gorgeous Mount Edith Cavell

 

In September 2013, my husband and I hiked the Mount Edith Cavell trail to Cavell Pond in Jasper National Park, Canada.  It is a short, easy hike at 11,033ft (3,363 m) elevation.  The views along the way are spectacular!

There are several glaciers visible on the North face of the mountain.  Angel Glacier (above) forms in a bowl or cirque.  The glacier flows downward.  Some of the ice breaks over the vertical cliffs forming the angel's wings.  Because of the constant movement, this is an avalanche area.  We did see several while we were here and heard their resounding BOOMS!

I love the patterns, colors, and shapes of the plants, lichens, and rocks.  stunning decoration!

If you look very carefully in the middle of the photograph, you will see a person in blue.   This will give you an idea of the scale.

See the people--blue and red?

Cavell Pond is just below Cavell Glacier.  Ghost Glacier is the highest snow area above on the left.  In August, 2012, a very large chunk (equivalent to 1428 city buses) of Ghost Glacier broke off and avalanched down the mountain into Cavell Pond causing a tsunami that closed trails and the parking lot.  (video link below)

Icebergs float in Cavell Pond.

silly photo of me

pattern and texture

Back to the beginning of the trail, Cavell Lake can be seen in the distance, a gorgeous turquoise blue due to the suspension of glacial flour.

LINKS:
Banff and Beyond trail description and photos
lots of photos AlbertaWow
Parks Canada
Map  nearby roads and trails 
video of the avalanche (warning:  4 -letter word at the 5 second mark)

about Edith Cavell, a British nurse in WWI who saved many lives

My Post:
water  a couple photos of Cavell Pond and Cavell Lake

Alphabe-Thursday, hosted by Ms Jenny, is so much fun!  This week our letter  is "G."  Come visit others' submissions HERE and join in the fun! 



photos by me  © 2013     all rights reserved

Athabasca Glacier

Located in the Canadian Rockies, Athabasca Glacier is one of six principal "toes" of the Columbia Icefield.

In the above photo, Athabaca Glacier is the tongue of ice in the valley between the mountains.


The cool thing about this glacier is that you can almost drive up to it.

This photo was taken through the front window of our car--see the wipers?  There's a small wooden building to the left of the parking lot.  You'll see that building again.


See that gorgeous aqua glacial lake on the right?  Here's another view.

We park.  We've already donned multiple layers of clothing.  We add jackets.  I get out my gloves and headband.  It's already cold and it will be much colder up close to the glacier.

We start up the path.

There is an "other worldliness"  to this landscape.

looking back.  See the building?  It looks so tiny already.  The trail is a little over a half mile in one direction, going uphill gently and steadily with short, steeper sections.  The trail begins at 6500 feet (2000 meters) elevation with a gain of 165 feet (50 meters).  not impossible.  The windy coldness increases as we approach the glacier.

informational signs

We have arrived at the toe of the glacier.  There is glacial melt--a small waterway--in the foreground. 
See the tiny people?

A plank has been laid to enable the fearless (foolhardy) to cross over to the glacier.

STOP

not a public 

access

DANGERS BEYOND THIS POINT:

crevasses and millwells (DEEP HOLES, SOMETIMES HIDDEN)

Changeable ice conditions

Swift flowing creeks with slippery banks

PARTIES PROCEEDING BEYOND

THIS POINT MUST HAVE:

Mountaineering and rescue equipment

The knowledge of how to use it

You may have noticed those people on the glacier.  Yep, a few folks wandered onto the glacier in spite of signs like this and one detailing the fall of a young boy into a crevasse a couple years before.  (It's easy to take a SnowCoach trip onto the glacier with a guide--see LINKS below.)

Glaciers form because more snow falls in a year than can melt during the short summer season.  Over time the accumulated snow transforms into ice and begins to flow outward through gaps in the mountains.  This creates great tongues of ice called glaciers.  The Columbia Icefield receives about 33 feet (10 meters) of snow annually, falling every month of the year. 
In places the ice is 2,952 feet (900 metres) thick.

Glacial ice is in continuous motion, creeping forward at the rate of an inch or so per day, flowing down the valley like a frozen, slow-moving river.  The Athabasca Glacier has been receding/melting for about 125 years because of a warming climate.  The extent of its retreat during that time frame has been about a mile.  Signs mark the years when the glacier reached farther.  The shrinking glacier has left an other worldly landscape of rocky moraines in its wake. 

The Columbia Icefield at 126 sq miles (9325 sq km) is the largest icefield in the interior of North America.  It feeds six glaciers, of which Athabasca is one.  However, this glacier makes up only 2% of the total mass of the Columbia Icefield.

Through the glaciers of the Columbia Icefield, fresh water flows into three oceans--east to the Atlantic, west to the Pacific, and north to the Arctic.  This forms a triple continental divide.  Since Snow Dome is the highest peak in the Icefield, it is the hydrographic apex* of North America which means that this is the center of water distribution to the continent.

Meltwater from the Athabasca Glacier feeds into the Athabasca River which then flows into Lake Athabasca in northeastern Alberta. 

LINKS:
Parks Canada  Columbia Icefield Area and Athabasca Glacier
satellite view of the Columbia Icefield 
Banff and Beyond  photos and information, including SnowCoach trips 
Climb Wild great information on the Columbia Icefield with photos

my post--peaceful  Athabasca River in Jasper National Park 

*One other apex exists on the continent of North America--Triple Divide Peak in Glacier National Park, Montana, USA.

We've begun round 8!!
Alphabe-Thursday, hosted by Ms Jenny, is so much fun!  This week our letter is "A." Come visit others' submissions HERE and join in the fun! 


photos by me © 2012 all rights reserved

Grinnell Glacier Lake

destination of a hike in Glacier National Park (Montana) in August this year--This is upper Grinnell Lake below Grinnell Glacier and Salamander Glacier.

"...a man who keeps company with glaciers comes to feel tolerably insignificant by and by."

~Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad 

Grinnell Trail is 7.6 miles round trip with an elevation gain of 1600 feet.  First we took a boat across Swift Current Lake, hiked a short distance to Lake Josephine and took a boat across that lake.  This trail had just opened a couple days before our hike, having been closed due to bear activity.  (grizzlies!) 

This is an amazing hike!  Stunning are the vistas of the surrounding mountains and alpine lakes.  Yellow, pink, violet, and creamy white wildflowers abound against the iron-and-chloride-rich red, green, and buff-colored rocks.  Milky turquoise lower Grinnell Lake nestles startlingly into the surrounding mountains below cascading waterfalls.  Bears, mountain goats, and big horned sheep graze contentedly.

 

Grinnell was at its largest in1850 at the end of the Little Ice Age, measuring 710 acres.  Today it's probably around 400 acres or less.

Around the world, a few glaciers are increasing in size, but most are decreasing.  This is an indication of climate change.   A number of organizations monitor glaciers using photography (on the ground and aerial), remote sensing, and on-glacier surveying. 

LINKS:
◄Glacier National Park information

◄Shawn Coggins' site (information and photos)  including USGS photos from 1938 - 2006 showing the melting of Grinnell Glacier.  Predictions say that most of the glaciers in Glacier National Park will be gone by 2030.

I'm participating in Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday.  Come and join in the fun!  You will be charmed and even enlightened in a delightful way!  See more entries HERE. This week our letter is "W."  W is for WATER!




photo by me © 2011 

escape

mountains....

Ophir Pass, Colorado, on the road between Telluride and Silverton through the San Juan Mountains

Wild Goose Island, Glacier National Park, Montana

LINKS to other photos:

http://http//www.flickr.com/photos/8206650@N02/2274277701/

http://http://gonw.about.com/od/photosmt/ig/Glacier-National-Park/Going-to-the-Sun-Viewpoint.--1k.htm

Glacier National Park, trail along Logan Pass to Hidden Lake http://http://www.takemytrip.com/06glacier/06_16a.htm


 

Grinnell Glacier, Glacier National Park

Grinnell Glacier, Glacier National Park

This post was inspired by Chrisy's blog post "Escape" at Sophism Press: http://sophismpress.blogspot.com/2009/02/escape.html

These are places of wonder and awe. I have been to many of the national parks in the US, but went to Glacier for the first time last September. It is a magnificant, majestic place. There are no words to describe its awesome beauty.
 

LINKS (Glacier National Park):

http://http//www.glacier.national-park.com/

http://http//www.nps.gov/glac/

http://http//gorp.away.com/gorp/resource/us_national_park/mt_glaci.htm

Grinnell Galcier: http://http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grinnell_Glacier

some outstanding photos of Grinnell Glacier: http://http//www.terragalleria.com/parks/np.glacier.7.html

A glacier forms when more snow and ice accumulates than melts. This accumulation of ice and snow presses down on the more flexible layers below. This flexible layer allows the ice to move. Depending on the amount of ice, the angle of the slope, and the pull of gravity, the ice may start to move downhill. Once this mass of snow and ice begins to move, it is called a glacier.

The distinctive blue color of glacial ice is actually created by the slight absorption of red light.

LINKS (about glaciers):

http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glaciers

all photos taken by me 'cause I was there--© 2007-2008