Chechahco, more commonly spelt Cheechako, is a Chinook Jargon word for 'newcomer'
Woke up at 3AM (damn you jet-lag) and took a look out the window, now we know why people go on beach holidays, it’s absolutely chucking it down outside and it looks like it’ll last for a good few days!!!
We hung around downtown Anchorage until the rain held off long enough to head down to Girdwood. For a large city there’s not much to do in the wet, we went to the Alaska Public Land Information Building and a couple of shopping malls, looked at a few stuffed examples of the Alaskan wildlife and sized-up some of the hunting rifles that probably put them there.
Leaving Anchorage behind we set off along the Seward Highway which winds its way down through the Chugach Mountains, it was a fantastic 40 mile drive to Girdwood hugging the coastline of the Turnagain Arm, you pass countless overlooks and waterfalls, even the sun was doing its best to make an appearance!!
Originally called Glacier City, Girdwood itself is a small town of just a couple of thousand people nestled at the foot of Mount Alyeska. There’s not much nightlife but the setting is gorgeous and it’s surrounded on all sides by snow-capped mountains.
Our home for the next two nights was the Alyeska Prince Hotel, primarily a ski resort, but it stays open all year round for conventions, weddings and even English tourists.
We’d booked to go on a Midnight Sun Glacier Hike at 8PM so after wandering around the resort for an hour or two and grabbing a quick bite to eat, we decided to conserve our energy for the evenings activity and grabbed a quick forty winks. Unfortunately the forty winks turned out to be something more like eighty winks and we arose from our slumber only to discover the time was ten minutes past eight. What followed can only be described as absolute chaos as two whirling dervishes threw on the nearest clothing they could find and headed at top speed to the meeting point leaving a trail of destruction in their wake!!
Luckily for us we were the only two attempting the hike that evening so when we arrived Shannon, our guide, was still waiting. After taking one look at what we were wearing, she then furnished us with some proper hiking gear so that we wouldn’t die of exposure as soon as we got to the top of the mountain.
To get to the glacier we took the Alyeska Aerial Tramway which travels the 2,300 feet in about four minutes and offers amazing views of Girdwood and beyond. Now, we’d like to say that the next few hours were a breeze and we’re so fit that we didn’t even notice we’d been on a climb at all but we can’t. What actually followed was three hours of sheer murder, interspersed with a few moments of absolute pleasure, the hard part was trying to keep your legs moving forward and digging in your toes to get a grip when your thighs and calves are burning hotter than a furnace, it was the outdoor step machine from hell. However all the pain melted away every time we took a break for photo ops, which thankfully was fairly often and looked round at the scale of our newly conquered realm, absolutely stunning, even more so considering the effort we put in to get there.
You now know not to be fooled by our demeanour in the photos as even though we’re smiling on the outside, we’re really crying on the inside.
As the saying goes "What goes up must come down" and although we could have stayed up there all night, our guide had a home and family to get back to. The descent from the glacier was a heck of a lot easier than the climb as we literally bounded down the side of the mountain, onto the tram and back to the hotel where there were murmurings about getting changed and going to the bar, but as soon as we got back to the room it was literally lights out as we collapsed on the bed and didn’t move for the next six hours.
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