As I mentioned in the previous day's entry, the St. Elias mountains are home to the largest non-polar icefield on the planet. To see the banded glaciers flowing through the valleys is a truly awe-inspiring site, reminiscent of the Pleistocene (ice age), when these huge rivers of ice carved out the U-shaped valleys that are so common in Banff and Jasper National Parks in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. As the glaciers slowly flow, they grind up and entrain rock along their margins. When glaciers from two different valleys merge, the rock debris becomes trapped between them, forming the light (ice) and dark (rock debris) bands.
The easiest way to see the glaciers is to use Google Earth, or to take an aerial tour in a small airplane or helicopter. On foot, the closest glacier is the Kaskawulsh, accessible by a 60 km round trip journey along the Slims River and up Observation Mountain. It is recommended as a 3-5 day hike, but with the aid of my mountain bike, I was able to do it as a hard, 10-hour long day trip. For most of the trip, the Kaskawulsh is hidden by the surrounding peaks. To see it, you must scramble straight up the back of Observation Mountain, and then in an instant, the view of the glacier opens up before you. All I could do was sit down and say "Wow!" to myself, over and over. In my mind, these glaciers are one of Canada's top natural wonders and are worth the effort to see.
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