Hello from a fishing boat in the Wrangell narrows of Alaska.

I am swaying side to side as our small fishing boat dips forward and back with the wind capped waves. Sea water splashes against the windshield where mist combined with pine and ice fill your nostrils. Moments ago, the tide began rising and we were scrambling to leave the fjord, Fredrick Sound.

I can still feel my body buzzing with excitement from today’s adventure.

I've been in Petersburg, a remote part of Alaska, for the past few days. My best friend invited me on this adventure to visit her friend Justin and his wife, Trish, who live here full-time. Justin discovered this special place after his college roommate told him about the opportunity to work on a fishing boat. Drawn to the adventure, he spent six seasons fishing salmon all over Alaska.

Now him and his wife have made this beautiful, remote area their home and shared their sense of adventure with us.

Le Conte Glacier, Climbing on an Iceberg & Swimming in Survival Suits.

As I’m writing, my phone is slipping between my numb hands. We just peeled off our survival suits, floating in 36-degree glacier water surrounded by icebergs. Staring up at the boat bobbing, every second of this arctic wonderland—the green water, whites and blues of the ice was breathtaking.

Being up close with icebergs is like a moon landing experience.

Not that I have any experience of being on the moon, but glaciers feel foreign, and incredibly beautiful. It is also a dangerous exploration.

Even with all the right precautions, you are still at the whim of the arctic.

Our Alaskan friends pointed out an iceberg, and took us to a sturdy sheet of ice to explore. We anchored our boat to the iceberg as if we had just claimed our own little island. We climbed off, gripping the ice as our feet danced on the giant cube.

Suddenly, the experience became potentially treacherous.

The iceberg, which was still when we docked, suddenly gained momentum, creating waves that rocked us from side to side. It had been an unusually warm week, so the ice was much less stable, and showed signs of potential rolling. In seconds, we slid on our butts back into the boat, and zoomed off.

We then sat on the boat humbled by the arctic's beautiful, but fatal nature.

It is just the four us in this fjord on our own little adventure.

The theme of visiting this remote part of Alaska has been "seclusion". Looking at a map, a cluster of islands makes you think, "people actually live there?" It can take a full day to reach Petersburg from anywhere in the lower 48, as the town is only accessible by boat or plane. With a peak-season population of 3,000, it has three restaurants, all of which close for the season next week.

I’ve have lived in what has felt remote, but Petersburg doesn’t compare.

"No salad today. The barge didn't come in", the man behind the restaurant counter said to me as he was making my sandwich. The barge is the lifeline for this area, bringing in most of its food, and essential supplies. If it doesn't arrive, items run low or disappear entirely. Justin explained that you can't get too attached to anything in Petersburg-one moment the grocery store has feta cheese, and the next, it'll be gone for two months.

It sounds funny, but sometimes when I travel I don’t know where I am exactly on a map.

I just know where to show up, and end up. But on this trip, it hit me exactly where I was the moment I recognized an iconic mountain. When we left the airport, we jumped in the back of Trish’s Jeep Wrangler. The sun was setting under clear skies as the wind whipped through my hair, and I gazed at the horizon. Suddenly, I saw it. "Wait, it can't be," I thought. Right there, in the distance, was the Devil's Thumb.

It has always been a dream of mine to see it in person (I had no idea it was near Petersburg).

I know, I’m a nature nerd, who loves a good view. I loved watching the film of Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold climbing this ominous, sheer rock that stands out from all the surrounding mountains. Devils Thumb is located in the Boundary Range of the Coast Mountains, part of the Stikine Icecap, and you can see it crystal clear across Petersburg's bay.

It's hard to comprehend how Alex and Tommy reached the base of the mountain.

The dense tree line and ice fields look impossible to navigate on foot. According to Justin and Trish, who knew some of the crew that assisted with the climb, it took a large team over a week of bushwhacking just to get to the base of the mountain (the approach is barely featured in the film).

Every moment we were at the bay I could not stop looking at The Devil’s Thumb.

When we were navigating to Le Conte glacier, I was locked in starring at the Devil's Thumb when I suddenly saw a spout of water spray up into the sky- a humpback whale."Are you kidding me—the Devil's Thumb and whales?"

I think I almost cried at the view.

It's hard to put into words just how incredible nature can be. Alaska is the first place I've traveled where a whale sighting feels almost guaranteed. One of the guides I met told me whales march to the beat of their own drum, so their migration times can vary across species and regions.

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As you approach the fjord's opening, you begin to see floating icebergs appear.

The air grows crisp and cold, and you can feel in your bones that something grand is around the corner. As we continued down the fjord, the icebergs grew from a few feet to the size of five or more school buses. We zipped and weaved through them, knowing we had a two-hour window before the tide rose and pushed all the ice toward the glacier (potentially locking us in for the night at Le Conte).

When we reached the glacier, we were met with a scale of ice that was almost impossible to comprehend.

Staring at Le Conte, you can feel the cold air hitting your face and hear booming calving throughout the fjord. I've been learning more about glaciers (by no means am I an Earth Scientist-I'm just a try-hard), but I now know they're fed by ice fields from above, and are essentially densely packed snow that has built up over time.

You are surrounded by beauty everywhere in this fjord.

To the right of Le Conte is a peak that curves into the sky and overlooks the fjord. Justin shared that he attempted to hike it one time, but found noway to leave the base as the sheer rock and dense trees did not allow any opportunities for exploration.

As we boated away from the glacier, we saw sea lions and their pups basking on floating ice nearby. I learned from a guide that the sea lions are sitting on the ice to stay warm (they burn 27x more of their energy while being in the water).

Once we reached our last boating area, Trish and Justin handed us survival suits.

A survival suit is a full-body, waterproof suit designed for disasters to prevent hypothermia. In our case, it meant d***’n around in the water. Putting on that suit was one of the hardest things I've ever tried fashioning. If the boat were sinking, I would not make it.

“It’s time to jump”, they said.

Being on the more cautious side due to my knee surgery (link to article), I went to the back of the boat and gently dipped myself in, bobbing around in the water. My best friend, on the other hand, wanted a more adventurous experience. She swam out to different ice bergs, climbed and jumped off of them.

Even though, I had ten heart attacks watching my friend jump off icebergs, we felt alive, and it was a memory of a lifetime.

As we shook off the cold water, and peeled off our suits, it was time to leave Le Conte. We zoomed off to avoid high tide, and I took in the peaks, the glacier, and all of the shades of green, blue, and white one last time.

There are a lot more stories to share from Alaska, where I will share more soon.

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