Aki dashes over an expanse of exposed glacier silt after her Frisbee. If she could fly, she would be over the Mendenhall Glacier in seconds. A more romantic poodle might see the river of ice as a solemn stairway to the divine wrapped in cloud vestments. Sunlight breaks through the marine layer to backlight a hillside congregation of sap green alders that face their cold deity, faith unshaken by an approaching storm.