SASKATCHEWAN GLACIER 52°08’18.8”N 117°11’35.6”W
JENNA DIXON
“Thousand-year-old ice stretches before us in a sea of turquoise jewels as a luminous moonlit glow reflects in every ice crystal creating an otherworldly expanse.”
a soft blanket of snow sparkles like diamonds in the darkness, kissed by the stars and the moon themselves, while every crack and rugged ridgeline defines the mountainous peaks towering above and all around us. The silence in the backcountry is deafening. Audible. It envelops me whole, interrupted only by the crunching of our boots on the thin layer of crust that formed on the ice beneath our feet. We move as one over the frozen landscape, but I’m lost in my own world. The gentle wisp of a breeze caresses my cheeks and stings my skin cold. My breath comes in even and warm against my buff, escaping in a cloud of mist lit by my headlamp. I can hear every thought and every whisper as though I’m the only soul on earth. It’s both a beautiful yet eerie feeling. I attempt to calm my nerves, but no matter how many times I’ve been in the backcountry at night, I never find myself truly at ease. Whomp! I’m immediately brought back into the moment and into myself, all senses firing as I feel the ice shift and crack beneath me. Even though we’ve tested the ice and ensured its safe depth for crossing, there’s no sound more unnerving and unsettling than being on top of frozen water surrounded by the pitch dark of night. I force myself to avert my attention away from my intrusive thoughts as we move quickly and efficiently toward the glacier that now stands within our grasp. I catch myself thinking how I wish this was the easy part, the point in our long journey when we could breathe a sigh of relief. But this is only the beginning. I scan through the darkness at the ice walls that beckon our attention. We quietly rope up in preparation for our glacier traverse amid the intricate labyrinth of snow bridges and seemingly bottomless crevasses that line our path. Thousand-year-old ice stretches before us in a sea of turquoise jewels as a luminous moonlit glow reflects in every ice crystal creating an otherworldly expanse. The sheer beauty of our surroundings fills the air with a tangible sense of excitement as we embark on a journey into the unknown. A familiar calm washes over me. “There you are,” I whisper to myself, acknowledging my presence and insignificance within the remoteness of the landscape, while welcoming the creative visions taking shape in the back of my mind. This grounding in a sense or state of flow is always my favourite moment within each adventure. It’s time to get to work. My name is Jenna. I’m a photographer obsessed with capturing winter landscapes under the night sky. My journey began long ago, sparked by a fascination of the northern lights. I still recall sitting cross legged on the 2nd street dock at Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba, as a G 2 solar storm erupted overhead. I remember trying to keep my cool while fumbling with my camera settings dialling in what I recalled from the YouTube video I watched a few hours previously titled “Intro to Astrophotography.”
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MOTHER VOLUME THREE
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