Alaska’s Meade Glacier
July 5, 2025 9:15pm
I flew by helicopter to the Meade Glacier today. It's about 12 miles south of Skagway, Alaska, but it is part of the same massive 1500 square mile Juneau Icefield that includes the Mendenhall Glacier located 90 miles south of Skagway. The Meade Glacier feeds the Katzehin River, which is east of Haines on the opposite side of the Lynn Canal, North America's longest and deepest fjord.
With special studded footwear for traction on the ice, I viewed the deep cracks (crevasses), deep shafts (moulins), and the crystal-blue glacial water pools. Laying prone on the ice, I drank some ice-cold water directly from the stream of glacial melt as it flowed to the lake below. Such streams contain glacial silt, but small quantities are harmless. It was a very cool experience. No pun intended.