A group of adventurous explorers delves deeper into the ice cave beneath Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, Alaska.
There has been an adventure in the Juneau, Alaska area that has been on my to-do list ever since I saw pictures of it a year ago. In the pictures I saw a person standing in a cave created out of blue ice, somewhere on the western edge of Mendenhall Glacier. I visited the glacier last year with the tourist bus but saw no way to get to the western side. The glacier has receeded in recent times, about 1.75 miles since 1958, creating a huge lake which meant I would have to look more into finding these caves for next time. That next time was today!
I asked around with some friends in Juneau about the ice caves and got some good tips. Start at the parking lot for the western glacier trailhead. Follow this for a ways, over a bridge, up switchbacks with hand rails, then at an overlook take the smaller trail towards the lake. A short ways in there is a sign warning against backcountry hiking and the need in the past for a lot of search and rescues in the area.
Pushing on from here the trail becomes more difficult. The bush is quite dense along the trail so the possibility of startling a bear is a real worry. I made sure to keep the noise level up through these parts. Then the rock climbing starts. It's more rock scrambling than climbing. Luckily there are rock cairns built to mark the trail, and I use 'trail' here very loosely. There are a lot of ups and downs but you do get glimpses of the glacier which gives you the confidence you are headed in the right direction. When you are almost to the glacier there is a little beach which would be so easy to kayak or skiff over to. In fact, I saw many people doing just this on my way back. This cuts 95% of the hike out of the equation making the destination much more attainable.
Next up is the leading edge of Mendenhall glacier. The distance is a bit hard to judge because of the sheer size of the glacier. I wasn't sure at this point where to go for the ice caves, or if they would even be there since it is a shifting, moving, river of ice. The first edge of the glacier you see along the trail is a beautiful overhang hiding blue ice below. I scramble up and to the right which turned out to be not necessary although fun being right next to the glacier. What I was really searching for is around this first overhang to the left.
Another group being led by two guides headed around to the left so I followed them until they started checking out this huge dirty looking ice cave. I figured I would push on past them to find some blue ice and maybe check out this big opening on the way back down.
I was able to scramble quite a ways up the left side of the glacier. There was a lot of blue ice with some little caves but I couldn't find anything like I had seen in the pictures a year before. I carefully made my way back down the rocks, careful to avoid slipping which might lead to sliding under the glacier to unknown depths. There were more people at the big dirty cave so I went in for a closer look. It was a good thing I did.
Mission Accomplished: Inside a Huge Ice Cave
A river runs through it
Once I was close enough for my eyes to adjust to the darkness in the interior of the cave I realized it was much more massive than it first appeared. I also noticed some piercing blue ice formations inside. The fact that most people had hard hats on when entering the cave did not go unnoticed either. It made perfect sense as every couple of minutes large rocks would slide off the top of the cave roof to crash against the pile of rocks in front. Each time a rock slide happened sounded like an explosion echoing through the cave. It reminded me of the ever-present possibility that the cave would collapse. I decided I would put my jacket hood up for extra protection, trust that the cave will persevere for another day, and head inside to complete my mission that has been a year in the making.
