My 2nd New Hat!! (& the Athabasca Glacier)

The Columbia Icefields are cold. I mean, there is a glacier that once covered the area where the highway now is. That glacier has now receded back a bit, but it’s close enough and high enough to make it a winter’s day in the middle of August. We weren’t really prepared for this two years ago on our last visit. Even with layering all the  lightweight jackets I had in the car, I was still freezing.

This year we brought our winter jackets and gloves, and layered our new rain pants over our jeans; I wore two pairs of hiking socks, and we were toasty warm. The only thing we forgot were hats. Rich wore his hoody. I bought a real Canadian tuque (made in China).  Two hats in one week. Wonder what kind of a hat I’m going to buy in Banff next week…

You can’t really tell from this picture, above (I’m next to a vintage glacier buggy), but most of the folks at the visitors centre were not prepared. We saw t-shirts and shorts and flip-flops and people running in the icy wind to get inside. I remember one girl sizing me up when I walked in in my layered splendour, her glance pausing at my gortex pants. At first I was thinking she had some derogatory thoughts about me (my natural assumption, of course), but then I realized that she just sensed that she was in trouble, in her jeans and thin sweatshirt.

I wanted to ride the little glacier buggies last time, but we decided to save the money. This year, we splurged and took the 90-minute or so trip onto the surface of the Athabasca Glacier. We did not take a vehicle like the one pictured above, but a monster bus, an Ice Explorer, made by the people who make the monster machinery for the oil sands.

Our guide told us lots of stuff about glaciers, but I really didn’t take notes (I was taking pictures!).

  From the Visitors Centre. The Athabasca Glacier covers 6 square kilometres (6 km long and 1 km wide). When I was a kid, we came here, and I’m pretty sure the glacier reached where the cars are, in the parking area, under its moraine. When we drive by again on our way to Banff on Thursday, we’ll go over there and look at the annual moraine markers (it was too stormy for that yesterday!)

The surface of the glacier. It literally looks like a frozen ocean in some places.

 

As far as we could safely walk on the glacier surface (the blue cone marks the safety zone). You can tell it’s pretty wet by the spots on the lens.

These folks can now say they’ve walked on a glacier. Most were there long enough to take a few steps and then get back on the glacier buggy – I mean – Ice Explorer.

The surface of the glacier is naturally sanded. I forgot what this is called.

It was pretty windy!

A movie, of course. We can’t get away from Hollywood North!

Rich isn’t getting ready to throw a snowball – that’s our camera! He was pretty wet, and decided to wait for me by the buggy – I mean – Ice Explorer.

The tires of the Ice Explorer are five feet tall!

Frozen waterfall that had some significance to the guide’s talk. I thought it was pretty.

I was having a blast! It was pretty wet, but it was fun skating around the surface. I wish we could have walked around further. We had plenty of time, but no where to go except around where the busses were. I was almost the last one back to the buggy – I mean – Ice Explorer.

Back in the buggy – I mean – Ice Explorer, on the return trip.

Another vintage glacier buggy. I’m thinking this is the kind I rode in as a kid. I remember the sno-cat treads.

Next up, today’s adventures – the Valley of Five Lakes, the Old Fort Lookout, and circumnavigating Lac Beauvert (translation: Pretty Green Lake).

Glad we have our rain gear! We needed it again today! (Above Lac Beauvert on the Old Fort summit)

Tomorrow (Wednesday) is our last full day in Jasper. Sniff-sniff. I have loved it here, and I will most likely cry as we head out Thursday morning to Banff. We are staying right in the heart of the Banff Townsite ($109/night for a room w/ a kitchen!). Not my first choice (I’m not much into the opulent, bourgeois townie mentality (see my Whistler blog)), but the most affordable one.