I'm a bit confused - why wouldn't it have been under a ton of ice? I thought most of the northern hemisphere was under ice at the time - but from the description it sounds almost temperate.
The time frame where the Bering land bridge is being looked at for the OP article is a wider 36 to 11 thousand years ago.
See (for further links at least): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beringia