Guide · The Mendenhall from above

Mendenhall Glacier helicopter tour: who lands there, and for how long

A Mendenhall Glacier helicopter tour can mean a landing on the Mendenhall itself or a flight past it to a neighbouring glacier. Here is who goes where, how long you get on the ice and what the walk involves.

Check availabilityfrom $429 · no cancellation fee

Editorial team, juneau-helicopter-tours.comUpdated October 17, 2026read in 8 minutes23 sources

The tour this guide is about Juneau helicopter glacier landing tour 4.9 (49 reviews) 2.5 hoursAbout 25 minutes on Herbert GlacierPickup from your ship or hotel from$429per person Check availabilityFree cancellation until 3 days before start

The short version

01Who lands there: TEMSCO and NorthStar put walking groups down on the Mendenhall itself.¹ ²
02Time on the ice: About 20 to 25 minutes with TEMSCO, about 1 hour on NorthStar's walkabout.¹ ³
03The tour sold here: It lands on Herbert Glacier instead, 2.5 hours in all with pickup, from $429.
04Booking: The Mendenhall landings are booked with the operators; the Herbert landing has free cancellation up to 3 days ahead.
05From the ground: The visitor center trail ends at a lookout platform facing the ice.⁴

What people mean by a Mendenhall Glacier helicopter tour

The Mendenhall is the glacier everybody in Juneau has heard of, so its name gets attached to almost every flight that leaves town. In practice a Mendenhall Glacier helicopter tour comes in two kinds. Some operators land their guests on the Mendenhall's own surface and walk them around a camp on the ice. Others fly up the same valley, show you the Mendenhall from the air and then set down on another glacier of the same icefield, where the landing zone is quieter.

Both are real glacier landings on the Juneau Icefield, and from the cabin the two can look much the same: a wide river of white and blue ice pouring off the plateau, cracked into ridges as it bends. The difference matters if you want to say you stood on the Mendenhall itself, and it matters for booking, since the two kinds are sold through different channels. Read the landing site in the description before you pay, not just the title.

Three questions sort the options out: which glacier the helicopter actually lands on, how long you stay on the ice once it does, and how you book and cancel. The operators that land on the Mendenhall answer them on their own websites; the tour sold on this site answers them in its listing. The live price on the booking page is always the one that counts, and a starting price can rise with the date, the seat or your weight.

A landing, step by step

How a glacier walking flight runs

Pickup

A van to the heliport

Pickups run from the docks and hotels; the tour on this site starts about 15 minutes from the airport base.
Briefing

Boots, belts and exits

Before take-off the pilot must make sure everyone knows the belts, the smoking ban and the exits.⁵
The flight

Up the valley

About 30 minutes of helicopter time on TEMSCO's Mendenhall tour, split between the way up and back.¹
On the ice

Walk with a guide

20 to 25 minutes on TEMSCO's tour, about 1 hour on NorthStar's walkabout.¹ ³
Return

Back to town

The van takes you back to the pickup point once the helicopter lands at the base.

The glacier you fly over

The Mendenhall is a river of ice 12 miles long, running from the Juneau Icefield down to Mendenhall Lake.⁶ At its widest it measures more than half a mile across, and the ice is between 300 and 1,800 feet thick.⁷ It is one of 38 large valley glaciers that flow from the icefield, along with more than 100 smaller ones, and the Taku, Eagle and Herbert glaciers lie close by.⁸

From the air you see what the road cannot show you: the long gray stripes of rock carried down the middle, the steep icefall where the glacier drops off the plateau, and the pale blue of crevasses opening as the ice stretches. Travel Juneau describes the helicopter view as one of ice spires, deep blue crevasses and meltwater pools.⁹ On a cloudy afternoon the ice can turn a deep blue.¹⁰

The glacier is also shrinking fast. It has been retreating since the mid-1700s, and before 1765 its face reached 2.5 miles farther down the valley.¹¹ NASA's satellite record shows it pulling back by about a mile between 1986 and 2024, while its surface dropped by as much as 2,000 feet in some spots.¹² From above, the bare rock left behind along the valley walls makes that loss easy to read.

Side by side

Ways onto the Mendenhall and its neighbour

Option	Glacier	Time on the ice	How you get there
TEMSCO walking tour	Mendenhall	20 to 25 min	Helicopter
NorthStar walkabout	Mendenhall base camp	About 1 hr	Helicopter
NorthStar trek	Mendenhall or another	2 hrs	Helicopter
Landing tour on this site	Herbert	About 25 min	Helicopter
Ice adventure tour	Mendenhall	Hike beside the ice	Canoe

Times as the operators and the listing state them; weather can shorten or move a landing.¹ ³ ¹³ ¹⁴

Three ways onto the ice

Fly, or paddle and hike

Sold here

Herbert Glacier landing

By helicopter from the airport

Price: from $429
Length: 2.5 hrs
Rating: 4.90

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On the Mendenhall

Ice adventure tour

Canoe, then a hike to the ice

Price: from $377
Length: 5 hrs
Rating: 4.97

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Most effort

Canoe paddle and hike

Up to 12 in the group

Price: from $377
Length: 5.5 hrs
Rating: 4.86

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Decision helper

Which way onto the ice suits you?

Match the trip to what you want from the glacier

It has to be the Mendenhall Longest time walking on ice Book online with free cancellation No flying at all Just the view

Book TEMSCO or NorthStar

Both land walking groups on the Mendenhall itself.¹ ²

NorthStar's trek

2 hours on the glacier with crampons, helmet and ice axe.¹³ ¹⁵

The Herbert landing

Free cancellation up to 3 days ahead, from $429.

Canoe and hike

The ice adventure tour crosses the lake and hikes to the glacier's edge.

Visitor center trail

Photo Point Trail ends at a platform facing the glacier.⁴

There are many helicopter tours providing spectacular aerial views of ice spires, deep blue crevasses, and meltwater pools.

Travel JuneauSource 9

Landing on the Mendenhall with TEMSCO

TEMSCO Helicopters runs a walking tour on the Mendenhall from its Juneau base. The flight time adds up to about 30 minutes, and you spend 20 to 25 minutes on the glacier with guides.¹ TEMSCO says both times can change with weather and glacier conditions, which is worth remembering when you plan the rest of the day.

The company hands out over-boots for walking on the ice but does not provide clothing.¹⁶ It charges passengers of 113 kg or more an extra $150 to reserve space on board, and the weight includes shoes and clothing.¹⁷ Children aged 24 months or older need a seat of their own under federal rules, so even a toddler is booked as a passenger.¹⁸

If weather stops the flight, TEMSCO refunds in full, and it usually decides within an hour of departure rather than calling the day off early.¹⁹ Expect a wait at the base on a doubtful morning, keep your phone charged and keep the afternoon loose. The same company also flies a dog sledding tour to a camp on the Mendenhall, covered in our dog sledding guide.²⁰

Checklist

Before you fly to the ice

Ask the operator

Which glacier the landing is planned on
How long you will be on the ice
Any weight surcharge, and how weight is measured
What happens to your booking if weather moves the landing

Wear and carry

Warm layers and gloves
Sunglasses for snow glare
Only what fits in your pockets

Cost calculator

Your group on the ice

Type in your party size to see each total side by side.

Herbert landing2.5 hrsfrom $429 Ice adventure5 hrsfrom $377 Canoe and hike5.5 hrsfrom $377 Dog sled flight3 hrsfrom $709

People 2

Total from$858

pp from $429

Check availabilityfree cancellation

GetYourGuide from-prices, converted with the ECB reference rate. The exact figure comes at checkout.

Video

By helicopter to the Mendenhall Glacier for a guided walk

The video starts loading once you tap play.

A longer walk with NorthStar

NorthStar Trekking lands its walkabout groups at a base camp on the Mendenhall Glacier.² The walkabout gives you about 30 minutes of helicopter time and about 1 hour on the glacier.³ The pace is gentle, and the hour leaves room to stop, look into the cracks and take photos without being hurried back to the helicopter. Bring a camera with a strap and gloves that still let you work the buttons.

For a more physical day the same company runs a trek with 2 hours on the ice, where the guide fits you with crampons, a helmet and an ice axe.¹³ ¹⁵ NorthStar runs most of its treks on the Mendenhall but also holds permits for the Taku, Hole-in-the-Wall, Thiel, Gilkey, Norris, Battle and Herbert glaciers, and the location depends on weather and glacier conditions.¹⁴

That is the honest catch with any Mendenhall Glacier helicopter tour and guided walk: conditions on the morning you fly decide where the group lands. If standing on the Mendenhall specifically is the reason you are booking, ask the operator how often it moves groups elsewhere and whether that changes your refund. If any good glacier will do, the choice gets much easier, and the flight on the way gives you the Mendenhall view either way.

The landing sold on this site: Herbert Glacier

The tour sold on this site does not land on the Mendenhall. It takes off at Juneau International Airport and crosses the Tongass National Forest to reach Herbert Glacier, another glacier of the same icefield, and gives you about 25 minutes on the ice for photos and a guided walk with your pilot. The whole outing, with pickup, safety briefing and the drive back, takes 2.5 hours.

It starts from $429, is rated 4.90 from 49 reviews and allows free cancellation up to 3 days ahead, and you book it on GetYourGuide rather than with the operator. Pickup is included from the cruise ship terminal or from hotels near the airport, and booking asks for each guest's name and dressed weight, which the operator needs for weight balance on each departure.

Who should pick it? Anyone who wants a glacier landing at a fixed starting price, booked through one account with the rest of a trip, and who does not mind which glacier it is. Anyone who needs it to be the Mendenhall should book TEMSCO or NorthStar directly. Either way you get the moment that makes these flights worth doing: the rotor winding down, the door opening and your boots on old ice.

How close you can get to Mendenhall Glacier without flying

If the budget or the weather rules out a helicopter, the Mendenhall is still the easiest glacier in Juneau to reach. It lies 13 miles from downtown and a few minutes from the airport.²¹ At the visitor center a short trail, Photo Point Trail, leads to a lookout platform with a clear view of the glacier's face.⁴ The visitor center is open, and so are the trails beside it, Nugget Falls Trail included; on the far, west side of the lake the Forest Service is still assessing conditions.²²

That answers how close you can get to Mendenhall Glacier on foot from the road: you look at the face across the water rather than walking on it. Getting closer without a helicopter takes a guided trip across the lake. The Mendenhall Glacier Ice Adventure Tour combines a canoe crossing of Mendenhall Lake with a guided hike over the rocky moraine beside the glacier, 5 hours in all, from $377.

A second canoe trip pairs paddling with a hike along the edge of the glacier over 5.5 hours, from $377, in a group of up to 12. These trips trade the flight for effort and a longer day, and they reach the lower glacier rather than the high ice the helicopters use. Our sister guide to the Mendenhall on foot covers the visitor center, the trails and how to get there by bus or trolley.

Choosing your flight and getting the most from it

Start with the question of which glacier matters to you. If the name Mendenhall does, book an operator that lands there and accept that weather may still send you elsewhere. If the landing matters more than the name, compare the glacier time you get for the money: a stop of 20 to 25 minutes, an hour's walk and a two-hour trek are very different days, even though the flights look alike.¹ ³ ¹³

Then plan for the cold and the light. NorthStar tells guests to dress for a drop of 10-15°F between the cruise docks and the glacier.²³ The wind off the ice is sharp, and the glare off snow is bright even under cloud. Wear layers you can open and close, gloves and sunglasses, and keep a lens cloth handy for drizzle. Leave bags at home: the tour sold here does not allow bags or backpacks on board.

Finally, keep the morning flexible. Flights wait for the cloud to lift, and the decision is often made close to departure. Book the earliest slot that fits your day, leave a gap afterwards, and have a ground plan ready, such as the visitor center or a walk to Nugget Falls, in case the helicopters stay on the pad.

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