Water. In the space called Frederick Sound, the water waits silently. There’s a grey – or even silver – hue to the air and the frosted breath of everyone on board seems to add to the tension.

It’s a narrow wooden bridge, so when a girl runs past, the reverberations affect us all. She’s a teenager, or maybe older, in classic blue jeans and US sneakers, with flowing blonde hair. A few minutes later I see her again, wrapped in a traditional Tlingit cloak and chanting with her ancestors.

We’ve crossed the bridge to the space outside Chief Shakes’ House, some 1000 miles north of Seattle.

Finally, I stop. My heartbeat reels like a dizzy child who’s been spinning around on the spot, my lungs test their boundaries and my soul smiles with joy. This must be what they mean by a natural high.

So simple, so fresh, so utterly amazing. Ice and fire fascinate me at a level that doesn’t really make sense. Watching crystals of H2O and the release of energy as wood burns should be as mundane as watching drops of rain fall from the sky. Yet sit me in front of an open fire or let snowflakes land [...]

Despite studying science, there are a few things that always seem…

Bright white and blue – that’s the typical image of a glacier, isn’t it? Milky glacial water, iridescent ice and a sky full of sunshine or perhaps the swirl of falling snow.

The Baird Glacier in southeast Alaska has a rather different chemistry…

I’ll admit it, the very term “Flightseeing” made me flinch a little. It’s right there with staycation, functionality and deplane as the opposite of words that make me smile.

Yet, one glance at the floatplanes walking on water changed my mind…