Fresh Snow

In the short summer, water scours the glacier surface creating a ripple-like surface on the ice going down-glacier. At the end of the season, when the first major snow falls the rough surface becomes once again smooth. This was taken at the end of the day when I could really see the shadows from those ripples. It kind of looks like little waves on the glacier.

Purple Mountain Saxifrage

Finally a little sky

Patch of blue opens up over the Loket Tributary to the Black Rapids Glacier on an pretty dreary day.

Finally a little sky

A patch of blue opens up over the Loket Tributary to the Black Rapids Glacier on a pretty dreary day.

Always So Many Streams

There were quite a few large streams to cross on the Black Rapids Glacier this year with absolutely no englacial drainage to help calm the water at the surface. At least they are pretty to look at. The channel here was quite a bit deeper and wider than it looked and this little island of ice with the precariously balanced boulder proved to be a useful crossing point.

The Road Home

A small moraine on the Black Rapids Glacier in the Alaska Range.

April

An un-named peak on a bluebird day - Eastern Alaska Range

June

A small moraine makes for a nice path along the Black Rapids Glacier in the Alaska Range.

Marginal Lake

A marginal, ice-dammed lake on the Black Rapids Glacier

Moraine

Rock and ice on the Black Rapids Glacier

Rocky Glacier Stream

A little bit of color in an otherwise dull world. The blue color really deepens on these overcast days.

The Road Home

Rocky moraine on the Black Rapids Glacier in the Eastern Alaska Range. You'd barely know there was 8 inches of fresh snow just a few days before. June 2014.

Alaska Range Peaks

Hayes (or South Hayes) is poking up barely above a ridge far left. Moby Dick is left of center. Center peak is unnamed, right (closest) peak is Aurora Peak.

Moby Dick

Moby Dick in the Hayes region of the Alaska Range and some ice in the air. This is an incredible looking peak from the east. (12,360 feet, 3767 meters)

Hiking back to camp

End of the day after hiking the ridge in the background. It was rainy on us most of the time, but pretty clear over the glacier. Heading back to camp.

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.

Over the Delta Valley

A little termination snow on the mountains - late summer. Flying over the Delta River near the Lodge at Black Rapids.

A little snow in the mountains

Rock, snow and water - Flying over the Black Rapids Glacier in the Alaska Range only a few miles from the terminus the glacier is completely debris covered. In the lower reaches is covered by moraine debris through diffusion, a bit higher up it's covered in regions due to landslides. The foreground here where the lake is is landslide debris, while further away there's a bit of snow-covered moraine. 

Black Rapids

Surface of the Black Rapids Glacier covered in 6 inches of fresh snow from the night before. The weather was gorgeous, but it looked like it could turn at any moment.

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Water in a pothole up high on the Black Rapids Glacier. There is a water channel on the right, I believe it may be filling from Aurora Lake and then draining down-glacier.

Glacierscape

A small, yet fast stream near the northern lateral moraine of the Black Rapids Glacier in the Alaska Range. McGinnis Peak on the right dominates the skyline in this area.