Athabasca Glacier

Every year over half a million people travel to the Columbia Icefield to stand on ice that is as thick as the Eiffel Tower is tall. And every year the glacier moves forward 15m but melts 25m. In the not so distant future, soon there will be no glaciers at all.

For the next couple of weeks I will be researching melting glaciers and their affects on tourism, as per the assignment for my Environmental Issues in Tourism class.

For those that do not think climate change is here, take a look at the Athabasca Glacier at the Columbia Icefield. It wasn't too long ago, the late 1800s to be exact, that the toe of the glacier was across the road where the parking lot for the Icefield Centre is now.

There are piles of dirt in the parking lot to mark where the glacier was. These piles of dirt are known as annual or push moraines. As the glacier moves forward, it picks up debris and brings it along. Then as the glacier recedes, the debris is left in its wake leaving moraines in the Forefield. Also in the Forefield are markers pointing out where the toe of the glacier was over the past +100 years.

This is one of the most recent markers. The snow in the background is the current (technically 2011) location of the toe of the glacier and the white specs in front of the snow are pylons indicating the safety boundary. This photo just goes to show how quickly the glacier is disappearing.

Another indicator of the shrinking glacier, are the lateral moraines. These show how high/thick the glacier once was. The Shuttle Road is built upon the lateral moraine, and shifts as the glacier/moraine moves. In order to get onto the glacier itself, the Ice Explorers have to drive down the lateral moraine which is a 32% grade hill.

Now some of you might ask, it's a glacier. So what? How does this relate to tourism? Well, this area is a UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific & Cultural Organization) World Heritage Site and people come from all over the world to visit this attraction. When I worked here in 2011, the majority of tour groups were Australian, Chinese, and Korean. However, there were the smaller groups of Japanese tourists, Germans, and of course English. For the most part, the tours run every 15-30 minutes with a maximum of 56 passengers per tour. Depending on the time of day, there can be 4 sometimes 5 tours going out onto the glacier. But usually it's only 2 or 3.

Also, no where else in the world are you going to see these Ice Explorers. There are only 23 of them in existence. Period. 23 Ice Explorers. 22 of them are owned by Brewster (the parent company of the Columbia Icefield), most of which are in use, and the 23rd is currently in the Antarctic doing explorations with the US Army or something like that.

The Columbia Icefield is one of the "Must See Destinations" in the Canadian Rockies. Even though technically the tour is on the Athabasca Glacier. But it is apart of the Columbia Icefield and connects via the "headwall".

So if you ever find yourself on the Alberta side of the Canadian Rockies, check out the Columbia Icefield...before it melts away. More information about the Columbia Icefield, can be found at http://www.explorerockies.com/columbia-icefield/