The little town of McCarthy, Alaska has a few lovely buildings, some dirt roads, and spectacular vistas. It also has an airstrip, and some friendly and knowledgeable pilots who will take you up in a plane for a tour of this magnificent place from above. This was a touristy opportunity that several of us decided to take advantage of, but it was definitely a learning experience as well, getting to see the glaciers that we have been talking about, walking on, and learning about, from above! Eleven of us started off from this cabin in McCarthy and headed off to the airstrip with Wrangell Mountain Air, ready to go up in two airplanes. I went up with four others with Austin, who took us up in a Cessna-206. A picture is worth a thousand words, so I’ll just let these pictures speak to you. (But I’ll include a few words to you can learn about this awesome place too.)
Downtown McCarthy to catch van to airstripOur Cessna-206 (the only plane that can carry its own weight in passengers/cargo)Our pilot Austin, taking us about 2500 feet above the ground5 passengers and a pilotA “braided river,” formed when sediment periodically gets blocked when being pushed along by a glacier and then changes direction to keep flowingA rock glacier (I had never heard of that before, but that rock is moving like a glacier)Multiple glaciers meeting at the bottom of the mountainAustin took us in close, only about 500 feet from the glacier (it was like you could reach out and almost touch it)These stripes are “ogives” or waves which form seasonally below icefalls. Dark troughs are markers of summer, while the lighter crests are markers of winter.The dark stripes along the path of the glacier are moraines (accumulations of sediment) have gotten pushed between two glacier flowsZooming in from above, spectacular blue melt ponds on the glacier surfaceThe heroes successfully returning from flight
