Glacial inlet

At roughly the same latitude as the Orkneys, the 4500 sq miles of Glacier Bay in SE Alaska

is a tiny part of the state, yet it gets a disproportionate numbers of visitors, mainly on tour

boats. But there's little to see now: in 1977, when our expedition was there, 16 tide-water

glaciers discharged millions of tons of ancient ice into the Bay, and the calving process was

a spectacular sight as 200ft-high columns of ice crashed into the water. Now, with the

retreat of the glaciers due to global warming, they've all grounded out, and calving onto dry

land just isn't the same. Having only a small inflatable with an outboard (and not even that

sometimes when it broke down, or, as on one occasion, when the boat was carried off by

an iceberg overnight), we had to be particularly careful of 'growlers' like the one here, young

icebergs that are unstable enough to split and roll over, taking you with them if you're near.

But the smaller pieces were a good source of 10,000 yr-old ice for your whisky, if you had

any.

At roughly the same latitude as the Orkneys, the 4500 sq miles of Glacier Bay in SE Alaska is a

tiny part of the state, yet it gets a disproportionate numbers of visitors, mainly on tour boats.

But there's little to see now: in 1977, when our expedition was there, 16 tide-water glaciers

discharged millions of tons of ancient ice into the Bay, and the calving process was a spectacular

sight as 200ft-high columns of ice crashed into the water. Now, with the retreat of the glaciers

due to global warming, they've all grounded out, and calving onto dry land just isn't the same.

Having only a small inflatable with an outboard (and not even that sometimes when it broke

down, or, as on one occasion, when the boat was carried off by an iceberg overnight), we had to

be particularly careful of 'growlers' like the one here, young icebergs that are unstable enough to

split and roll over, taking you with them if you're near. But the smaller pieces were a good source

of 10,000 yr-old ice for your whisky, if you had any.

Alaskan landscape