Canadian Rockies, and the most accessible.
The Columbia's Ice Field provides a window on the Earth's icy past.What is an Ice-Field?
An Ice-Field is a body of ice from which glaciers flow in more than one direction. Meltwaters from the Columbia Ice-field feed three of Canada's principal river systems, and three oceans: the Pacific Ocean via the Columbia River; the Artic Ocean via the Athabasca River, Slave River, and the Mackenzie River; and the Atlantic Ocean via the North Saskatchewan River, and Hudson Bay. The summit Snow Dome on the Columbia Ice-field is the apex of this tri-oceanic watershed - the only one in North America.
The Athabasca Glacier (photos here) is the best know glacier that flows from the Columbia Ice-field. From the ice-field rim (on skyline) to its terminus or ending point, the Athabasca Glacier descends 2689 feet in 3.84 miles. The surface of the glacier is moving faster and is under less pressure then the ice beneath. So the surface ice accelerates over the cliff and becomes heavily fissured. These cracks are called crevasses. There are more than 30,000 crevasses on the Athabasca Glacier.
The Athabasca Glacier occupies a U-shaped valley, scoured when the glacier was larger. Because of the U-shape, the glacier is deeper along its mid line than at
its sides. The deepest point is 1049 feet.
In 1890 the glacier reached over the point where the road and the information center is located today.
Have to admit that walking right up to the edge of a glacier was pretty impressive! It is also startling to realize how much the glacier is receding.
From the photos it is difficult to see just how huge the glacier actually is, if you look closely y
ou can see that those are cars parked by the trail leading to the toe of the glacier.From here we continued north along the ice-field.
See below,
Candy and Johnny
