I went on the Mendenhall glacier trek and ice cave tour with Paul and Griffin as our guides. These guys have the best banter between each other which just made the trip that much more fun.
As soon as my friends and I got off the ship, it was easy to find Griffin as he was in front of the Tramway as the directions in the booking said and he was holding up a sign. Griffin is full of knowledge of the area and has tons of cheesy jokes that keep it light and had the group laughing. He took us for about a 20-30 min drive in the van to the lake where we met the other tour guide, Paul. This duo cracked me up with their jokes that they bounced off each other. The group of 10 of us got our gear on that was provided by Paul & Griffin, which includes a north face windbreaker, a pair of REI windbreaker pants, a pair of Xtra Tuff rain boots, and a life jacket. Then we all got in a large canoe and paddled our way across the lake. Occasionally your hand may hit the 40 degree water, but it's not that bad, just a bit chilly. After our 45 min canoe adventure across the lake, we pulled the canoe right up to the bottom of the mountain and then, as a group, we helped lift it up on the shoreline a bit. We placed our helmets on, they gave us a quick safety speech and then they took us through the ice cave. I had forgot my gloves in the canoe and Griffin waited for me to run to the canoe and then stayed at the back of the group while Paul was at the front. They inspect the cave for safety before we all go in, they do the same thing once we got on top of the glacier as well, so you can feel safe with them. The ice cave was an awesome experience. You can hear the water rushing above you from the rivers that run through the crevices in the glacier and some of that water streams through the top of the ice cave, which we ended up drinking. It's super fresh glacier water, very cool. Then we put on crampons on the bottom of our boots and started trekking on top of the glacier. The blue rivers were gorgeous to see running through the glacier! Only photos can show how pretty it was to be on top of the glacier and in the ice caves.
I highly recommend this group to go on this adventure with. Only two companies have permits to go in the ice caves and they are one and made this a great experience.
Thanks P&G!!