ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A man who stepped off his snowmachine to take pictures on an Alaska glacier plunged 60 feet into a crevasse where he remained for hours before he was freed by a specially-trained rescue team.

David Joerge, 54, from Eagle River was snowmachining with a friend on Saturday when he found himself down a dark hole and in deep trouble.

"It happens pretty fast. Your knees are hitting things, your arms, your shoulders, your elbows. You are just being thrust down into a wedge of ice," he said, of his fall into the Nelchina Glacier crevasse.

Joerge's friend, Rod Hansen, also 54 and from Eagle River, went for help, driving 17 miles to Eureka Lodge.

Everything had seemed picture-perfect when the two men set out from Eureka Lodge that morning, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

"It was a bluebird day. The closer you got to the glacier, the more prettier it got," Hansen said.

They followed a rocky ridge and stopped for lunch. Joerg took off by himself for a short spell but Hansen waved him back because he thought it looked treacherous. They intended to head toward a frozen lake, but first checked out the nice powder at the base of the glacier. It was dotted with animal prints.
( wow )

That's one lucky guy. I've seen Nelchina Glacier before and it is lovely (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2660/3927636875_ccf3df19aa.jpg). Guess I shouldn't snowmachine on it though :P

Would you rather sleep each night with two harmless bats in your bedroom or always have five pigeons hanging out in your bathroom? The bats..if they're in cages

Today's trivia: The word "blog" is a shortened form of "web log"

I got back from my trip last night. I'm so tired and sore but I had a good time. On Friday we left Wasilla..there was some blue sky but it was really cloudy and foggy in the direction we were going. There was a little drive we could take to see Knik Glacier but the weather was too bad. We could still see some mountains and the Matanuska River though. It took maybe an hour to reach the camp (though it wasn't in Chickaloon..which was like 3 buildings haha). We got checked in and took our stuff up the steep hill to our cabin (all or almost all were named after mountains..ours was Iliamna). That was so much fun..ugh. It was basically camping cause we had to take sleeping bags to put on the beds and the bathroom was separate (luckily our cabin was closest to the bathroom haha). I think we may have had lunch (they definitely fed us well haha) and went to the first class (I didn't get all my first choices but oh well. All the classes were 3 1/2 hours long). My first was archery. I did archery a lot as a kid but I hadn't done it in years. It took some practice but eventually I kinda got the hang of it again. It was so fun and addictive. Of course when I was getting good they moved us back and had to start over again haha. They did it twice but by the third time we were good enough to get it from that distance. They also put balloons on the target for us to try and hit and I got two! I did it till my arm said "no more!" haha..it was so sore but I still wanted to do more. :P I used a recurve bow (http://www.patnorrisarchery.com/lightbox/martin_recurves/X-200.jpg but less fancy). I was pretty good with it..the instructor was impressed too. When I walked out of the building after class I was stunned..the clouds had gone away and the sky was brilliant blue against the white mountains. It was so amazing and beautiful

After class was dinner. Before each meal they did a raffle drawing..I won twice. I chose a blanket and chocolate. After dinner we went to 10 stations for 5 minutes and they told us about different things (animal droppings, fishing lures, etc). Then after that there was snow tubing haha. Mom and I walked over there and saw the hill was really steep..we were both scared. :P Everyone really wanted me to go and eventually I was persuaded to go. I gained everyone's respect and basically became famous after that. When Maryann (the other person we came with) mentioned me people were like "yeah I know her! She's awesome..she's small but she has lots of spirit!" Someone else told me I was her hero and her favorite memory of BOW (Become An Outdoor Woman) was me going down that hill. Wowww haha. At the bottom of the hill it was really dark and the stars were incredible. There were millions and millions everywhere..the sky was white with them. I don't know if I've ever seen stars like that before (if I have it's been a LONG time). Going up that steep hill dragging the tube behind me was SO much fun..eesh. Then we went back to the cabin and crashed

( continue )

I shall post pics tomorrow..beware I took too many though haha. I also signed up for a picture CD from the camp and I might post some from there too (they said it should come Friday)

Would you rather be caught in a storm while it's raining rocks the size of baseballs or while it's raining darts? Hm..rocks if I have a shield haha

Today's trivia: In the ice in Antarctica, scientists have found remnants of lunar rocks blasted off the moon by meteoric impacts