Vanishing ice: Alaska's shrinking glaciers drive a new brand of tourism
Alaska’s glaciers are melting so fast they’re making sea levels rise — and creating a new tourism market even as warming trends make it increasingly difficult to access vanishing ice.
Visitors can no longer travel onto the toe of Spencer Glacier, a spectacular sheet in the Chugach Mountains near Portage accessible only by train and receding by an estimated 100 feet a year.
Last year’s unusually warm weather finally thinned the ice at the base of the glacier to the point it’s no longer safe, according to the owner of Ascending Path, a Girdwood-based company that leads glacier tours.
The sudden depletion of stable ice forced the company to fly glacier travelers onto the more stable mid-zone, where they feast on crab legs, sleep on cots beneath dome tents, and hike or climb ice.
The shift wasn’t just a business decision, Ascending Path owner Matt Szundy said.
It was a matter of climate reality.
“It just makes sense to have access to glaciers. People really want to see them, visitors and locals,” he said. “But they’re all melting quickly.”
https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2019/06/02/vanishing-ice-alaskas-shrinking-glaciers-drive-a-new-brand-of-tourism/
