the view is fantastic and the sun is shining, but it is also cold
fishing for a piece of ice
chunks of ice litter the bay
It is one of the fastest retreating glaciers on earth and hence a posterchild of the global warming
proponents.
Tour operators in Valdez offer boattrips over the Prince William Sound to the Columbia and nearby Meares Glacier.
We
visited the Columbia in 1993 and in June 2007 and clearly noticed that the glacier had retreated considerably.
In 1993 you could
still make a close approach to the edge, but in 2007 the many icebergs in the bay prohibited that.
Both times
we spent a full day aboard one of Stan Stevens's cruise ships.
the oil storage tanks near Valdez at the end of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline
we approach Columbia Bay and can see already the ice
from a distance; the glacier edge
