Spencer Glacier

Marine, Lukas, Elin and Viktor invited me to come along with them on a skate-ski trip to Spencer Glacier on Friday.  It was Elin's last weekend in Alaska before going back to Sweden after visiting her brother Viktor for the past twelve days.  It has been sunny and warm, and we'd heard that the snow had hardened up earlier than usual.

This team already has a Black Knight (Davis Dunlap) but we had a couple performances on Friday that were definitely Black Knight-worthy.  First of all, we didn't find out until late in our trip that Elin had blisters from her borrowed ski boots that were about the size of her feet. It wasn't until I saw her limping into Viktor's apartment that I realized that she could hardly walk. I guess Viktor comes from a pretty tough family! And no matter how much of Lukas' ski equipment broke, nothing would stop him from getting to the glacier and back.  First it was one of his poles: Lukas was practicing his Ninja moves on top of a small hill that he was defending from Viktor when a miscalculation sent the lower half of one of his ski poles flying through the air, halfway across the Placer River Valley.  And a little later, just about the time I was reminding Lukas that while it's OK to break ski poles, a broken ski out here makes for  a very long day, I heard a snap...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhEw7nD9C4

Marine.  Our destination is in the distance to the right, as far back as you can see.

Viktor and Elin.  We parked the car near that mountain directly behind them.

Skookum Valley.

No, this isn't when Lukas broke his pole.  He didn't need any help from Viktor for that.

Swimming, anyone?

Elin and Marine.  That's the train track behind them.  There's no road in this valley.

Adam, Viktor, Lucky and Marine.

Lukas and icebergs on Spencer Lake.

Spencer Glacier (and Lukas) in the distance.

Getting closer.

And closer.

Lucky looks less tall when standing next to a glacier.

Marine.

No better place to be.

The ski definitely has something wrong with it.

Marine.  Skookum Valley.  Carpathian Peak in the background.