Mendenhall Glacier Helicopter and dogsled adventure

It's 11.30am and we've docked a tad early in Juneau. After a bit of a false start and doubling back to retrieve passports we make our way to beat the rush to Tracey's Crab Shack (see Linda's post).

A cold drizzly day greets us in Juneau

Full of crabby bisquey goodness we wander through downtown Juneau with Linda reminding me at 25 different jewellery shops that I DO NOT want to buy that whale tail pendant or that 37th ring just because it's in front of me and there's a free gift for cruisers that comes with that.

Then off to our exciting helicopter Mendenhall Glacier adventure. After attending to our waiver, a document you shouldn't read before signing which involves all manner of potential dangers from helicopters falling out of the sky to biting dogs to capsizing sleds, we don our glacier boots and silently curse our diminutive fellow passengers who get dibs on the front of the chopper. 

Spectacular flight and wonderful scenery but sadly no good photos due to the rain splotches on the windows. If I ever work out how to post videos on here I'll put some heliflight footage on.

In readiness for sled driving

We arrive at the mini tent city of 290 Alaskan huskies and a handful of mushers and dog attendants and are greeted by the head of the camp who is a professional musher. He doles out some plastic ponchos in the pretence of keeping us dry, imparts some interesting factoids and a safety briefing then hands us over to Thomas, our musher for the day.

Thomas tells us a bit about the dogs including that when they are in competition they can run for up to 12 hours a day. I think to myself they could do with some glacier boots. But they definitely seem to be happier when working, straining at the harness and making an absolute racket every time they stop and seeming relatively serene when on the move.

Thomas teaches us the complicated process for sled driving - hold on tight when we start, lean one way or the other for turning, hit that foot pedal for braking. And we're off, with Linda taking first turn in the driving seat (or stand in this case).

    The good news about the weather is that the blue of the snow and ice come out. Difficult to see here but directly in front has a distinct blue tinge. Beautiful.

The backdrop Is breathtaking  and I'm sorry our photos just can't do it justice. The ice in parts of the glacier is blue and just beautiful. 

We  stop a few times to switch drivers, meet the dogs and find out more about the environment we're both figuratively and literally soaking in.  The dogs roll in the snow whenever we stop because apparently tthey're too hot and trying to cool down! I wish I felt the same way. 

Thomas tells us that the peak we are looking at which looks maybe a few hundred metres away is actually 4 miles away, and that you can't get a real perspective in this landscape which is why it's so dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. We inch closer to the sled and decide not to wander off by ourselves. 

2 adorable creatures

Then it's back to camp, thank the dogs for the ride and over to the best place, where it's both warm and fuzzy because it's heated for the puppies in the camp. We have a cuddle, I slip one under my poncho and we're back out in the rain to meet our helicopter for the return trip. Our jeans are soaked through but we are mighty satisfied and our feet are dry and warm as toast to get us to the Twisted Fish for dinner.

Two more photos from Linda

One from the chopper showing the faint blue of the glacier and the other showing the vast surreal landscape. We felt like we were in a James Bond movie, looking into the never ending white-ness, when three choppers flew in together.  Just awesome.