The Icefields Highway

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On Monday we left Banff headed towards Jasper on the Icefields highway. This route is considered one of the most picturesque in the world and there are literally hundreds of places to stop and take photos along the way. We pulled over at half a dozen or so roadside views to admire a glacier or a water falls, a river or a valley, before we reached our main destination - the Columbia Icefields.

We took a tour of the Athabasca glacier on a Brewster Sno Coach, a hybrid bus with enormous tires, that travels out onto the ice. The tour guide was very personable and informative.

The road onto the ice is incredibly steep as it travels down the lateral moraine (the rock pile created by the glacier along it's sides). At the bottom is a small stream. The water melting from the glacier has been re-directed for the buses to drive through - it is used to clean the tires before driving out onto the glacier. A trail of dark dirt on the ice road would cause it to absorb sunlight and melt faster than the surrounding area.

We drove to the base of the first of three "steps", cliffs of ice at the head of the glacier, where we disembarked to walk on the 1000 foot thick ice.

After the bus tour, Mark and I hiked the 1 km trail across the moraine to the foot of the glacier. The moraine gets larger each year as the glacier recedes. To give a perspective, there are markers showing the location of the ice in different years.

The area looks like a moonscape but even in the piles of rocks, small plants sprouted. The trees growing along the sides of glacier have branches only on one side - the cold wind coming off the ice prevents growth on the closest side.

We ended our day in Jasper.

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Comments

[Ru]

Glaciers
You did not! Walk the glaciers? Brrrrrr! Too scary for me - I watch those documentaries! P.S. you're being terribly diplomatic....

[Jesse McGee]

Diplomacy
Diplomacy is essential when posting publicly. Once it's out there you can't get it back!