The Majestic Matanuska Glacier by Sooraj Karthik

This is our 3rd day in Alaska and we have seen the Glacier on a cruise first day, then a walk to the Exit Glacier via trails and a climb on the Matanuska glacier today. This was an awesome experience climbing the glacier and we have done never done this kind of an activity before. The highlight of this trip is my mom and Gayathri’s dad made all the way up the glacier with us. Kudos to their passion, spirit & enthusiasm !!. Way to go Mummy & Uncle !

The Matanuska Glacier report below is covered by Sooraj Karthik (5th Grader).Very nicely written Sooraj & thanks for helping with the blog.

Today we are going to the Matanuska Glacier which is the second biggest attraction in Alaska. We started at 10:30 in the morning and drove for two and a half hours to get there.

When we got there we had a delicious meal we cooked at home. The glacier is 27 miles long and four miles wide at the widest point. This glacier has been here for 18,000 years, it started forming in the previous ice age. During the ice age it stretched all the way to Anchorage.

Our guides names were Jessie and Mike. The first thing we saw was something called trampoline mud. They call it this because when you walk on it goes up and down with your body weight. This is because the ice beneath the silt melts creating a pocket of water. We also learned about permafrost which is a layer of ice under the ground which stays frozen all through the year. Another thing we saw is something called a crevice, it is a ridge carved in the ice with rushing snow and ice melt water.

Some crevices can be up to 200 feet deep. It then slowly carves a Moulin which is just a giant sinkhole carved in the ice leading to the bottom of the glacier. We also got to take some glacier mud and put on our face., it felt kind of like a facial and texture felt like clay. We got some samples of the glacier mud to take back home :-).

Watch out some of the photos of the Glacier facial from our group. If you are visiting this glacier, this is a must do activity and try some of the mud on u’r face for a free facial:-)