{"id":25578,"date":"2026-07-14T00:48:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T04:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/?p=25578"},"modified":"2026-08-06T01:18:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T05:18:05","slug":"icy-strait-point-and-sitka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/index.php\/2026\/07\/14\/icy-strait-point-and-sitka\/","title":{"rendered":"Icy Strait Point and Sitka"},"content":{"rendered":"
Position:\u00a057\u00b003’09.4″N 135\u00b020’13.8″W<\/a><\/h6>\n

Icy Strait Point survives on cruise ships. The little hamlet sits at the crossroads of salmon migration in and out of Icy Strait. For years its economy was built around a salmon cannery. When that finally closed, like so many small towns, Icy Strait Point reinvented itself by focussing on tourism. Ships stop here to give their passengers a bit of shore leave after a couple of days at sea scouting for glaciers.<\/p>\n

Full credit to the townsfolk for putting on a good show. Things to do include one of the world\u2019s longest zip lines. You can ride a pointless telekabine (6-person ski lift) that takes you from the visitor\u2019s centre a half mile along the seafront to the chairlift for the zip lines. Any time we see a ski lift we feel obliged to board it and see where it goes. Based on how long it took for people to climb into the telekabine (without ski gear), we can safely say that Venn diagram of cruisers and skiers barely overlaps. The classic skier\u2019s no-no of fewer than six people per kabine was roundly ignored. Nervous hesitancy by the uninitiated before boarding extended wait times and was telling enough.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Nevertheless, the cannery has a new lease of life as a mini-mall and tchotchke emporium. Some of the old machinery exists for the edification and distraction of visitors. From my cursory examination, the entire set-up looked more like a finger-removing apparatus and not something you\u2019d want your canned salmon anywhere near. Most of the tricky work, cleaning and preparing the fish was done by Chinese women, who lived in the shanties nearby. Back in the 1920s and 1930s the work was probably as brutal as the can\u2019s graphic artworks were engaging. Long hours fiddling with fish with extremely sharp tools seems to invite worker\u2019s compensation \u2013 if such a thing existed back then. I\u2019m sure things haven\u2019t changed much in the intervening years. Note: these photos are from Alaska Itinerary<\/a>. Check out their site for more information on Icy Strait Point.<\/em><\/p>\n

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