Snow Coach
Pat on Athabasca Glacier
Tangle Creek Falls
Alpine PaintbrushColumbia Ice Field
The Columbia Ice Field is massive. If you gave 285 million people a square yard of space, they would all fit on the ice field. There were six major glaciers and numerous smaller ones that descend from the ice field. The big thing to do there is to take the snow coach up on the Athabasca Glacier. This is something I passed on my last two trips through here due to its touristy nature (all the tour buses stop here) and the cost ($49 per person). Well, we did it this time and I’m glad I did. You go out on the glacier on a large snow coach. The fat, low pressure tires cost $7,000 each, which is cheap for a rig that costs $1.2 M. Up on the ice field we could see the triple divide - the Athabasca River flows to the Arctic Ocean, the Saskatchewan River flows to the Atlantic Ocean and the Columbia River flows to the Pacific Ocean. Our driver showed us what the machine could do. We ascended a hill with a 32 degree slope. Going downhill he floored it and we got up to 12 mph! It was a fun trip.
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