PUERTO VALDEZ AL GLACIAR COLUMBIA X EL FIORDO WILLIAM - KENAI FJORDS NATIONAL PARK - ALASKA
near Valdez, Alaska (United States)
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Trail photos
Boat tour made on Tuesday, July 28, 2015
NOTICE: It is understood that anyone who wants to do this same route assumes the responsibility that an activity entails that is not exempt from possible risks or incidents, in an environment in which common sense and circumstances can make the difference between having a good day or the opposite.
And that there are still people who deny climate change... I only find two possible answers, the first has to do with ignorance, the product of not seeing beyond one's own nose, or of never having left his town - city . But while the first is worrisome, the second seems even more so to me, which would not come from ignorance but from interested positions and which only have to do with the possibility of getting rich "at all costs", and it is costing us a planet that also to be our home, apparently some do not deserve. The Columbia Glacier, which we're heading to today, doesn't seem to have fared any better. In the photos of the nineties, this impressive and gigantic glacier reminds us of Perito Moreno in his best times, today his tongue has receded more than fifteen kilometers, as well as his thickness that has thinned (being on the verge of anorexia) hundreds of meters. But before seeing and verifying all this, we have left from the port of Valdez, and heading west, we have gone back through the impressive William Fjord in the direction of Wittier. Logically, this town, from which we started the day before, is not even remotely reached, but rather halfway, the boat that takes us to the Columbia turns right and heads for the fjord that receives the same name as the glacier it hosts. In the eighty kilometers that we have traveled to get there, sea lions have been seen, which are not satisfied only with their rocky watchtowers, but also use the buoys with different functions for their naps. We have also seen, of course, groups of playful sea otters, which do not seem to be frightened or disturbed in the least by the continuous passage of fishing or pleasure boats. The variety and quantity of seabirds is notorious, but the encounter, which we have had somewhat unexpectedly, with the fishing queen or bald eagle could not be missing. As we get closer to the Columbia glacier front, in some blocks of ice, there are also groups of otters that delight us with their dives into the water and their descents through the ice, as if it were a slide. Since we have seen the front of the Columbia in the distance until we have approached it, a good number of kilometers have passed, which gives us an idea of the irreparable loss that a glacier has suffered, which in its heyday, was not only a spectacle of nature, but also a living being, just like a river or a lake. The boat has slowed down to a minimum, to avoid a possible collision with the large amount of ice that is floating. It also maintains a safe distance from the current front, which despite the regression, nevertheless maintains a fairly respectable altitude and amount of ice. After letting us enjoy the views and photos of rigor for a long time, the boat returns to its cruising speed, but not before having stopped a couple of times, after spotting the occasional whale that has entered along the fjord William. In the distance we can already see the oil refinery to the right that reaches here, and when we headed towards Wittier we could see the very long pipes through which it was channeled up to here. We have also begun to see the small and sheltered port of Valdez, which, like the population, changed its location after the tsunami in the 1960s, seeking a little more security.
Waypoints
Waypoint
93 ft
e. delfines
29-JUL-15 3:12:26
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