I've got an intimate love/hate relationship with glaciers - in one of my worst recurring nightmares I find myself alone on a heavily crevassed glacier surrounded by creaking melting cracks, everywhere I walk snow bridges collapse in front of me when I probe with my ice axe, and I can hear water running far below. Finally I just stop and sit there wondering how in the world I got there and why didn't I tell anyone where I was going?
They are beautiful, provide good climbing routes at times, and great ski slopes on other days, but the potential of crevasse falls is always there and anyone who spends much time on them knows the stories of many great climbers who died on easy glaciers.
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Our ski tracks on a glacier on Denali.
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One of my old partners practicing ice climbing in a crevasse on Mt. Rainier.
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Eric about to cross a fragile snow/ice bridge on Mt. Baker.
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Eric skis the Emmons Glacier from the summit of Mt. Rainier.