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At least seven cruise companies have halted their itineraries through a beautiful fjord following a major landslide last summer, which triggered a tsunami and made the region unsafe and potentially hazardous.
On August 10, 2025, a landslide occurred at the bottom of the South Sawyer Glacier within the Tracy Arm Fjord, causing a massive wave over a quarter-mile high to hit the mountain wall across the fjord and spill out of it.
No vessels were present inside, and no injuries or fatalities were mentioned. The sole damage was some equipment that had been blown away, which belonged to kayakers who were staying nearby.
However, the landslide created instability that will make the fjord hazardous for many years, as stated by the US Geological Survey.
Ongoing rockfalls and smaller landslides from the exposed landslide area are anticipated and may affect the water, possibly leading to future local tsunamis. Therefore, this region is still considered dangerous,” stated the federal agency in a public announcement.
Paying attention to the warning, most leading cruise companies have opted for a different location for their glacier-watching excursions this year — Endicott Arm Fjord, home to Dawes Glacier.
The new site is located just beside Tracy Arm, and it is approximately 50 miles south of Alaska’s capital, Juneau.
Even though the fjords are located close to each other, cruise companies typically go to Tracy Arm because, as travel agent Nate Vallier explained, “she’s the majestic princess, you know, the queen of the fjords.”AP.
Endicott Arm remains beautiful in every way, but it’s simply not the same anymore,” Vallier added.
Tracy Arm has a more restricted passage and includes two glaciers, known as North and South Sawyer, unlike Endicott Arm, which has only one glacier.
Several cruise companies have opted to alter their itineraries, such as Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Virgin Voyages, MSC, Oceania, Holland America Line, and Windstar.
However, some lines, such as National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions, have not modified their travel plans.
A company representative statedTravel WeeklyWe are currently keeping an eye on the situation but do not intend to change our current recommendations for now.
Gabriel Wolken, who leads Alaska’s climate and ice hazards program, informed the AP that landslides in Alaskan fjords are typically frequent, yet the slope in Tracy Arm that collapsed last summer had not been recognized as a risk.
He mentioned that researchers are continuing their efforts to identify the cause of the landslide and to assess if there are any additional potential dangers in the fjord.
The schedule modifications were revealed as the glacier-watching tour period draws near.
The initial vessels are anticipated to depart from Seattle shortly and are scheduled to reach Ketchikan, located close to the southern end of Alaska, on April 21. They are expected to arrive in Juneau the subsequent week.
Numerous individuals who reserve glacier-watching excursions are newcomers, which means they might not mind the altered path since “they aren’t really aware they’re receiving a different experience,” stated travel consultant Nancy Winter in an interview with Travel Weekly.
However, Vallier, the travel agent, told AP that he would have preferred the cruise lines to provide customers with earlier notification about the change in the itinerary.
He mentioned that witnessing a calving glacier, which is a type of glacier that makes creaking and cracking sounds, with ice chunks as high as 200 feet breaking off and falling into the water, is what has made Tracy Arm so famous.
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