Athabasca Glacier by danapommet

Photography • Scenic • posted on Aug 29, 2010

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Description

The Athabasca Glacier is one of the six principal 'toes' of the Columbia Ice Field, located in the Canadian Rockies. The glacier currently recedes at a rate of 2-3 meters per year, has receded more than 1.5 km in the past 125 years and lost over half of its volume. The glacier moves down from the Ice Field at a rate of several centimeters per day. The large dirt pile in front of the glacier is glacial silt – ground up rock that the glacier creates as it moves downhill. Glacier silt is as fine as the flour used in baking a cake. It is the most visited glacier in North America. The leading edge of the glacier is within easy walking distance; however, travel onto the glacier is not recommended unless properly equipped. Hidden crevasses have led to the deaths of unprepared tourists. There are hundreds of cars below the face of the glacier – they will attempt to climb up to the face of the glacier and will get bogged down in the silt, mud and very cold slush. The Ice Field Interpretive Centre, stands across from the glacier and it is where this photo was taken. It is used as a lodge and for ticket sales for sightseeing on the glacier. Standard buses transport tourists to the glacier edge, where they board specially designed snow coaches for transport over the steep grades, snow and ice - part way up the glacier. There are several hanging glaciers that can be seen, on the sides of the mountains, on the left. The water below is Sunwapta Lake that feeds my previous post, Sunwapta Falls. The Athabasca Glacier is approximately 3.75 miles (6 km) long, covers an area of 2.5 mi² (6 km²), and is measured to be between 270 feet (90 meters) and 1000 feet (300 meters) thick. The car you see in the lower left is traveling south, on the Icefield Parkway, from Jasper to Banff. Some info from Wikipedia. Zoom is good. Taken with a film camera (July & August 1988) and recently scanned. Thanks for stopping by, taking a look and for all your previous favs and comments. They are very much appreciated. Dana

Comments (20)

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Faemike55

9:48PM | Sun, 29 August 2010

Fantastic image! wonderful information Thanks for sharing this with us!

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jocko500

10:23PM | Sun, 29 August 2010

wonderful to see these things. i saw a few it had awl me as I look on

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blinkings

1:25AM | Mon, 30 August 2010

Absolutely awesome.

whaleman

1:55AM | Mon, 30 August 2010

Very nice!

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jayfar

2:49AM | Mon, 30 August 2010

Brings back memories Dana. Went up on this in one of the special coaches with huge wheels and had a drink of melt water which was reputedly thousands of years old. Love the shot.

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Mondwin

3:50AM | Mon, 30 August 2010

Superbly shot!!bravissimo!V:DDd.Hugsxx

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mariogiannecchini

4:15AM | Mon, 30 August 2010

Very nice shot, Dana !

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Texas3D

5:03AM | Mon, 30 August 2010

Very nice

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flavia49

6:19AM | Mon, 30 August 2010

splendid!!

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DAVER2112

7:15AM | Mon, 30 August 2010

Excellent shot. :)

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MrsRatbag

8:38AM | Mon, 30 August 2010

Fantastic view!

lucindawind

9:02AM | Mon, 30 August 2010

beautiful ! I saw this also when I was out west in 2008 ... its still regressing but not too much different then this shot ... hopefully it wont go away too fast

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jendellas

1:28PM | Mon, 30 August 2010

That looks cold, loving these pics!!!

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psyoshida

3:50PM | Mon, 30 August 2010

Oh, lucindawind answered my question from your current post. What a wonderful experience that must have been. Beautiful photo, the car really shows the scale wonderfully.

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