Crevasse
Sheridan Glacier, Copper River Delta, Alaska
Athlete: Jeff McKitterick
Camera: Nikon F5
What makes it special: This image, this experience, in many ways defines why I do what I do. There is no substitute for the real, live, true experience. When we discover and relish the new, we quite often find it very different from what we expected.
The story: "Often, our predisposed expectations for a new experience are different, if not contrary, to what we may experience. In any case, be open, take big bites, breathe deeply, get out of your own way and enjoy.
As a kid I wondered about Superman's blue ice palace; how his frozen world would feel. Since then I have been on countless glaciers all over the planet, played on and around them and marveled at their forms as they amble through space and time. The way they move throughout their long lives is incredible. I have peered into many blue glacier holes wondering what it might be like down there.
What did I expect? I was not exactly sure, but as I rappelled into a large crack in this 25,000 year old ice there was a little fear. As is so often the case, the adrenaline kicked in and soon overrode the apprehension from the expected claustrophobia. I dropped down to a shelf, set an anchor and tied off. I looking around and I immediately calmed. The world came rolling to a stop, and I breathed deeply, inspired. My thoughts stopped and I felt part of this ode to light and blue.
Again the world proved itself different than my expectations. Once again my mind was opened to a new perspective, yet this blue world still felt incredibly familiar, a reverie of some place else that I already knew, someplace soothing."
