Gulkana Glacier GIrls on Ice 2012

July 16 - 25, 2012

 A couple days in Talkeetna enjoying the lowlands, sorting gear and feasting and then it was time for me to move on to the next mountain journey. The slow moving train provided a lovely way to get from Talkeetna to Fairbanks, where I would begin Girls on Ice Alaska. This non-profit organization was created over a decade ago to bring high-school girls into the mountains for a field science and mountaineering adventure. Its always a highlight of my summer. Given that this was the first ever Alaska program – I was even more excited and highly committed to making the trip a huge success.

Emma showing off her garden

Transformed into superstars!

We brought in 7 girls from all over Alaska: Bethel (West coast), Barrow (far North), Hooper Bay (Native village on the W. Coast), Pettersburg, Anchorage, Titalick (small island by Valdez) and Palmer. The remaining girls came from Seattle – one of whom was originally from Nepal and knew one of the climbing sherpas who works for Alpine. Small world. These girls were amazing and I had such a rich experience with them. After a day outfitting

The nunatuk to the right first emerged in the 60'

them in their gear – we drove to the Eastern Alaska Range to a place called the Gulkana Glacier. This Galcier is one of 3 selected in all of the Western mountains of the US that has been studied for the past 30 years by the USGS as part of their ongoing glacier monitoring program. It is also small enough – and safe enough - for us to adequately explore on this trip. Though massive and utterly remote by the standard of the lower 48, the Gulkana is tiny and easily accessible by Alaska standards. It was a perfect venue. 

Flirtatious caribou!

Check out my facebook page for the slide show if you like. A few highlights of the trip include being visited by what we termed 'flirtatious caribou'. Day 3 brought us stunning weather and a family of Caribou curiously checking us out. As we hiked to the upper slopes of an adjacent small mountain to do snow school – they followed! I was utterly distracted by the caribou teasing us as I tried to teach the girls proper ax and climbing technique. After watching the caribous plunge down a steep slope however, teaching the girls to follow suite was no problem. What a treat. We gathered that the caribou were beating the heat and mosquito's by hanging out on the pocket glacier.

Another highlight of the trip was watching the girls deal gracefully with some rugged wet

Taking the girls into the ice fall

Arriving at the A-frame USGS hut

and windy weather. This provided a great opportunity for me to teach them about Types of Fun. Type 1 Fun is typified by fun in the moment. E.g. arriving at a highpoint and being greeted by a stunning view or basking in the sun on a glorious day. It also might be those moments of movement when you feel strong. Type 2 fun can best be described by those many moments that are only fun in hind site. They are not fun in the moment but only emerge so with the filter of a short – selective memory. Type 2 fun moments include those long hard pulls to get to the stunning views, the heavy loads with sore feet, and all the other challenges of mountain travel. Type 3 fun is simply put – never fun. Its reserved for those utterly terrifying moments. We try to avoid these in this program. With a good attitude – potential Type 2 fun moments can just plain be Type 1 fun. Amazingly, these girls pulled off a great ratio of Type 1 fun in the bad weather – singing, laughing and loving the moments. It was impressive.

The mighty suspension bridge

Megamid magic

After our 8 days in the hills we return to the University of Alaska Fairbanks where we have the girls further develop the science experiments they worked on all week and then present them to some of the faculty. They did fabulous. It is such an amazing thing to watch girls from such a wide variety of backgrounds confidently presenting their science projects in a university setting. 
Empowerment is a huge part of this program.  I firmly believe that clarifying one's dreams is the most critical step toward making them happen.  For some of these girls their goals include very normal high school girl things like 'getting out of my tiny town and doing something with my life', or 'not getting pregnant early' or 'spending time with my family'.  We also try to tease out their dreams of going to college, becoming a field scientist or getting into the outdoor profession - and how they might make this happen.  The girls in this program are amazing - and well selected. We choose them precisely because we sense that this program might change their outlook on the world (and themselves).

In another 2 days, I will be starting the Girls on Ice Baker Program – a similar adventure – but with new girls and in the Pacific Northwest.  Should be a blast!