An Li

Seattle, Washington

Situated on a mountain ridge between the ice and the sky, time slowed for me at Camp 17 on the Juneau Icefield. As volunteer teaching faculty with the Juneau Icefield Research Program—a summer field course in glaciology and mountaineering—I lived and learned alongside students during their first weeks on the ice, at the start of a traverse from Juneau, Alaska to Atlin, Canada.

Those initial weeks marked a period of transition as students prepared for life on the ice. Some learned to ski for the first time before it became their daily mode of travel, while others adapted to life without running water. For me, I reconnected with the beauty that underpins my Ph.D. research on glacial landscapes.

Without technology, we became fully present in the labor of digging snow, laughter shared over open-air dinners, and the awe of silhouettes against the setting sun. As a PhD candidate incessantly behind on work, my photography practice often falls to the wayside. There, my life was distilled to what was before me. In moments of stillness, I reflected on and documented my wonder for our surroundings. Here are my observations of nature, humans, and the space in between from the Juneau Icefield.