A good kind of dog day in Spring

We finally got out into white spring - with a trip to Castner Glacier, 150 miles south of town on the Richardson Highway to Valdez. Malcolm Ingham joined us on the promise of a gentle ski as he'd just arrived form New Zealand and hadn't been on xc skis for 25 years. He did superbly well even as my enthusiasm ramped up a little with the terrain and we climbed up and explored along the moraine. Malcolm is Geophysicist at Victoria University of Wellington, NZ. He's a former professor of mine, now colleague and is visiting our sea ice group for the next three months.

We followed the tracks left by Dea, Ben, Ted, Trevah, Dan and his pooch Skye last week to arrive at the cool ice cave. After opting against trying to emulate their ski jumps, we scrambled up the ski hill to explore further along the moraine before skiing back, down and out in mid afternoon.

It was so nice to get down to the mountains. I think partly inspired by Skye's tracks all over the place from last weekend, I went off out and back and then down and up the ski hill. Exactly what my dog Ben used to do years ago - his, and my kind of dog day. Much enjoyed and needed.
(Google 'dog days' to learn the ancient Roman origin of the name for hot summer days!)

Lise and Malcolm skiing in.


Lise and Malcolm checking out the ice cave in a large piece of ice left behind as the glacier retreated up-valley.


Interesting layers in the ice with trapped stones, soil and leaves. Probably a few animals in there too.



Lise and Malcolm skiing out after navigating the ski slope next to the ice cave.