Life on the Glacier

Handsome Yuker with a big smile!

The dogs and I have been up on the Denver Glacier in Skagway, Alaska for about 10 days, and the dogs are loving it! The first several days, the entire yard barked and played late into the night, enjoying the change from mud to snow. At first their enthusiasm was adorable, but it soon lost its appeal as the dogs barked at 3:00 and 4:00 AM. Now that we've started tours, the dogs have settled down a bit and keep playtime between 5:30 AM and 10:00 PM, thankfully.

Tours are a "walk in the park" for the dogs, with each tour averaging between 1.5 and 2 miles. I've been trying different youngsters in lead and have been particularly excited about King Louie. He's a tank! Even if the team is hauling 5 people through soft rotten snow, Louie puts his head down and propels forward, motivating the whole team behind him! I hope to continue working with Louie and other pups and yearlings through the summer to build their confidence and turn them into incredible leaders next year!

You'll notice from the pictures, all the structures are white. The sun is exceptionally bright on the glacier, so to keep the structures from attracting sunlight and causing the snow to melt faster, everything is white. My lodging consists of a tent, which I share with three other employees. In addition to sleeping tents, we have a cook tent, lounge, and communication tent in our little glacier city. Helicopters fly up to the glacier, drop off tourists from the cruise ships, and then return later to pick them up after they've had a sled dog ride. There are almost 230 dogs on the glacier! The ride itself is only approximately 20-30 minutes, so the rest of the time the dogs are getting extra love and snuggles!

Gorgeous skies!

Several of the camp tents.

Sunset over the dog yard.