R44

The R44 helicopter taking off on the moraine on the Black Rapids Glacier that will be our campsite for the next 15 days.

Water-filled potholes

Cauldron-like depressions called potholes are scattered around the upper reaches of the Black Rapids Glacier. They often fill with water over the summer, eventually draining on the surface or subglacially. They are left-over remnants of crevasses that formed during the 1936-1937 surge of Black Rapids. During the surge the glacier terminus advanced by about 3 miles and earned the nickname the "galloping glacier". Taken June 13, 2014.

Beautiful blue

A pothole and some channels starting to form in temperate snow.

Aurora Lake

A large, ice-dammed, marginal lake on the north side of the upper reaches of the Black Rapids Glacier.

Becoming A Stream

A water channel forms in the snowpack on a glacier surface. It won't be long at all before this water that is pooling in a low-lying trough will start to flow.

Lake

The lake known as . . . Lake. It's an ice-dammed marginal lake - where the glacier meets the mountainside. When the sub-glacial hydraulic system is ready to move the water it will drain.