On the ninth day of our Ultimate Alaska Cruise we visited the College Fjord, where all of the glaciers are named after American Institutes of higher learning. The first official US visit to College Fjord was made by the Harriman Expedition in 1899, which contained many renowned scholars and naturalists, including John Muir. Supposedly, they all thought it amusing that Princeton was left out during the naming. I’m not sure why. At any rate, we didn’t care how the glaciers were named; we simply wanted to check them out for their majestic beauty. We also hoped to see some major calving events. Huge chunks of ice crashing into the sea sounded great, provided we were far enough away.
As usual, Vicki and I woke up early, got dressed in warm clothing, and headed up top to the Sun Deck. There wasn’t much sun happening. We were under the typical Alaskan coastal marine layer, and likely to remain under it all day. We took photos of the surrounding snowy mountains as we made our way deeper into Prince William Sound.
We checked our location on my phone, and realized that we were still early. So we headed over to the buffet and grabbed some breakfast. Along with a fine view out the window from our table.
According to Wikipedia, the list of glacier names is as follows: Amherst Glacier, Baby Glacier, Barnard Glacier, Bryn Mawr Glacier, Crescent Glacier, Downer Glacier, Harvard Glacier, Holyoke Glacier, Smith Glacier, Vassar Glacier, Wellesley Glacier, Williams Glacier, and Yale Glacier. I think we saw most of them, but I don’t recall Baby Glacier. Perhaps it melted away since then, like so many other glaciers have, during the current period of Global Warming. However, Tidewater Glaciers (the ones that reach the sea) often advance or retreat due to other oceanographic factors, such as currents and upwellings, not necessarily due to climate change.
As we entered the fjord, Vicki and I headed down to the Promenade Deck, and walked forward to the bow. This spot was sheltered from the marine layer drizzle, and was closer to the water, which made it more fun as we advanced into the regions with melting chunks of ice. We took photos of many of the glaciers as we cruised on by. I had my phone set to add geolocation data to the pictures, and later on (while writing this page) I checked to be certain which glacier was which. Hopefully I did a good job and the photos match the names. I tried, at any rate.
The big deal of the day was Harvard Glacier, up at the head of the fjord. Supposedly it is advancing at the moment, and is still very much a tidewater glacier. Its face is 1.5 miles wide and 300 feet thick. I was hoping that the ship would approach as close as the captain dared. There were two main “arms” of the fjord, the Harvard and the Yale. We were obviously heading down the former.
The ship slowed significantly as we entered the region of sea ice. This ice was created by the calving of the Harvard Glacier, whereupon the larger pieces of fresh water ice melted as they floated in the tidal region of salt water. Tides and waves also influenced the calving of the glacier. Our visit a few days ago to the Hubbard Glacier made us old hands at navigating sea ice. Especially as we were barely making steerageway. But it was fun to watch.
Eventually, we slowed to a crawl, within a half mile of the glacier. This afforded everyone a great view of the face, which had many different styles of ice. Some was white, some blue, and some streaked with dirty black. When seen from above, via satellite, the glacier had origins in many valleys, and each valley contributed to the whole. I likened it to a tube of striped toothpaste, which maintains its stripes as it gets squeezed out of the exit.
While we paused for viewing, the ship’s glacier expert was on the horn, his amplified voice telling everyone on board about the glacier, about how it formed, how it grew, and how it calved upon reaching the sea. As he was speaking, the glacier let go with several calving events, one of which was quite large, and even created a wave when it smashed into the water below it. Very impressive! Everyone was oohing and ahhing. It put on quite a show! Luckily, I got a video of this one.
At that point the captain began to swing the ship from side to side, so that the balcony passengers on both the port and starboard sides could get their turn. The ship used its bow and stern thrusters to perform the operation. Down here on the Promenade Deck, our crowd walked back and forth to keep the glacier’s face in view. Who knows? Maybe it would calve yet again!
Eventually, it was time to depart. We had a two-day run through the Gulf of Alaska to deal with, after all. So we eased our way back out through the slurry of ice on the surface of the fjord. Every so often you could hear a chunk grinding along the side of the ship.
We remained jazzed about the awesome calving we witnessed earlier, and stayed up on deck for quite some time. The ship wasn’t moving at full speed, so the breeze was fine, and the temperature was getting warmer. It helped that we had windbreakers on, of course. It also seemed to be drizzling less, so we went up top to the Sun Deck. You get the best overall views of the surrounding mountains from up there.
We went back inside, ate lunch, and read our books in the stateroom for a while. We were at sea, and relaxing was the name of the game. Or staying busy, if that’s your style. Later on, we went to dinner at the restaurant and enjoyed the company of our fellow diners.
While eating, we noticed that the ship’s motion had changed. Suddenly we could feel the pounding and rolling of the sea. We must have left the calm confines of Prince William Sound, and were now out in the Gulf of Alaska. Therefore we were subject to larger swells, and greater wind speeds. When we left the restaurant to take our daily constitutional on the Promenade Deck, we found that the doors were locked, with Caution Tape across the doorways. This really was serious!
So we went back to the stateroom and put on our foulies. If there was going to be adverse weather, then we were surely going to experience it fully! We took the elevator up to the Sun Deck and discovered that the bow region was closed, but other areas were perfectly accessible. We even climbed up onto the highest deck, where the wind was impressively strong. The ship was heading directly into this blast, so the wind speed and the ship’s speed were additive. It was quite a gale, let me tell you!
Later on, in the stateroom, I downloaded maps and videos of the wind field at the time. We were basically heading right into the worst of it! Still, on a ship, heading directly into the waves is preferable to being broadside-on, and we weren’t too worried. But it did provide interesting new noises and motions as we slept that night. Tomorrow we would be spending the entire day At Sea, so we figured that we might as well get used to it.
For a topographic map of the cruise see my CalTopo Page
For LOTS more photos of the voyage see my Flickr Page
<< Back to Day 8 Onward to Day 10 >> 
hikingtales.com 