Tourism

Glacier Bay’s geology reads kind of like a recipe for giant waves: It’s a recently glaciated area that’s still rebounding from ice cover. It freezes and thaws. There are steep slopes above deep water in an active fault zone.

In fact, the biggest wave ever recorded anywhere was on the park’s outer coast, in Lituya Bay in the 1950s. Geologists say the conditions that can lead to landslides are only getting more pronounced in Alaska.

“So this begs the question, you know, as temperatures continue to warm here, will we start seeing more of them or not?” asked Jeff Coe, who leads the U.S. Geological Survey team that’s working with the park.

Some really big slides in 2012 and 2016 are what piqued his interest.

“There was nothing like them in the historical record. They were two to five times larger than anything else that had happened in the historical record back to 1984,” he said.

Coe’s guess is that they’re related to degrading permafrost and rock. That’s because two big slides look like they’re associated with warm winter temperatures.

Landslides and tsunamis aren’t historically common in Glacier Bay, but because more than half a million visitors tour the park each year — most of them by cruise ship — park superintendent Philip Hooge wants a clearer picture of the risk. That way, he can take steps to keep visitors safe.

“I’d like to sleep better at night and know that I did what was right,” Hooge said.

Over the next several years, the park will refine its understanding of where landslides could happen, and which slides could generate tsunamis.

“You can’t prevent all hazards from happening in your visits to parks, but it just seemed like we needed to get a good handle on exactly what that potential was, especially with climate change and the potential for that increasing,” Hooge said.

So far, the park has taken precise, three-dimensional measurements of the park. Next, scientists will study the likelihood of any large landslides making it into the water, and what kinds of waves that might generate.

Hooge says the risk of a tsunami happening while a cruise ship is nearby isn’t zero, but it is a very small statistical probability. An initial study shows there are a handful of areas in the park where a landslide could hit the water and generate a wave that would affect boats.

“There’s a 90% chance of capsize if you have a wave that is the size of the beam of a ship,” Hooge said.

The beam of a ship is its width. The Majestic Princess, one of a few ships that visited the park this summer, has a 150-foot beam. The estimated wave from a landslide at Tidal Inlet is up to 250 feet high.

“Cruise ships can only go like 30 degrees, at the most, over,” Hooge said. “You know, they’re not built for tilting.”

But there’s a big difference between a wave hitting the bow or the side of a ship. Hooge has thought a lot about how to keep visitors safe while they’re observing this dynamic landscape. One solution is some kind of warning system. He says placing sensors around risk zones could give ships a chance to take the wave from an advantageous angle.

“Legs would break and swimming pools would empty, but they could potentially turn the boat,” he said.

That’s just a theoretical example, he said, and a warning system like that would be complicated and expensive to build. And again, the odds of a cruise ship passing Tidal Inlet at the exact moment of a landslide are really, really small.

For now, Jeff Coe with the USGS plans to monitor the area remotely. He says the landslide at Tidal Inlet has been a source of concern for a while, but so far, its movement looks pretty non-threatening.

This year was the agency’s first year of field study at Glacier Bay. Coe hopes to return next year and continue to study the area over the next six or seven years.

“I think with climate change the way it is, and warm temperatures continuing to warm, I think Alaska will be kind of the landslide research frontier,” he said.

The ultimate result will be a map showing how likely slides are in different areas of the park.

A man climbing Denali in May made a false report of hypothermia in an attempt to get a helicopter rescue after his failed summit attempt on North America’s highest peak, according to federal charges.

Dr. Jason Lance is an Ogden, Utah-based radiologist who now faces charges of interfering with a government employee, violating a lawful order and making a false report.

According to the charges, here’s what happened:

Lance was climbing with another man, named only as “A.R.” in the charges but identified as Adam Rawski by the National Park Service in a May news release, because of what happened next.

Lance and Rawski were ascending Denali’s popular West Buttress route. They weren’t registered as climbing partners, and the charges say they had just teamed up that day at a camp at 14,200 feet.

Higher up, somewhere between 18,600 and 19,200 feet, Rawski started to show signs of altitude sickness. At some point, Lance took Rawski’s Garmin InReach satellite communication device.

Lance left Rawski with another two-person team of climbers and continued up the mountain. The other team decided to abandon their own summit attempt to help Rawski back down.

Later, Lance also turned around and met up with Rawski and the other two climbers. As the four were descending together, with Lance and Rawski unroped, Rawski fell about 1,000 feet down a slope called the Autobahn and lay motionless at the bottom.

Lance hit the S.O.S. button on Rawski’s device. A Park Service helicopter picked up a mountaineering ranger already on the mountain, and they rescued Rawski, who was unresponsive and later listed in critical condition.

Lance still had Rawski’s device, and in subsequent messages with Park Service personnel, he said he didn’t have the right gear to descend on his own. The Park Service continued to tell Lance he needed to get down the mountain and refused to send a helicopter.

The other two-person team, apparently in the same location as Lance, sent a message saying there had been an accident but that they were OK.

According to the charges, Lance sent another message requesting a helicopter evacuation, apparently for the other climbers: “Cant decend safely. Patients in shock. Early hypothermia..”

Later, the other two climbers said they were never hypothermic or in any form of medical shock, and that they had tried for hours to convince Lance to descend.

Lance insisted they stay put and said the Park Service was obligated to rescue them because, “We’ve paid our fee,” according to the charges.

Because of his message about hypothermia, the Park Service did launch a helicopter. But before the helicopter reached them, Lance and the other two climbers had finally started to head down.

Once they were all safe farther down the mountain, a mountaineering ranger with law enforcement credentials tried to talk to Lance about what had happened. Lance said he was a medical professional and could recognize hypothermia, even if the climbers he said were suffering from it disagreed.

Then, in what sounded like a tense exchange, the ranger stood outside Lance’s tent, asking for the Garmin InReach while Lance appeared to be deleting messages from the device. He eventually handed it over, the charges say.

Lance did not immediately respond to a message left at his Ogden, Utah radiology practice. It remains unclear what happened to Rawski.

The incident at the heart of the charges appears to be just one that irked Denali mountaineering rangers during the 2021 climbing season, enough so that they wrote a terse statement about inexperienced, over-eager climbers without the proper gear and the dangers of climbing with unfamiliar, last-minute partners.

The U.S. border has reopened to non-essential travel for Canadians for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. In Haines, a Monday morning welcome party was thrown for the first Canadians to visit since March, 2020.

The Haines community marching band was at the ready to play “O Canada,” welcoming the first car — a black Dodge — pulling into the visitors center in downtown Haines.

It was the only car to arrive before noon. Bruce Funk of Whitehorse had a police escort from Haines Police Chief Heath Scott from the border crossing, about 40 miles north of Haines.

Funk had tears in his eyes as he shook hands with Haines Mayor Douglas Olerud.

“Welcome back to Haines,” Olerud said. “We’ve missed everybody in the Yukon, and being able to have you guys back here means a lot.”

Funk is a familiar face. He’s been visiting Haines for over 45 years.

“It’s been a long time,” he said with a laugh. “Ah, just happy to be back.”

He said he plans to check on property he owns, do some sport fishing and visit with friends in town. His last visit was in February 2020, right before the pandemic hit.

“Nothing better than to spend a few weeks down here,” Funk said.

Haines Tourism Director Steven Auch had gift bags on hand for the first seven Canadian visitors. They included a gift certificate for breakfast at the Bamboo Room, coffee, salmon, and other items from local businesses, which have been off-limits since both countries instituted travel restrictions as a precaution against spreading COVID-19.

“It would’ve been nice to see a line of cars at the border at the opening and they call came, but you know, this is great,” Auch said. “Great to see someone that’s been coming here for awhile come back on the day of the opening, so we’re excited for that.”

Auch said that regardless, Haines is ready to welcome back Canadians after a 19 month break.

“We’ve waited patiently. I’m glad that it happened and glad that we’re, you know, glad to welcome our friends and family from Canada back to Haines,” he said.

Mayor Olerud echoed that excitement, saying it feels like a step toward normalcy.

“There’s been so many baby steps since the pandemic first hit. And then each one you get a little bit closer to normal, a little closer to normal. I think having that, where now we can go there, they can come here. Yes, it’s a little bit harder than it normally is, but we’re one step closer to that normal,” he said. “Having our Canadian neighbors be able to come back to Haines is a big step.”

Canadian visitors are required to show proof of vaccination and have a negative COVID-19 test for re-entry.

The reception wrapped up with coffee and snacks. Bruce Funk even got an invitation for dinner while he’s in town.

The Haines community marching band packed up but was ready for the next fanfare.

Canadians can get a COVID-19 test for re-entry from the Haines SEARHC clinic, which costs $145. It’s by appointment only on weekdays. In Skagway, tests are offered at the Dahl Memorial Clinic for $30 — also, by appointment.

Children under age 18 do not need proof of vaccination if traveling with a vaccinated adult but do need a negative COVID-19 test for re-entry.

The $2 million in relief that Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings offered Juneau earlier this year is now reaching local nonprofits’ accounts.

This summer, Norwegian’s initial offer went to the City and Borough of Juneau government. The company said there were no strings attached, but most Juneau Assembly members didn’t like how that would look. Norwegian wants to build a new, downtown cruise ship dock and needs the city’s cooperation to do it.

So instead, Norwegian sent the money out to a bunch of nonprofits in the community. Company officials did not respond to requests for comment. But the organizations on the receiving end did. They were grateful. And, like the original offer to the city, they say there were no strings attached.

Here’s where the money went.

The Juneau Community Foundation got half of it, $1 million. The foundation broke that up into 14 grants to local social service organizations. Among other things, it’s going to help restock the Southeast Alaska Food Bank and fix up housing for people in crisis or experiencing homelessness.

The foundation’s biggest grant is for half a million dollars to the campaign to build the Teal Street Center, which will be a hub for several social service agencies located next to the new Glory Hall building.

Executive Director Amy Skilbred said the foundation prioritized organizations that serve basic needs: food, shelter and mental and physical health.

“They’re the ones that get the stuff done in our community,” she said.

Specifically:

• $500,000 for construction of the Teal Street Center. A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for Nov. 2.
• $150,000 to The Glory Hall emergency shelter and soup kitchen for operations.
• $60,000 to the Tlingit & Haida Regional Housing Authority for repairs to the youth shelter Shéiyi X̱aat Hít, or Spruce Root House.
• $60,000 to AWARE for building new apartments.
• $50,000 to St. Vincent de Paul to repair its housing.
• $45,000 to JAMHI Health & Wellness for workforce development and retention.
• $30,000 to Capital City Fire & Rescue’s community health program for a vehicle.
• $25,000 to Bartlett Regional Hospital’s Community Navigator program for a vehicle.
• $25,000 to the Southeast Alaska Food Bank for food.
• $12,000 to Bartlett Regional Hospital Foundation for program kits that help school-aged children learn to be safe while home alone or to babysit younger children.
• $10,000 to the Central Council Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska for its reentry program.
• $10,000 to Juneau Carbon Offset program for home heating improvements.
• $10,000 to SAIL for its home improvement program.
• $8,000 to Juneau Housing First for maintenance and repairs.

Finally, the foundation is keeping $5,000 for administrative overhead.

Two of the foundation’s intended recipients are city government entities: Bartlett Regional Hospital and Capital City Fire/Rescue. In both cases, the money is intended to buy vehicles for programs each one runs that try to reach vulnerable community members physically where they are before unaddressed needs become emergencies.

The hospital’s grant manager said hospital administrators can usually sign off on grants like this without action from its board or the Juneau Assembly. The city’s finance director said the Assembly will likely need to take action to accept the fire department’s grant. So it’s possible the optics issue may come back up.

After those Juneau Community Foundation grants, there’s another million dollars of Norwegian’s donations to account for. The Greater Juneau Chamber of Commerce and Juneau Economic Development Council got $800,000 for local business relief. Board members of the two organizations are working on the particulars of how that will be spent.

The last three donations go toward improving places cruise ship visitors are likely to visit.

Sealaska Heritage Institute got $100,000 for its downtown arts campus project. Chief Operating Officer Lee Kadinger said the main facility will be mostly finished by the beginning of December.

“They’ve just been a great partner in the community and have been wonderful in ensuring their clients come visit Sealaska Heritage,” Kadinger said. “So it’s been a great mutual relationship working with them.”

Other elements, like a covered, outdoor performance area, were delayed because of fundraising concerns amid the pandemic.

Norwegian’s donation “helps complete the bigger vision that we initially had,” Kadinger said.

The Catholic cathedral on Fifth Street downtown is getting $50,000. Father Patrick Casey said it’s going into a campaign to renovate the building to make it wheelchair accessible. Casey also explained that some cruise ship passengers seek out Mass services while they’re in town. The church gives free rides from the docks to its services.

Finally, $50,000 is also going to the New JACC partnership, which wants to replace the Juneau Arts and Culture Center. The current facility was originally a National Guard armory.

Juneau was one of six Alaska port communities that Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings’ ships visit that it donated money to earlier this year. The company committed $10 million total. The other communities were Hoonah, Ketchikan, Sitka, Skagway and Seward.

The tourism industry in Hawaii, severely impacted by pandemic travel restrictions, has been on a bit of a rollercoaster ride — though with more downs than ups for the island state’s most important economic driver.

The lifting of restrictions set for Nov. 1 means more tourist dollars could soon be flowing into Hawaii’s economy again, just in time for the holiday season, but there’s still a lot of uncertainty and a lot of damage that’s already been done.

Hawaii Public Radio’s Casey Harlow has been covering the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on the state and says many out-of-work or under-employed tourism industry workers are hopeful things turn around soon.

Listen here:

The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Casey Grove: So take us back. What have the ups and downs, the back and forth of travel restrictions been like for tourism in Hawaii during the pandemic?

Casey Harlow: Well, it’s been a roller coaster, as you said. 2019, we had a record-breaking year as far as tourism: $17.75 billion was created. And so when 2020 happened, all that came to a complete stop. Here’s a couple numbers. In July 2020, compared to July in 2019, it was a 98% drop in visitor arrivals. And to put it into a little bit more context, a little bit more broader, you know, 995,000 visitors in 2019, compared to 22,000 visitors in 2020. So, it’s been very bad for our tourism industry. And now that we’re in 2021, when restrictions were eased for a bit around sprig break time — around March or April — we were seeing another boom. It was great to see visitors come back to the islands. But, unfortunately, August started turning around because the delta surge was happening here in the islands. Governor David Ige announced that if you don’t need to come to Hawaii, please don’t because our hospitals were being overwhelmed at that point. And it came to a complete stop again.

Casey Grove: What are people in the industry telling you about how the pandemic downturn has affected them?

Casey Harlow: For hotel workers, either one of two options: They’ve been furloughed again or they’re getting their hours severely cut down. Maybe, you know, 20 hours, when they would normally have 40 hours and a full-time job and benefits. It’s really sad because with federal assistance that we would normally have had with the pandemic, that’s are gone now. So these people are struggling to make ends meet.

Casey Grove: So I guess it’s safe to say that people are very interested in more tourists coming back to Hawaii. Where are we at now, though? Is there any reason to be optimistic?

Casey Harlow: Yes, there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic around this time of year, especially with non-essential travel reopening. That is happening effective Monday, Nov. 1. It couldn’t have come at a better time because we’re entering what traditionally is a really busy season for tourism here. But a report from some economists here at the University of Hawaiʻi did note about a month back that tourism may be slower rebounding. But who knows, there’s a lot of optimism, a lot of anticipation that when non-essential travel opens up again, that people will still come to the state and still spend dollars and that will result in hotels hiring back their workers and giving the workers that are still working more hours. And we’ll just have to see what happens from here.

Casey Grove: So, Casey, you’re from Hawaii. I’m from Alaska. And it really seems like our states share this certain kind of kinship, especially in terms of, you know, people from here — a cold place — wanting to visit a warm place, and maybe vice versa. Why do you think that is? Why do we have that connection?

Casey Harlow: Maybe it’s because we’re the 49th and 50th states and there’s some sort of kinship or not connected to the continental US within those borders. But residents love Alaska, because I guess it’s the total opposite of Hawaii. Residents love the cold and there’s, you know, we share obviously some animal species and we have a lot of nature lovers here in the state. Also fishing is like a huge deal here as well. Residents love to fish and we love salmon. So a lot of people go up to participate in salmon fishing in Alaska as well. But yeah, I think it would be more of maybe the warm weather attracts Alaskan residents and the cold weather attracts Hawaii residents.

Casey Grove: An exchange program of sorts.

Casey Harlow: Yeah, exactly.

Casey Grove: And then when you have people who share the same name, of course, is always a bonus.

On Wednesday, the 4,000-passenger Norwegian Encore became the last big cruise ship to dock in Juneau for the year.

Until mid-summer, it was unclear if there were going to be any big ships visiting Southeast Alaska. The Canadian border was still closed in July and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still had restrictions on cruise ships and their passengers.

But cruising resumed in late July, and downtown Juneau sprang back to life after a virtually nonexistent 2020 season.

Most cruise ship passengers were required to be vaccinated for COVID-19 prior to the start of their trips.

More than 70 large ships and 20 small ships docked in Juneau during the shortened season, bringing over 123,000 people to town. That’s less than 10% of the number of passengers that came during 2019, the last season before the COVID-19 pandemic.