Rising early at 06:15, after about six hours sleep, we headed back south towards the Athabasca Glacier that we had visited a few days prior. Rather than being driven onto the glacier, today we would be hiking up it!
Today was the first occasion that we hadn't woken up to bright blue sunny skies. It was raining. We probably shouldn't complain given our run of luck with the weather so far, but since we were heading to a day traipsing around on a glacier, we were a little worried.
Still sore and tired from yesterday, we arrived at the rendezvous point and waited for our guide whilst making a nice cup of tea in the car park. Once everyone began arriving, we were equipped with an extra layer of weatherproof clothing (making four layers in total) and a pair of crampons for our walking boots.
Despite the still drizzly weather, the walk to the toe of the glacier was very warm due to the sheer number of layers. Once we got on the glacier however the temperature immediately plummeted due to the cold wind that blowed over the surface. After a few more minutes of sleety rain, the weather finally started to brighten before the main ascent up the glacier.
The glacier is currently in fast recession which meant there was a lot of meltwater following over the surface which had carved out channels in the ice. Some shallow enough to hop across, some deep enough that we couldn't see the bottom. As we saw on the previous tour, though not nearly as dynamically, the water sometimes disappeared under the glacier into large holes called millwalls. These went deep into the glacier and re-emerged further down. Our guide was careful to ensure we didn't go near these perilous holes without us first being held, by her, by the wrist. Not the most effective safety technique!
The path up the glacier changed in appearance as we ascended. The ice below occasionally went transparent, allowing us to see a bluish hue beneath which was a little unnerving since it just looked like a thin layer of ice covering water. Much like the deadly millwalls were we avoiding. Towards the top, the ice began to look like rolling sand dunes, due to the rolling shape and the layer of silt that was deposited by the meltwater.
The walk led upwards to the Columbia Icefield, which is a giant field of ice which spills over the mountain ridges to form the glaciers. Unfortunately our walk didn't lead onto the icefield itself. Instead we walked passed the lower of the glacier head and began our descent.
After reaching the bottom, we had narrowly beaten yesterday's walking time (about 7 hours) but with just 6.3 miles covered due to the slower pace. Although our feet were still sore from our trek yesterday, the crampons (which sat in the middle of our boots) meant that rather than walking on our sore toes and heels, we spent much of today walking on the middle of our feet!
Heading north again, we made our last visit into Jasper to restock our food, and refuel our vehicle. Tomorrow we will be heading South again, leaving not only Jasper behind, but the entire province of Alberta as we make our first drive west into British Columbia.
No comments:
Post a Comment