Dec. 12 - Hilltop views and . . . !

So, we trudged up the narrow trail and were occasionally aided by thick ropes that had been tied to trailside trees. I actually felt sort of sorry for the trees because some of the people, who should probably NOT have gone up this trail, were quite, shall we say, large. I hope that someone removes the ropes in the offseason to let the trees expand their girth too! Once at the top, we were all exultant!

Everyone was sweating and some looked like they may soon need resuscitation, but it felt good to see the glacier from this new vantage point. We wandered around a little and Enrique, guide for our group, Drake, stationed himself near a sort of cliff and discouraged errant walkers from getting too close. The view was wonderful and the sounds seemed even more loud and serious. I quickly spotted a bird I knew - the Rufous-collared Sparrow, but there were not many FFC's to be seen.

Eventually, we were all standing staring at the glacier, listening with growing excitement as the cracks became thuds and then became booms! The sounds seemed to be coming from the right side area, but, really, how can one tell what part of a glacier is about to fall into the water? Several of us had voted for a particular part of the face that had a big slab that stood upright, but seemed to be getting more separated from the face of the glacier. On this photo, I made a big (but thin, once again) circle around the part we thought was about to fall away:

(Boy, that circle is really thin - sorry! I made the picture as big as I can. The circle is toward the right side of the glacier face and even extends into the water.) All eyes were glued on that big crack to see if it was getting bigger. Some of us thought it was, but we, of course, had no way to measure. Finally, Enrique said we had to head back down the slope to get the zodiacs back to the boat. After much booing and jeering, we waited until almost everyone had headed down the trail, and reluctantly did so ourselves. Again, please understand that I am NOT making this up! As I turned around and started down the trail, there was this tremendous BOOM! accompanied by shouts of joy and delight from the 3 or 4 people who were determined to be the last ones off the hill! I raced back to the summit, but the thing had already collapsed into the water! That whole, entire slab of ice had calved off the face of Pia Glacier - and I missed it! Dang! Now the water on that side of the bay was full of big chunks of ice, floating their way to oblivion.