This photo shows another angle of Mt. Andromeda (see previous post) in relation to the Athabasca Glacier and the Columbia Icefields. It was taken from the Icefields Parkway.
I find it distressing that the toe of the glacier is so far from the highway. During my childhood my family vacationed in Banff and Jasper National Parks every summer, and I recall using the old Highway 1A as a major route before the TransCanada was put in. In the early 1960s the toe of the glacier was much closer to the pavement than it is now. And the ice and snow on Mt. Andromeda is reduced as well. The Athabasca Glacier seems insignificant to me now, despite the mass of ice remaining below Mt. Columbia.
In 1896 the toe of the Athabasca Glacier was past the location of the Icefields Information Centre blocking the entire valley. Travellers and the early aboriginals used Wilcox Pass to bypass the glacier and the Sunwapta Gorge.
Photo Credit: Alaskan Dude CC=flickr. Please click to enlarge.
7 comments:
Mt. Andromeda is such a perfect, majestic sounding name for a mountain.
It's a lovely photo, Barbara. Too bad that it is also evidence of global warming.
Hi Barbara! It is indeed a pity that glaciers all over the world are getting smaller. I saw it in New Zealand and also in Norway. The ice is melting everywhere.
Kia ora Barbara,
Beautiful, but also melancholy in that it seems all the worlds glaciers are in danger, some of completely disappearing all together. Here in New Zealand a lot of regular mountain climbing routes have been abandon due to the dangers imposed by retreating glaciers, or unused due to the much longer, and unstable, routes in along the moraine left behind. This of course can also put pressure on other areas still used - which to me removes some of the wilderness experience I would seek, even if I were a climber. Kia kaha Barbara, it is something to imagine what those glaciers must have looked like in all their magnificent grandeur.
Aroha,
Robb
I was also thinking about the endangered glaciers. Beautiful photos as always, Barbara. I miss you at MTM...
Lovely choice of image to go along with your post, which is as always well written...Thomas
It is a great pity that the glacier recede, but they seem to be doing so all over the world. Anyone still doubting the changes in climate?
Post a Comment