06/07/2026
June Newsletter!!!
Summer is here!
It’s crazy to realize that we are already into June, the sixth month of the year. It seems like 2026 is flying by! We are fast approaching the summer solstice and loving the long days and sunlight that we are experiencing. The crew is all settled into life on the glacier now and loving the lifestyle and the tours we get the opportunity to provide here.
Glacier Dawgs
The dogs have all moved up to the glacier! Well, not all of the dogs.. a couple of the older dogs are holding down the fort back in Fairbanks. But about 20 of them are living up on Cataract Glacier near Palmer, AK now. The dogs have adjust well from the cold winter we had this past year in Fairbanks, through breakup and spring time at the kennel, and then back to snow up on the ice field. The dogs are super happy to have the opportunity to get out and run and play in the snow with the rest of their pack. It’s a great place for us to learn more about the dogs and train them in new positions in the team. They all have been doing fantastic!
Dogs from Nautique Sky Kennel on the glacier: Rodman, Oasis, Viper, MJ, Cocoa Puff, Ivory J, Kukoc, Hollywood, Charlie, Goose, Lefty, Pippen, Harper, Mario, Patron, Pancho, Maple, Yoshi, Toonie, Soda, and Cougar. Additionally, Bris and her six Meat & Potato puppies are here - Pork Chop, T-Bone, Ribeye, JoJo, Hashbrown, and Tater Tot. The pups are about four weeks old at the moment and starting to get adventurous and curious about the big world they’re living in! Bris has been a fantastic mother to the pups too!
We also have around 40 other dogs that are not from Nautique Sky Kennel here on the glacier. Jimmy Lebling and Steve Humes are both friends of our’s and run kennels in Fairbanks. They each brought 15 of their own dogs up to the glacier and are working with us this year. A couple of our other employees also brought their personal huskies up too, bringing our grand total to 66 huskies on the glacier!
Life on “the Moon”
The human crew has collectively taken to calling the glacier “the moon”. It really feels like it at times up here - very white all around at times (especially when the clouds descend or it’s snowing) and very remote with access in and out only via helicopter. But it’s a great spot that we have here! We have three geodesic domes for our living accommodations - one 20’ diameter for the kitchen/dining/common area and two 14’ diameter for sleeping quarters. We have propane heaters in all of them, Starlink internet, solar panels and a generator for charging our battery bank, and a nice kitchen with good food to feed ourselves. We’re living the good life! But not for the first few weeks we were here..
From the day we got here until the end of May, we received about 12 feet of snow. It seemed like everyday we would wake up and shovel snow, clearing out around the domes so we could get in and out of the door and shoveling the dog houses up above the snow. It was wild! We could only just see the tops of the domes from the large snow piles around the outside. But the weather has vastly improved since then! Now we seem to be moving into a prevailing high pressure weather system common in this area for June and we have a lot of blue sky days with lots of sunshine. Some days it’s t-shirt weather when we’re out mushing with the dogs!
A Day in the Life
6:30am - Wake up
6:31am - Someone had better start a pot of coffee
6:35am - Drink first cup of coffee
6:45am - Send a weather update to the helicopter company
6:55am - Drink second cup of coffee
7:00am - Morning dog chores - scoop p**p, feed dogs, apply sunscreen and eye drops, fill water pails, level houses, tighten chains
8:00am - Eat breakfast, drink third cup of coffee
8:30am - 1st tour
10:15am - 2nd tour
12:00pm - Lunch, probably have another cup of coffee
12:30pm - 3rd tour
2:30pm - 4th tour
4:30pm - 5th tour
6:30pm - 6th tour
7:30pm - Evening dog chores - feed dogs, fill water pails, tighten chains
8:00pm - Dinner
9:00pm - Call it a day
Until next time.. Tight Tugs!
