{"id":736,"date":"2026-04-17T08:45:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T08:45:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/?p=736"},"modified":"2026-04-17T08:45:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T08:45:49","slug":"usa-2024-part-28","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/usa-2024-part-28\/","title":{"rendered":"USA Part 28 – Towards Exit Glacier"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As we ventured on, it seemed like we were alone – there was no crowd around us, and for a few minutes, it was just the 4 of us walking through paths surrounded by trees on either side.
\u201cMaybe we will see a bear.\u201d
\u201cYou have the bear spray to handle it.\u201d
\u201cYeah, but it\u2019s inside my backpack. Not the place where it should be if we have to use it.\u201d
We kept talking as we went along – that is also one of the recommendations in bear territory! To make noise while walking so that bears don\u2019t come near.
The path led us to a water stream – it was Raghav\u2019s practice and became my practice as well that when we encountered water bodies, we\u2019d test their temperature – we dipped our hands in, and it was cold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There is an audio guide available: https:\/\/www.alaska.org\/guide\/exit-glacier-guide <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some interesting tidbits – like we don\u2019t pay much attention to the ground that we are walking on – that we can spot moose and bear scat around. As you walk on the trail, you see certain milestone-type markers with a number on them – first 1917, then came 1926 and so on. At first, we thought it might be the elevation, but later learned that it was the year the glacier was present on that spot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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These spots were now solid land with the glacier not even close by – so fast has been the retreat\/shrinking of the glacier. It also explained why in certain random places near the trees there would be a large rock – seemed a little out of place, but these were boulders that were carried by the glacier – glacier is moving ice, and as it moves, it carries things along with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a nice bench carved in a log to provide a resting point on the trail; we finally saw a few other people ahead of us. 
\u201cMoorthy, your knee ok? Or you want to sit here?\u201d
\u201cI\u2019m fine, man.\u201d
I saw a board which said we were at the end of the \u2018Glacier View Trail\u2019. 
At this point, we had a good view of the Exit Glacier. The glacier was this stretch of ice between the sides of two mountains, seeming to flow through a valley. Some glaciers start carving the mountainside of the valley walls, and that\u2019s how Fjords are created. Exit glacier is moving at 20 inches a day or so, but it\u2019s losing about 24 inches a day – Exit Glacier is a \u2018retreating glacier\u2019 meaning it is losing more than what it is gaining (and for a glacier to form, it\u2019s not the amount of snow in winter that matters, but how much of that snow stays till the end of the summer that matters – and over decades the glacier forms; this is called an \u2018advancing glacier\u2019). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The glacier at a distance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rakesh and Moorthy didn\u2019t see the board signalling the end of the trail. We just kept walking along the trail, and I didn’t bring anyone’s attention to the board. The alternative was that we could have stepped down to walk on the plain (called outwash plain) that was at the base of Exit glacier – the stream of water was narrow at this point, and people were walking onto the plain – from here it felt like we could walk on the plain and hike up to the base of the exit glacier. 
\u201cIt\u2019s flat but rocky. And there\u2019s a long distance to walk to get near the glacier.\u201d
Rocky surface wouldn\u2019t be good for Moorthy\u2019s knee. 
\u201cLet\u2019s just continue on this trail path.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unknown to both of them, we were now on the longer and moderate difficulty trail – the Glacier Overlook Trail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why do glaciers move?<\/em> A board had the answer – the Harding ice field gets some 70 feet of snow each year, and the weight of the snow powers the glaciers.\u00a0
We couldn\u2019t see the ice field from down below – need to get more elevation for that. We did have a thought about walking up to the edge of the glacier, but saw a board that talked about \u201cChasing a glacier\u201d – a receding glacier uncovers terrain that can be unstable and hence even if it seems that you can get close, it may not be safe to do so – projections from the glacier could collapse without warning.\u00a0
There was a place where we had to cross a small stream – on one side was a slightly wobbly plank to get across. Raghav and I gingerly walked on it.
\u201cMoorthy, be careful on this.\u201d
But he found a more stable board a few feet away!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We reached another rest area, where they had built a hut-like shelter. We paused to sip water before continuing. 
Further along, we hit upon a steep climb.
\u201cHey, this is not the first trail,\u201d Rakesh said when he noticed a board that mentioned the name of the trail. \u201cYeah, we are on the longer one.\u201d 
Rakesh probably wasn\u2019t too happy about this, but he wasn\u2019t surprised either – Raghav and I had the habit of pulling along people on long walks without them even realising how long it would be (another 5 mins or another 10 mins we\u2019d keep saying and soon it would be an extra 45-minute walk!) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Path on the trail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A resting place<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Small stream<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The plain and the glacier<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Close up<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMoorthy ok with going up? If not, we can make a dash up and come back here.\u201d
\u201cThat side seems a little less steep,\u201d and he went a few feet away to climb up the rocks.
There was a larger crowd here, and a person was leading a guided walking tour. 
We weren\u2019t in hiking shoes, but we were able to manage this longer trail. It takes you closer to the exit glacier and to a higher viewpoint. The milestone board said 2005. We sat on the rocks for a while, then made our way back. There was a point at which the board said \u201cHarding Icefield Trail\u201d – the longest trail, which was certainly tempting, but we skipped it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We left the place at around 1:45 pm; no bear or moose encounters!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exit glacier ice hiking details (where you will literally walk on the glacier) – https:\/\/www.exitglacierguides.com\/content\/ice-hiking<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we ventured on, it seemed like we were alone – there was no crowd around us, and for a few minutes, it was just the 4 of us walking through paths surrounded by trees on either side.\u201cMaybe we will see a bear.\u201d\u201cYou have the bear spray to handle it.\u201d\u201cYeah, but it\u2019s inside my backpack. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":738,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736\/revisions\/738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}