Athabasca Glacier Icewalks in Jasper National Park Canada

Posted: März 10, 2023 by luxembourgmeetstheworld

Located in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, the Columbia Icefield is the largest icefield in the Rocky Mountains of North America. With its 325 m2 in area, it is located partly in Banff National Park, but also partly in Jasper National Park. The most known and also most visited glacier is the Athabasca Glacier. Sadly, the glacier currently loses about 5 meters in depth per year and lost over half of its volume in the past 125 years.

Whenever you are going on a road trip through Banff and Jasper National Park, trust me and put the Athabasca Glacier on your to do list.

Although the Athabasca glacier is easy accessible, it is absolutely not recommended to hike by yourself on the glacier. There are several guided tours to explore the toe of the glacier and also buses, called „Ice Explorer“ who will bring you up there. Luckily I chose the „Full Day Deluxe Tours“ Athabasca Glacier IceWalks, which was a really good decision, because you will go further on the glacier as the „normal“ tours.

Unfortunately, on 18 July 2020, one of the snow coaches rolled over on the Athabasca glacier’s moraine. 3 people died and 24 others were injured.

Starting point of the adventure was the toe of the glacier. As usual – we were too late.

First, the guide provided us with crampons to be able to hike in the snow without slipping. As we started, the weather for the tour didn’t seem very promising. So we hoped for the best! The tour guide was really funny and explained every detail of the glacier, ice and plants. It was a very impressive hike on the toe of Athabasca glacier.

As we moved on, we passed deep crevasses, blue paddles and a lot of ice and snow. Suddenly it even started snowing – and this at the beginning of September. It was really crazy.

When we almost reached our luch spot, it stopped snowing and suddenly the sun came out. The last meters of the first part of the hike were very nice and the whole group enjoyed the sun shining on the ice. Lunch was included in the package, so everyone enjoyed eating while sitting in the snow.

Suddenly the guide seemed very fascinated about something and asked us to come with him. Just in front of us was an impressive ice arch. The guide said that we were really lucky because it is not usual to see such ice archs. He proposed us to let us walk through it with him. I have to admit that it was really special and gave really good photo opportunities!

After the excitment of the ice arch, we slowly started our way back to the toe of the Athabasca Glacier. During the hike back, the guide explained us that the black hills which are all around the area, are the poop of small animals. I am not really sure if he was joking or not!

Furthermore, he showed us the real depth of the crevasses by throwing a stone into such a hole. It’s really impressive and you immediately understand how dangerous it can be to walk on the glacier all by yourself.