Can you beat this?

Day 3 We finally arrived at Sheep Mountain Lodge a little bit after midnight on day 3. Few places get more remote and scenic than this one. The view of the mountains across the highway was amazing — probably an understatement! To put it in one way, we were amidst massive snow-clad mountains, literally at arms reach from us.

The view from our front porch!

After a short night’s sleep, we packed up all our gear to set off for the glacier. The bags were much heavier than any of us expected but we were just excited to finally become real explorers! We had no idea what to expect as we signed our waiver forms to go out on the Matanuska glacier. We thought maybe we would have someone to show us the ropes, but the men at the front desk pretty much just said “good luck!” We drove down a dirt road and suddenly a huge glacier was right there before our eyes. While the size was intimidating, we were ready to conquer the glacier and do what we came to do- set up our flux tower. On our way up the glacier, we walked on a thin layer of rocks with ice directly underneath. This was not what many of us were expecting from the glacier travel. There were many more dangerous crevasses than any of us expected as well. The first time travelling up the glacier went very slowly. Finally, we decided to rope up and cross a few crevasses to find a flat plot of ice to set up our tower. We climbed hills of ice, most notable of which was about 65 degrees incline. Our ice axes came in handy to scale this one. The ice was so solid, that some of us bruised our hands. Most notable, Tim had bleeding knuckles. However, the man was so oblivious of this fact that Dr. Jackson had to tell him that he was bleeding. I would think he was simply lost in the beauty of the place. Well, we finally found a decent spot to set up our tower — it felt like a century had passed since morning. Let me give you some perspective here. Think of great white mountains all around you, covered with nothing but piles of ice and snow. AND in the middle of it all, were five lucky students and two professors, with parts of what was going to be an aluminum flux tower!