Special designed snowcoaches afford access to the Athabasca Glacier for tourists wishing to walk on the icefield
The Athabasca Glacier is one of the six principal fingers of the Columbia Icefield, in the Canadian Rockies. Due to climate warming, the glacier has receded more than km in the past 125 years and lost over half of its volume. It currently recedes at a rate of 2-3 metres per year. The glacier moves down from the icefield at a rate of several centimetres per day. Due to its close proximity to the Icefields Parkway, between the Alberta towns of Banff and Jasper, and easy accessibility, it is the most visited glacier in North America. The leading edge of the glacier is within easy walking distance; The Icefield Interpretive Centre, is used for ticket sales for access onto 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. The glacier is approximately 6 km long, covers an area of 6 km² , and measures between 90 metres and 300 metres thick
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Photo credit: © NORMA JOSEPH / Alamy / Afripics
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