From: mkp@kayak.engr.sgi.com (Michael K. Poimboeuf)
Newsgroups: rec.boats.paddle
Subject: Re: Sea kayaking Prince William Sound
Date: 5 Mar 1996 17:06:29 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.  Mountain View, CA
Lines: 83
Message-ID: <4hhsal$6mo@fido.asd.sgi.com>
References: <4gfjfh$9gc@newsbf02.news.aol.com> <1996Feb29.070419.1@orion.alaska.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: kayak.engr.sgi.com


In article <1996Feb29.070419.1@orion.alaska.edu>, assmm4@orion.alaska.edu writes:
> In article <4gfjfh$9gc@newsbf02.news.aol.com>, mjhedges@aol.com (MJHedges) writes:
> > Hi. We are interested in gathering information about sea kayaking Prince
> > Wm Sound mid July. Advice and recommendations re: route, kayak rentals,
> > etc, would be much appreciated. We would like to hear of other's
> > experiences too. Thanks. Marilyn H.
> > 
...
> 
> Personal favorite trips out of Whittier include Blackstone Glacier,
> South Culross Passage, and also Herriman Glacier.  Any trips into
> PWS is a good one, just go prepared.
> 
...
I did a trip there out of Whittier in '87. On our trip 
we planned for freezing rain, but ended up with 10 days
of 70degF weather (and one day of cool drizzle)... 
Downright hot in fact. Very unusual.

One word of warning... especially if the tidewater 
glaciers are as active this summer as then (perhaps then
due to the heat). Don't camp next to the glaciers. While
many folks do, and there are some nice beaches next to
a couple of the glaciers out of Whittier, on our trip
we saw first hand how nature keeps the "nice beaches"
really "clean."

Just as we were leaving after a night camping below
Cascade Glacier, a big chunk caved off of the big
glacier at the end of the same inlet (anyone have the
name of the glacier next to Cascade on the tip of their
keyboard?).

The chunk was large enough to send a 5ft shockwave up 
on shore... most of us got out of the way, but one of
our crew was less lucky. His boat was picked up and 
endered on the beach, breaking it in two.

During the remainder of that layover day I had the
pleasure of putting my epoxy patch ("we'll never use
this much Sglas & epoxy... but I'll throw it in any-
way) repair kit to good use, and put the boat back
together.

But that's not the end of the story...

The next morning, when we were about 100ft off shore,
most of the face of the glacier gave way at once. I've
forgotten how many cubic meters of ice we calculated hit
the water... but I do recall calculating that the total kinetic
energy was on the order of 1 kiloton of TNT... about the
size of small tactical nuclear warhead.

We paddled out (very quickly) to the center of the fiord,
and watched as the entire beach was pummled by a series
of huge >30ft shockwaves... There is no possible way anyone
could have survived anywhere on that beach...

And the irony of it is that once it was over, the beach 
looked calmer (and cleaner) than ever... a jewel glistening
in the Alaskan sun.

The moral of the story is that if you want to approach 
the tidewater glaciers, stay out in deep water a good
ways away from where the first "splash" would land... 
you really really really don't want to surf a 6ft wave
in between icebergs (those damn 'bergs have such a "locals
only" attitude).

I highly recommend Prince William Sound.

--
Michael K. Poimboeuf mkp@sgi.com aka Bionic Boof
Silicon Graphics Inc. Mtn View California
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"Nay, that I mean to do. Is not this a lamentable thing,
that of the skin of an innocent lamb should be made
parchment? That parchment, being scribbl'd o'er, should
undo a man? Some say the bee stings; but I say 'tis the
bee's wax..."
Henry6Part2Act4Scene2 - William (not Bill) Shakespeare
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