Valdez Gets Awesome

Valdez quickly changed from the place we were yelled at to the place of one of our greatest adventures. What at the beginning had been a town at the end of the road with a hazy sky, lack of restaurants, and grouchy people turned into a beautiful mountain village full of glaciers and adventure, specifically: ice climbing.

Yes, ice climbing. At the beginning of our trip over a month ago we all agreed that we’d spend the money to do at least one extreme adventure. We’ve come close to choosing one; paragliding in Girdwood would have been fun, rafting in Denali would have kicked ass, but for some reason, we never went through with it, none of them seemed to quite match our trip. None were quite epic enough, quite Alaska enough. Until Valdez.

Ice climbing immediately caught our eyes. At least me and Sophia’s. Rachel seemed a bit wary of the idea. We ignored Rachel’s concerns, decided it was now or never, and booked our trip.

We arrived at 9:30am to be outfitted and then headed to Worthington Glacier. It was a nice intimate group, just the three of us and our guide, Tim Duffy. Tim is originally a Mainiac who now spends his summers in Alaska doing all sorts of exciting trips and winters in Utah skiing. (These Alaskans really know how to have fun). Once at the glacier we had a short hike up to the base of the ice and then put on our gear. Tim then gave us our first lesson: how to walk on a glacier. It is key to always step flat footed and get the crampons thoroughly into the ice. And always be mindful of each step, if you trip and fall on the first part, he said, you’re toast. Scary…but exciting!

We began the trek up, feeling the glacier calve and move below our feet, each creek an ominous reminder of our fate if we were to trip and fall. We walked for about half an hour, going over steep slopes and deep crevasses that disappeared below the ice leading to tunnels of sub-glacial rivers. Sort of like a water slide only the end is an ice cave from which there is no escape. Finally we came up to a steep ice face and paused. Tim explained that this was what we’d be climbing. Yikes! He ran up to the top and secured the drills and ropes. “Who’s up?”

I volunteered to go first. I hooked up my harness, put my gloves on, and got my ice picks ready. “On Belay? I’m climbing”.

For my first climb, I decided to go with the “X” technique. I first raised and hammered my left ice pick in, and then did the same with the right. Next I lifted my left foot and secured the front prawns in the ice and did the same with the right foot, making sure they were a wide distance from each other, creating an X shape, all the while keeping my hips pushed against the ice. I felt pretty good. I then reached higher with my ice picks and did it again. I slowly started to climb.
Unlike rock climbing, ice climbing does not involve rocks (ed. note: Obviously). You have to completely rely on the stability of ice. Although ice is certainly strong and solid, it is hard to trust it the way one trusts rocks. It does not feel as tangible and stable as a rock. It took a while to trust my tools and the ice and believe that I would not slide to my death. But of course it held, and when my feet did slip, Tim did a great job belaying and keeping us alive.

I made it all the way up. By the end my arms were trembling from exhaustion and my clothes were sopping from the melting ice (side note: it was a gorgeous day, probably in the 70s, and the glacier was noticeably melting away below our feet. Tim said that he might not even be able to climb what we were climbing in a week or so).

Rachel went next and then Sophia. They both did an awesome job. After a brief break to eat some gorp supplied by Tim (yum!) we went again. We then trekked down glacier a bit to climb a moulin. A moulin is where water found a weakness in the glacier ice and ran through it carving out a large cylindrical hole. This particular moulin was about 50 feet deep and the water that had make it had abandoned it, leaving it empty and perfect for us to climb.

This time Sophia went first. It was a very difficult route. She thought that she would be stuck down there forever. She eventually made her way to the top, exhausted but proud of her abilities. When Tim took another look at the route he realized that it had melted and transformed making it far more difficult than he remembered. Even very experienced climbers would have a tough time with where Sophia went. I guess she’s just a natural.

Tim relocated the ropes and Rachel and I took our turns. Rappelling down and climbing up is far scarier than climbing up and rappelling down. With the first, you have to make it up, there is no other option. I thought of this as I was slowly lowered down into the moulin. However, once I reached the bottom all fear vanished. It was like being in Planet Earth, beautiful blue ice full of mysterious crevices and streams, so quiet and so peaceful. I did a little exploring and then began my climb.

After almost 6 hours, we made our way back to the Blue Avenger. At this point we had become quite close with our guide Tim and felt that he was worthy of our halibut. We left him with a feast of about 4lbs as a thank you for taking us on one of the most extraordinary adventures. Hope you enjoyed the fish!! And that it didn’t make you sick…

(by Isabelle)