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Valdez Glacier Lake and Ice Cave

Paddling around Valdez Lake and into an ice cave of the Valdez Glacier

By: David Crane + Save to a List

Valdez Glacier was dubbed the "All-American Route" by prospective gold miners and explorers who used it's steady slope to gain access to interior Alaska. During the early 1900's, prospectors and hunters moved over it's ice by the thousands to make their way through the rugged Chugach Range and try their luck in the Last Frontier. As the glacier retreats, though, it is becoming much more difficult to access the ice as Valdez Lake takes it's place.

Now, the best way to get to the glacier is to paddle

In July of 2015, I had taken a chance, quit my job in Colorado, and drove to Alaska. I met up with old friends around the state, and finally ran out of money about the time I landed at MICA Guides, where a few former employees and good friends worked as glacier guides. They had taken me Ice climbing on the Matanuska Glacier, and I had instantly fallen in love with the ice. I couldn't bring my self to leave, and began thinking of ways I could manage to stick around through the end of the summer, or longer. Too late in the season to hire and train a new guide, I couldn't work for MICA, but I did come up with another idea; I had been photographing rock climbers in Utah and Colorado for years, and proposed a new product to the owner in the form of professional photographs of their ice climbing clients. The owner, Don, mentioned it had been tried before, and that I was welcome to "give it a shot" as a contractor, not employee, of MICA. Long story short, I left Alaska in the Fall of 2015 with a couple extra bucks (quickly spent on ice gear), some incredible photographs, and lots of new friends. I spent the winter skiing, dreaming about the beautiful blue ice of the Matanuska, and wondering what other adventures lay out there on the hundreds of thousands of glaciers in Alaska and the rest of the world.

Before driving North in the Spring of 2016 to start my official business of ice climbing photographer, I decided on a new mission - to explore and photograph as many glaciers as possible in the summer, and years, ahead.

I began my research with Alaskan glaciers, and The first mention of the Valdez came from a local guiding company website, mentioning they took clients out to the ice on inflatable kayaks, then featured a short hike on the glacier before returning to the boats. Sounded like something I could get into! Except that it was a lot of money, something I had very little as a seasonal worker. Luckily, my girlfriend and I had picked up my grandfather's old canoe for the drive to Alaska, so I was well equipped to get across the lake, so long as I could unload and reload the 80lb beast by myself.

24th May, 2016

From the top of the 2,805 ft. Thompson Pass, the road descends steeply to sea level. Just before the small port town of Valdez is a lake by the same name. As I pulled into the dirt lot next to Valdez Lake, I was greeted by a spectacular view of massive icebergs floating in the deep blue water. The moraine covered lower glacier was just visible around the corner. I was giddy as I gathered up my gear, but nearly dropped the canoe on my head trying to drag it from the roof of my truck. I somehow managed to get it down and over to the water without damaging it, or myself, too badly. Pressing off, I paddled toward a wall of icebergs as the wind pushed them toward shore. I ran into a mess of candle ice, breaking and crackling like floating glass beneath the canoe.

Broken candle ice floating below the canoe

I squeezed my way through the icy barrier and faced a headwind all the way across the lake. Around the rocky ridge blocking the glacier from view of the parking lot, I faced walls of ice fifty feet high, occasionally dropping rocks from their heights into the lake below with a thundering splash. I located a way to get relatively easy access to the ice and wandered off to explore the glacier.

The canoe resting on "shore" on the glacier.Looking up glacier from near the terminus.

I wandered back to the truck, and went on to explore the Kennicott Glacier and Root Glacier, which I wrote about on my blog, along with the original posting from Valdez, here, but I would return later the same summer with my girlfriend, Lizzie, and discover what you probably all clicked on this story for...


8th August, 2016

We awoke after a rainy night to terrific views of Valdez Lake and steep, foggy mountains all around. Lizzie and I had spent the night just outside of the parking area and boat launch for Valdez Lake, in anticipation of paddling around the lake and hunting for ice caves.

While we geared up in the parking lot, a friendly guide from Anadyr Adventures arrived with several clients, getting ready to head out in the company's inflatable kayaks for a day on the glacier. A super nice fellow from Montana, he was working in Alaska for the summer, like us, guiding first timers on ice and sharing the beauty of glaciers with the world. We talked briefly while his clients got themselves ready to head out, and he gave us a hint of where we might find what we were looking for. He also warned that their company had ceased to bring clients into the cave because in the very back was a very thin section of the roof, dark with rocks and debris overhead. We thanked him and invited him up to the Matanuska for some ice climbing before heading out in the canoe. We quickly located the hidden entrance to the cave, something we probably would have overlooked as too small to fit into without help from the friendly guide.

Looking toward the narrow entrance to the Valdez Glacier ice cave

At the entrance, both sides of the canoe skidded along the walls on either side, but it easily slipped through. Inside, the surrounding ice was a brilliant azure blue, all other colors of light being refracted and lost well before reaching through the ice to the cave below.

Inside Valdez Glacier

While turning the canoe around inside the cave, I was able to look back and see the section of roof the guide had warned us about. A thin section of ice the width of a car revealed dark black boulders the size of microwaves and larger, piled high above the cave, just waiting for the ice to give way. I shuttered to think of the power of that amount of rock hitting the water all at the same time. Even steering clear of the area, we would be in for a wild ride inside the small cave if the ice collapsed.

We kept our time inside short, not wanting to take a swim if something did fall. The bright light of the sky even on this cloudy day came as a shock as we neared the exit. We made a stop onto the top of the glacier to explore and saw many cool features, but nothing could compare to the experience of paddling inside the glacier.

Thank you for reading, if you enjoyed this story, you can find more as I write up every visit I make to a new glacier over at www.cryophotos.com. You can see many more photos of mine on Instagram as well, @dcranephoto.

We want to acknowledge and thank the past, present, and future generations of all Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples whose ancestral lands we travel, explore, and play on. Always practice Leave No Trace ethics on your adventures and follow local regulations. Please explore responsibly!

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