Once the flood waters had dissipated under the glacier and out through the fjord, Byrd was seen to return to its normal behaviour.

BBC: Under-ice flood speeds up glacier

"While probing through the debris roughly 30 meters below the glacier surface, Chenoweth found a broken rope" matching the Japanese team's rope.

CNN: Avalanche recovery efforts suspended on Mount McKinley

As we purl through the ice-strewn waters around the glacier, I find myself thinking not of the prospectors who arrived here from Seattle, but of the 19th-century railway baron, EH Harriman of the Union Pacific Railroad.

BBC: Journey into the Alaskan wild