Day 13 Lake Louise, The Icefields and Jasper

After thunderstorms overnight, we awoke to an overcast, drizzly day with a temperature of 5°C. This was the first really wet day so far. After packing the car, we once again headed up the Icefield Parkway, destination - the Columbia Icefields. It was not a good day for photos due to very low lying cloud. However, we could see that overnight there had also been some snow and what was bare rock mountain peaks yesterday, now were scattered with snow. (See photos).

We arrived at the Icefield Centre and went to check on what extra clothing we may need for of our walk on Athabasca Glacier. We both had on long sleeved shirts and our fleece jackets with the wind/waterproof jacket over that. We were then kitted out with waterproof over pants and given an extra warm jackets. Initially thinking the extra jacket might be overkill, we were glad to had them.

They also supplied us with gloves and crampons for our boots. We headed up over the kilometre dirt and gravel walk to the edge of the glacier. This is where we stopped to fit the crampons.

Once on the glacier, Phil (our guide) told us a little of the history of the glacier. 150 years ago it had filled the valley up to where the Icefield Centre is currently situated (about 2km from where we were standing at the time). Phil also asked us to walk behind him single file as he would choose the safest and easiest pathway up the glacier. He also advised this was not a place to tread lightly. The heavy the footfall the better the grip by the crampons on the ice. (Vince was disappointed as this meant no chance to perfect his ballet steps!!!).

Phil stopped every so often to provide information on the glacier and its features. Melting ice creates little streams of water that cut into the ice. In certain weaker spots this water eats away at the ice creating deep holes (Glacier mills). At two of these holes Phil created a foothold in the ice and one by one people would go forward holding Phil's hand for balance and look down into the depths of the hole. After the experience of earlier in the week Margaret was the only one in the group to decline this offer. Check the photo descriptions for depths and time taken to create these holes.

We were also shown a metal pole protruding on an angle from the glacier. This was part of a research program a couple of decades ago to measure the depth of the ice. Each year when they open the icefield at the start of June they put tape at the point the rod emerges from the ice. The top part of the rod snapped off 5 weeks ago so our photos show how much of the glacier has melted in that 5 weeks. Double this height for what has melted so far this year. It was also interesting to note that the hole was drilled approx. 700 m further up the glacier which shows movement of the glacier.

The glacier is rather dirty in areas due to windblown dirt from the surrounding valley and also deposits of dirt and cosmic dust (scientific research has proven this point) during the formation of the glacier. One and a half kilometres up onto the glacier, it was time for photos, then we turned around to head back.

Phil, leading the way, came to a narrow 30cm ice bridge. It was only about a 5-foot drop either side but ice cold water was flowing either side. Phil kindly took Margaret to the wider path adjacent to the bridge. This meant the group was not held up by her slow, scared speed.

Once off the glacier we headed on to Jasper for the next couple of days. It is a pretty town with tourism being its main feature. As we were staying in a hotel we needed to look for a place to have dinner. We settled on the Dead Dog Tavern. Here we had Rocky Mountain Shepherd's Pie (made with Beef, Bison and Elk mince) which was very tasty and came with "real" side salad (lettuce, carrot, tomato, cucumber, onion).

After the meal we had a further walk around the town and then we returned to the hotel for an "early" night as we were to have another big day tomorrow.