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Ice ice baby!
Today we trekked up the Athabasca glacier. Once again we were lucky with the weather not a cloud in sight!
To the reach the glacier we first had to drive up the road named ice fields parkway, which is renowned as being one of the most scenic drives in the world. It defiantly lived up to that reputation! It even managed to out do all our other drives so far - which we thought would take some doing - we were wrong! So far the scenery on this trip has completely outshone anywhere we have been before, even New Zealand needs to take a back seat to Canada. The most impressive part of the drive was reaching the Columbian icefields which is where we started our glacier climb.
We met our tour guide who kitted us up with all the correct gear for the climb. Lorna ended up in a pair of big yellow waterproof trousers- she was not impressed, especially when they started falling down during the climb!
Then we were off on a steep path to the toe of the glacier. We were given a safety speech about the glacier being riddled with crevasses, and that if we fall into one we won't come out alive - nice! Luckily, our guide with his 20 years of experience was leading a single-file line up the glacier. So all we had to do was follow the leader to keep safe! As we climbed up the views and the terrain of the glacier become more and more impressive. Our tour guide filled us in with the geology and geography of the glacier - what he doesn't know about glaciers isn't worth knowing!
As we climbed the glacier the ice rapidly went from being 50m deep to 250m deep. Also the ice became a crisp white but at some places it had a beautiful blue tint. The higher we climbed the more uneven the glacier became with deeper channels of flowing water and crevasse. We even were shown waterfalls and rivers which disappeared into the depths of the glacier. As we reached the highest point of our climb we had a stunning view back down the glacier field. Sadly, we learnt the glacier is retreating by 20 metres each year. At this rate scientists believe this glacier will completely disappear within the next 80 years!
We really enjoyed this once in a life time opportunity. It is an experience that we will both never forget and extremely enjoyed.
On the journey home we stopped off at the athabasca falls. A deafening combination of sound and spray water! It's jaspers most dramatic waterfall - but it's not as impressive as the Rhine falls in Switzerland!
Our wildlife count is now up to 3 black bears, 2 grizzly bears, 1 wolf, 5 deers, hundreds of squirrels and millions of mosquitoes! Still waiting to see a whole moose (not just antlers!).
We are now back at the campsite and Stef is once again enjoying playing with fire! The plan is to star gaze tonight, no light pollution around here so we are expecting something special!
With love
Lorna and stefan xxxx
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