Growing up in New Hampshire, Sarah Aciego, 38, wanted to escape the cold, so she began her career as a scientist studying volcanoes. But when a research project sent her to Antarctica, she "fell in love with a whole different cold, a whole different kind of ice" and switched tracks completely.
"I don't want to sound New Age-y, but it was a spiritual experience," said Aciego, who teaches glaciology at the University of Michigan. "We spend so much time talking about human significance, but when you are on a glacier and there's a mile of ice below you and a mile of ice above you, you have no impact. It was so big and stark, but also so beautiful."
Combining her interest in chemistry, volcanoes and ice, Aciego has led expeditions to Alaska, Antarctica, Greenland, Iceland, Wyoming and the Canadian Rockies. She also started Big Chill Adventures, which introduces small groups to glaciers, icebergs, dog sledding and Arctic wildlife in weeklong photo-hiking tours. Below are edited excerpts from a conversation with Aciego.
Q: What made you expand into tourism?
A: People view these places as inaccessible and difficult. They think they won't be able to handle the cold. It doesn't have to be that way. The very first time you see a wave of ice across the horizon and the different shades of blue, it takes your breath away. I love for people to have that. I'm trying to break down the barriers that keep people from getting there.
Q: How physically fit do you need to be to take a trip?
A: The tours are small. We take two four-wheel-drive trucks. So we can have different levels of activity. Some people are afraid of heights or not comfortable with walking off a real trail. We always have a place to sit and have a hot drink, so if you're not interested in or capable of doing the activity you can still enjoy the surroundings. And, there's always more hiking to be done if people are really physically fit.
Q: What's the best time of year to explore Greenland and Iceland?
A: I would not go in December or January because it's too dark, but there are real advantages to all of the other seasons. In the spring you have the ice so you can go dog sledding and ice fishing. That only happens in the spring because in the summer the sea ice melts. In the summer it's relatively warm -- 60s and 70s -- and you can get to a lot of places pretty easily. In the fall, Iceland has birch trees and Greenland has Arctic tundra. Everything turns gold and orange and then you put that next to a glacier or iceberg. In the spring and fall you have the Northern Lights. It depends on what you want to see and do.
Q: What are some of your favorite places to take people to in Greenland? In Iceland?
A: One of my favorite places in Iceland is called Troll Rock. It's a huge monolith in the ocean. At first, it doesn't look like a troll at all. Then you walk around and if you get to the right angle you realize it really does. I really like the Gullfoss waterfall. When you walk out to the waterfall you can hear it, but you can't see it. Then you see it, and there's so much water and power and color because it's from a glacier.
In Greenland, I love the cabin glacier in Ilulissat. They have these tsunami-like waves and the noise is incredible.
Q: When you're not traveling for work, where do you vacation?
A: One of my favorite places is Thailand because of the food, but I can't take the heat as much anymore. It gets above 85 degrees and my whole body starts to shut down.