Brady Glacier Southeast

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The Brady Glacier is an icefield - a huge sheet of ice. The key word here is ‘sheet’. If you think of alpine and valley glaciers as being frozen waterfalls and rivers of ice then you would think of an icefield as being an upside down dinner plate of ice. There is a large portion of an icefield that is closer to flat than it is to being ‘mountainous’. They are not really flat, but they get close. And you’ll see this in the photos: often the horizon doesn’t look ‘straight’. It’s not that the photo is crooked! It’s the gently sloping icefield sloping off toward the ocean.

Some of the ice in an icefield comes from valley glaciers; some comes from accumulated snow falling on the icefield itself. The south end of the Brady icefield reaches almost to the ocean but the high center portion of the ‘dinner plate’ is about 800 meters elevation. In winter the snow covers the entire thing, but in summer it melts back at the lowest elevations. The ‘zone of accumulation’ is that portion of the glacier where the snow doesn’t melt, and ice builds up. The Brady icefield gets a lot of ice added to it each year from the dozens of valley glaciers that feed into it, but it also has its own zone of accumulation above about 600 meters.

Although the Brady Glacier is huge, it is not easy to get to. There are no roads, no airports. Helicopters are not allowed in wilderness areas, small planes with skis can land on the glaciers but these are very expensive to charter. So we used the route that went by ‘Spur Lake’. We camped the night next to the icefield and got up early the next day. We did a day hike on the ice, getting back to the tent the same evening. The captions on the photos tell the story.

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Photos

Moose on the Glacier!
There were very few bones left.

Ice, Crevasses and Rocks
Good walking on ice.

Onto the Ice
One foot on land, one on ice.

On the Ice
We are on the ice but near the edge, where the ice and land meet, there are a lot of rocks on the surface of the icefield. Here you and just walk, no crampons necessary.

Drained Lake
This is a glacier dammed lake that has completely drained.

Icefield
Farther out on the ice, few rocks.

Moss on Ice
The surface of the ice is not 'solid' ice but slightly weather by sun and rain. But just a few centimeters down you find solid ice.

Looking West
Looking across the Brady icefield to a short peak on the west side.

Water on Ice
Water running on the surface of the glacier. Most melt water is below the surface.

Solid Blue Ice
Solid blue ice just a few centimeters below the surface.

Looking south
Looking back at Taylor Bay.

Heading north
Very few crevasses. It is not always like this!!!

Icefield and Fairweathers
Looking towards the Fairweather Range.

Crampons and trekking poles
With crampons and trekking poles we felt very stable.

Crevasses
When you are walking it the same direction as the crevasses, it is easy. 'Against the grain' is tedious. You must walk along the crevass until you find a safe place to cross.

Crossing a crevasse
Crevasses vary in depth and width. Because there was no snow, it was easy to walk along until we found a place to cross.

Crevasses
Now is careful time...

Glacier Dammed Lake
Another glacier dammed lake.

Foots 'n Views - Brady Icefield Southeast
Lunch break.

Crevass field
We did not go this way! Mt. Crillon off in the distance.

Looking Down
Crevasse to the right, crevasse to the left, stuck in the middle with me...

Comments

[Olga]

Mosses
I'm interested in mosses on ice of glacier. I like your report with photos of mosses. It is a good information!