The Hubbard Glacier – cold, so cold…

One aspect of Alaska that never changes is that the weather is pretty changeable! And so, after the day in Valdez which was quite warm and sunny, we sailed overnight towards the Hubbard Glacier, and it got progressively colder and wetter! One of the downsides of a cruise is that you are at the mercy of the weather. There are no rain checks, come back the next day, or even later in the day when the clouds might have cleared. You see what you see when the boat arrives. So, the Hubbard Glacier was met with a fair amount of cloud and mist – although I think that adds to the grandeur of the place.

Leaving Valdez, we did see some lovely sights of the receding coastline around Prince William Sound:

I was pleased with the calm feeling of this image – you really do think that you are off on a journey with this one! We always try to have a cabin on the stern of the ship when traveling with Viking, and that allowed me to get out my tripod and focus in on that little section of coast where the wake starts and then convert that image into a black and white photograph that I think shows off some the grandeur of this section of the coastline:

The glacier itself is approached slowly through a field of ice in the bay. Shafts of sunlight hit the mountains behind the glacier, but the whole impression is of cold and shades of blue from the compressed ice. Believe it or not, the glacier is six miles wide where it enters the ocean and is around 400 feet high from the sea level:

Floating closer to the glacier, we pass small icebergs, some with rather bedraggled golden eagles taking a break:

The sheer thickness of that compressed ice is hard to comprehend as it finally enters the ocean. Huge crevasses line the front edge:

You can get some idea of the scale by looking at the trees growing on this small headland at the edge of the glacier:

And, as before, a black and white rendition of the mountains above the glacier help show off the contrast between snow and rock through the mist and clouds:

And after several rotations of the ship to allow everyone on board to get the best view possible of the glacier and surrounding mountains, we start to pull away to continue our journey along the Alaskan coast:

As we get even further from the coast, the mists and haze over the mountains creates a magical effect where the sea is the darkest area in the photograph and the mountains are just lost in the distant haze.

Leaving the Hubbard Glacier, we expected a pleasant evening eating in the Chef’s Table restaurant on board. As it turned out, nature had more in store for us with a spectacular sunset. You can read about the developing sunset that evening here.