Part 3: Exploring the icebergs and ice caves

​Read Part 1: Amazing Alaska- Part-I

Read Part 2: Amazing Alaska- Part-II

​Next day I went to see Spencers Glacier. One of the most scenic glacier. Spencer Glacier rises 3,500 feet in a stunning, natural ramp from a lake of royal-blue icebergs in the Chugach National Forest just 60 miles south of Anchorage.

I arrived Spencer by train in the morning. It was almost a 2 hours of scenic train ride through the land of glaciers. The best part of Spencer glacier is the glacier melt lake in front. The fun part was, to reach the glacier you need to kayak by yourself. There are other options where a boat-man can give you a canoe-ride. However, kayaking is more fun. Especially through a lake full of royal blue icebergs. I contacted an adventure agency for their gear and a guide and met a couple of more travelers to share the cost.

Well, after kayaking to the glacier, I was ready to hike over the glacier.... I was excited to walk on the blues, the texture and color of glacier that you can see from the sky (a helicopter maybe). But when I arrived; Well, what to say, 'All that glitter are not gold'; Honestly, I was pretty disappointed. The actual view of the glacier was pretty rocky. The color is mostly because of the reflection of light from far away.

But wait!!!! Its really NOT only about walking miles over a glacier. A BLUE-ICE-CAVE!!!!!!! Really!!!!! I couldn’t believe my eyes. They normally melt by end-June/early-July. I am extremely lucky that I saw two ice caves (one high and another very low) eventhough I was traveling in Aug. first week.

Ice-caves are formed initially by a hot-spring in a glacier followed by weathering and erosion by air and water. They normally melt by end-of-June/early-July and start forming again in random places of a glacier in Winter.

In fact, I saw two ice-caves. The first one was almost 8ft high on average. I was pretty amazed by the blue color of it. The water is so densely packed, it gives a glittering blue view. We started following the guide, Ryan. He was actually a student of Glaciology at University of Alaska. He was explaining some detail theory of ice-cave-formation.

The other ice cave was very low. In the middle there was an almost 15ft area with a height no more than a ft.... Is it possible for me to explore it???? I was not sure. On my request, Ryan (the guide) did some measurement and told it's possible. We can explore the low-roof ice-cave with the equipment and gears (crampons and ice-axes) that we are carrying. The only Condition, you shouldn't have claustrophobia and shouldn't be afraid of suffocating. Ryan moved inside. I followed him. The right-side of the last picture shows the last point where we could take pics where the gap between my nose and the roof was no more than ~8in. After that, the gap reduced quickly to ~3-4 in.You need to lie down and push/pull your body using crampons and ice-axe. Well The most suffocating ~5 min (and ~15ft) of my life.

But yaayyyyyyy….. We made it. Well, A memorable day-2... huh…. We returned again by kayaking through the glacier-melt-lake and icebergs