Root Glacier to Stairway Icefall

The Root Glacier trail from Kennicott is among the most accessible glacier walks in Alaska, allowing hikers to travel miles across the surface of an active glacier without technical climbing experience while surrounded by the towering peaks of the Wrangell Mountains. The trail begins by crossing the Kennicott Glacier's medial moraine before transitioning onto the cleaner ice of Root Glacier, a tributary glacier flowing from the flanks of Mount Blackburn. Crampons are strongly recommended for travel on the glacier surface, which becomes smooth and slippery in warm afternoon conditions; several guiding companies in Kennicott provide rentals. The glacier surface is an otherworldly landscape of blue-green meltwater streams carving sinuous channels into the ice, deep crevasses filled with water of impossible clarity, and moulins—vertical shafts where surface streams plunge into the glacier's interior. The destination is the base of the Stairway Icefall, where Root Glacier descends in a series of massive broken ice towers called seracs before leveling into the main glacier. The icefall is named for its appearance of a frozen staircase ascending 2,000 feet toward the high peaks. The sound of creaking ice and distant calving provides constant audio backdrop. This trail offers one of the most dramatic accessible glacier experiences in the entire national park system.