Back in range at Haines Junction TI after night in a territorial park on the Kluane border.
Yesterday counts as an experience to top all others. Bill spotted an ad on a bulletin board in Haines Junction and within an hour we were being given a safety talk about a "Helio" airplane before taking off for a trip above the glaciers and icefields adjacent to the Kluane. The icefields are the largest in the world after Arctic and Antarctic. The mountain range includes the "elusive Mt Logan" as our pilot said - often under cover in its own weather system.
Our spur of the moment trip was lucky beyond belief. The skies were clear, the mountains and glaciers easy to see and when we landed on the snow field (also weather dependent) we looked up at the massive Mt Logan with some of its multiple peaks thrusting through the clouds. We, along with a couple from Germany, stood with our pilot Tom and gasped at the experience of being out on the snow covering a half-mile of ice. We were at 9000 feet with ice fields covering all but the peaks of the mountains surrounding us. It was -5 degrees but dry with no wind - none of us felt the cold in the 30 minutes we were outside the plane. We both still find it hard to believe the experience was real and find one another gazing off still trying to take it all in.
What did we do in our past lives to deserve this?
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| Bill sat in co-pilot seat and had moments when the plane flew down box canyons and just over peaks in mountain passes |
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| The mountains behind the mountains - not accessible except by air - mountains still unnamed. |
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| Climbing and coming over ridge to ice fields |
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| Mt Logan - light blue peaks above clouds- look like part of the sky - highest peak in Canada - and massive |
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| Coming down to ice field. Plane had skis - no sensation of landing - just quietly moved through powder and stopped. |
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| Mt Logan in background. |
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| What else can you do when presented with miles of clear snow? The angel will be covered by now... |
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| Kaskawulsh Glacier - only one of many we flew over. |
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