We moved down to icefield centre car park and got on a glacier adventure tour for 1115am. Our luck was in again with a beautiful bright morning. We were loaded onto a bus which took us across to be transferred onto giant trucks which can handle the journey onto the ice. Which is a good thing because it had to deal with a 32% gradient downwards hill to reach the Athabasca glacier:
I thought it would be
helpful to add an image of what the glacier looks like when they haven’t had
the largest snow fall in area for 30 years (below) and to highlight the fact that the Athabasca
glacier is only one of six that flow off the Columbia Icefield. I also realised
that I had seen a photograph of these massive trucks before – I have found
myself following in the steps of my Mum and my Aunt who must’ve done the same
glacier trip approximately ten years ago.
The slow trudge out to the
glacier gave us an opportunity to enjoy the surrounding views for about 15
minutes. When we arrived at the glacier
we had around 45 minutes to experience it.
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| Bet you not everyone who visits the glacier has a photo like THAT?! |
You may notice the beautiful pale blue
shade of the glacial ice (that you can see below the snow). Ice usually looks
white because it is full of air bubbles, so all wavelengths of light reach your
eyes. But in thick glaciers the ice is dense with fewer air bubbles and only blue
– the colour with the shortest wavelength – is refracted by the ice. Interesting fact hey, fact fans?!
What better to do when surrounded by this
amount of snow than build a snowman (right)?
Because of the unpredictable nature
of the glaciers we were kept within a restricted area, though you can trek onto
the glaciers if you have the appropriate equipment and permits.
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| I think the blue shows through best in this image.... |
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| .... or maybe this one?! |
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| The view looking back towards the glacier as we climb our 32% hill back to civilisation... |
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| Jo keeping her cool, just sitting on a glass floor way up a mountain. |
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| A promotional shot that I've borrowed.... |
Once our time on the glacier was
over we were transferred back to a bus to take us to the second part of our
tour - the Sky Walk – a feat of engineering, a crescent of metal with a glass
floor experience over a valley 1km below. We had timed it all well today. The glacier was almost empty when we were
there and we almost had the Sky Walk to ourselves before the masses
arrived. Some of our time there was
discussing job opportunities with the staff!
One option for the future – people sign up for the whole season here,
usually March to October, working for Brewsters tourism company doing
everything from working in the Icefield centre to driving the buses and trucks
out to the glaciers. They assured us
that people of all ages and from many countries come back year after year for
the experience.
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| Si and Stu aren't phased by it.... |
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| Looking back at a crowded Sky Walk having just left.... timed to perfection! |
Back at the Icefield centre, we
grabbed lunch before finally hitting the road about 3pm, continuing south past
more iced over lakes and shouting out when we saw more blue ice – now we were
professional glacier spotters!
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| Yup, looks like another glacier to me! |
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| Bow Lake.... yes, I know, another 'lake', it is under there I promise. |
We
continued into Lake Louise in heavy cloud and showers. We decided we could
postpone walking to the lake until tomorrow but could find NO campsites open
anywhere! Not for the first time this
week, we selected a random car park with no one else in sight and settled in
for dinner and some cards.
What a way to celebrate our ‘6-months
on the road’ anniversary.
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