By Alex Lee
How the ptarmigan came to live on this particular nunatak, I couldn’t quite fathom. Forty miles of ice to the south would have made for an arduous flight. To the east, four thousand feet of glacier pouring into Prince William Sound was surely no more reasonable. She could have come from west, but the easiest path no doubt was our own, from the south along the well-maintained Harding Icefield Trail, then out into the expanse. Somehow, we each found this tiny enclave of tundra surrounded by millions of tons of ancient snow—a surprise to us both.
