Ice Hiking

We've been offering this trip for 17 years. Come see Why this is one of Alaska's favorite Active Adventures

Exit Glacier Ice Hiking

This 7-8 hour tour is popular with clients that don't shy away from exercise on their vacations. The picturesque path to the glacier is a mixture of back-country and on-trail trekking and the view from the top of the 1400ft of elevation that we gain while traveling over 1.6 miles of trail is absolutely stunning. This trip usually spends between one and two hours on the ice exploring the best that Exit Glacier's undulating surface has to offer.

This tour is the perfect experience for outdoor enthusiasts who really want to dig in and explore what Alaska has to offer. We at Exit Glacier Guides believe that the more effort you put into a hike, the more you get out of it. Consequently, our hike takes people up an hour-and-a-half long incline, through an alpine valley, down a 45º rock scree, and onto the surface of Exit Glacier itself.

 While you don't have to be a track star or a sherpa to complete the tour, this is a tough trip. Participants should be willing to hike up steep grades and carry packs with their own equipment. What's the payoff for all of this work? Just look at the pictures on this site.

 Exit Glacier Guides offers visitors to Seward, AK a chance to see a unique natural wonder close-up - and since it takes a little work to get there - our groups see it without a crowd. We are the only tour operator in the area doing a comparable tour, and we humbly assert that this is a darn good one. Also, due to the constantly changing nature of the glacier, no two tours of ours are ever the same.

 We start on a well-maintained national park trail and proceed 1.6 miles up into the mountains. This portion of the trip takes about an hour to an hour and a half. During the hike, our knowledgeable guides identify many of the native plants and flowers and also use the landscape's unique features to explain basic glaciology. Quite frequently we see black bears, moose, and marmots along the way.

 When we reach the ice, we don crampons, harnesses and helmets. This gear lets us safely navigate the icy, undulating surface of the glacier. After a short training session in which our guides demonstrate and oversee practice of safe glacier travel techniques, we head up the side of the glacier. 

On the ice we look for waterfalls, giant cracks in the ice called crevasses, deep holes called moulins, and other extraordinary features. Blue canyons filled with crytal clear water meander across the surface of the ice and frequently cross our path as we explore. Even our most senior guides who have worked on Exit Glacier for nearly a decade always find suprisingly beautiful features that are unlike anything seen in previous seasons. 

We're proud of this tour. If you love the outdoors and want to have a truly memorable experience in Alaska, come on the glacier with us. We have offered this trip for 14 years, and we're confident that you'll be proud of our trip too.

Season:  May 25th-ish through September 8th