Robert Reid climbs alongside the Haines Highway on Friday, Feb. 20, 2026, near Haines, Alaska. (Rashah McChesney/Chilkat Valley News)

The sunlight is fading over the Haines Highway and it’s bitterly cold, but Robert Reid is moving methodically up a chunk of ice near the airport. 

Ten feet above the Haines Highway, he chips away at the face of a slab until he can find a steady hold, then tests his weight on it over and…

Rashah McChesney is a multimedia journalist and editor who has reported and edited newsrooms from the Deep South to the Midwest to Alaska. For the past decade, she has worked in collaborative news as the...