Posts in alaska

Well, as of last Friday, we have finished our kayaking season. So it's time for some transitions for everyone.

Today I led my first solo full-day trip to Aialik Bay! It was a blast, and I'm fairly sure all my guests had a good time out there. It was my first experience with mixing groups in boats, and I think it worked out quite well. So I wanted to share a little about the reasoning behind my decision and how it worked out in the end.

I was pretty unsatisfied with my first take on glaciers 101. Here's another attempt, after letting that stew for a while.

Glaciers 101

Glaciers are massive bodies of moving ice. Their scale is enormous, so it's easiest to understand them in comparison to more familiar topics.

Before I can start getting checked out as a guide, I need to pitch five tarps, practice my "beach speech" five times, and try out five glacier talks. I discussed these glacier talks a little while ago in the context of thematic interpretation. I need to be prepared to give two different "glacier talks." The first is an introduction to glaciers, and the second is elaborating on that to feed into a theme. Imagine that I'm delivering these out on the water, in nearby Aialik Bay.

Yesterday night we got back to Seward from our five-day training trip. It's hard to describe how amazing this trip was. I learned a ton, practiced important skills, and generally forged intellectual and emotional connections to these amazing fjords we call home. I'm planning several posts about it – there's no way it would all fit in one! For now, I just want to set the scene and give a glimpse of how awesome it was.

I've mentioned a couple of times how the Hand of God rescue was coming up in training. This rescue is useful as a rescue for unconscious kayakers who have flipped over. It's tricky – the "swimmer" can't help you at all, so it requires excellent leverage and a good amount of force. Practicing it involves waiting upside-down in your boat until a rescuer grabs you and flips your boat over, like the hand of a god descending to save you. As you may recall, being upside-down in the water has really challenged me in the past. So to be frank, I'd been dreading the Hand of God rescue for days. It kept being delayed, building up the suspense and nerves. But today was the day. It was our last training drysuit session, so this was our last chance.

Today was our first "real" kayaking day trip during training. I mentioned it briefly previously, when we had to cancel because of weather. But today was the day! It dawned bright, clear, and early. The weather turned out to be perfect, a solitary clear day between giant storms. Tides were fairly small and fine for our plan. In summary, it was an ideal day for a kayaking day trip!

Here at KAW, our most popular trip is our Aialik (pronounced eye-Y'ALL-ick) Glacier day trip. On the trip, we paddle right up to the face of Aialik Glacier. Aialik is a tidewater glacier, which means it comes right up to the ocean and drops chunks of ice in it. Today we had the chance to learn more about tidewater glacier dynamics from Luke Rosier, which was lovely. My favorite portion was a discussion of the tidewater glacier cycle, which causes tidewater glaciers to advance and retreat cyclically over centuries.

Today, guides at KAW had the enormous pleasure of meeting Dan Olsen, who researches killer whales in Alaska. It was amazing to hear from someone so knowledgeable about such an incredible animal. A few fun facts I learned about the killer whale:

Today was something of a hodgepodge. Our original schedule sent us on a day trip today, but the weather (25 knot winds and high seas) sadly made that impossible. Two of my favorite activities for the day were reading surface maps and experiencing the Seward community through my first First Friday.

Training today included history, self-rescues, and remote communication. I particularly enjoyed learning about marine radio communications. As kayakers, we mainly use the radio to communicate with larger boats that might not see us. In our area, guides use some channels to discuss wildlife sightings as well.

Remember how yesterday I said I wanted to work on underwater composure? My wish was granted today, with a series of rescue exercises. My favorite, and the one I struggled with the most, was the bow rescue, also known as a T-rescue.

Today was our much-anticipated first drysuit session! Up here, the water is a balmy 41 degrees Fahrenheit, which can make practicing tricky. To let us learn and play without fear of hypothermia, we train in drysuits. Over the course of training, we'll do six total drysuit sessions. Today was session number one, and it included basic strokes, balance exercises, and assisted re-entry.

Out on the water, waves are kind of a big deal. And there's one type of wave that takes the cake in terms of consistency and impact: tides. The tidal cycle is the sloshing of water around the Earth caused by the combined gravitational attraction of the Moon (2/3 of the effect) and the Sun (1/3 of the effect).

Well, after lots of adventures, I'm excited to share that I'm now in Seward, Alaska! I'll be here through mid-September, when our season ends. I've spent the last few days before training getting to know Seward and my coworkers. It's been a real joy.