As quickly as the wind had come, it went. As we climbed up to Summit Lake, we passed Thor Peak, a rock that soars 1,500 metres up out of the valley floor. Glacial action has carved out this, the longest uninterrupted cliff face in the worId, over a kilometre in length. Wow! This lead us to our next little challenge - 'the waterfalls' - ever walked up frozen rapids? Tricky at the best of times, but pulling sledges without spikey boots? Now that's what I call fun! It took a while but it's good to know we did it.
Having passed Summit Cabin (in which we stayed on night four, just for the experience - four of us slept with the fifth a little disturbed by the sound box effect of the hut on the other four rutting warthogs snoring peacefully around him) the valley opens up to reveal Summit Lake and Glacier Lake, with massive glaciers forming the valley sides. As the sun shifts hanging glaciers capture the light and glow bright ice blue - I have never seen anything like it - quite stunning and quite beautiful. Words cannot describe it all - the pictures do it better but to really appreciate it you need to be there. I shall never forget it - it really looked like the lost valley - something out of pre-historic times. So unlike anything else, we all expected pterodactyls to sweep down and carry us away!
At this point we'd gained over 500 metres since leaving the fjord and were in the centre of the Akshayuk Pass. As we crossed the Lakes, for a short while we were walking in just our thermal base layer - no, I'm not joking! It's incredible what effect even the smallest amount of wind can have. As we walked, a small plane buzzed us as it flew very low down the valley - I guess the pilot was having fun! That was how we wanted our journey back.
Then on to Turner Glacier and Mount Askard, which we had planned to spend a day exploring, time and weather permitting. The glacier leads to the base of Mount Askard, the weirdest mountain I've ever seen - a cylindrical tower with a flat, snow capped top. Check the pics. Suffice it to say this mountain has been the goal of accomplished climbers from around the world. Sadly, we did not have the right equipment to cater for the snow covered glacier - we needed cramp-ons, ice axes and ropes, none of which we had. So we mozied on by, determined to visit next time.
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