was running right at us!
Suddenly, all of the bear talks didn't seem so crazy! What were we supposed to do? Climb on top of each other and call out in loud and scary voices....
Yeah, right! She was running at us!!!
And.... then... she stopped.
She seemed to shrug, turned and walked off.
While she ate and wandered around, our hearts
were smashing out of our chests.
Next question.
Do we go back? We had come too far... so, No.
We kept climbing.
When we finally stopped, we were at the top of the mountain. All we could see was white... Snowfields, nearby mountaintops, the glacier. We were alone, at the top of a glorious mountain. We hungrily devoured our picnic lunch and started to prepare for the descent.
Although we had hiked for hours to reach our picnic spot, the return journey lasted mere moments. We dived onto the surface of the snow and slid on our stomachs.
Every time I think of the adventures I've had, I realise how lucky I am.
