At the end of each recent day, I expected that the next would offer the last chance to ski in front of the glacier. For the past week, the weatherman has predicted rain and higher temperatures—rain that would turn the snow to useless mush and weaken lake ice so it could no longer support even Aki’s weight. But we start this trip around Mendenhall Lake in sunshine. My boards slide smoothly down the track while Aki chases after her other human, who flies down the trail on skate skis. The little dog will sleep well tonight.

Left alone, I have plenty of time to take in the glacier. It’s size and beauty has always discouraged my previous attempts to study it. Today, I might have found a way in, inspired by The Great British Baking Show. (Aki is the only one in the house without a crush on Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry.) Falling back on what they know, P and M would tell me to turn the glacier into a dessert. In my mind I build a glacial confection using chocolate wafers and vanilla ice cream to form the surrounding mountains and the rocky hill that underlines the river of ice. Hand carved marzipan, soaked in a teal-turquoise food coloring could represent the ice with sprinkled powdered sugar for snow.