If you’ve always wanted to walk on a glacier, you have to visit the Columbia Icefield Discovery Centre! You can find it on the Icefields Parkway, a 232km stretch of road linking Jasper to Banff National Park.
The Columbia Icefield is the largest icefield in the Canadian Rockies. It’s absolutely huge covering an area of around 325 square kilometres. It is so huge that it feeds six glaciers, often referred to as tongues or fingers. One of these being the Athabasca Glacier. From the road you can only see a tiny bit of the Icefield, the rest stretches far beyond the mountains. However you can see 3 of the 6 major glaciers from the road. The icefield is hit with 7 metres of snow each year! Not all of this snow melts during the summer, so it builds up over time and freezes into ice.
The Athabasca Glacier is actually the most visited glacier in North America due to it’s accessibility! The glacier may look still but in fact it is continuously moving. Each day it moves a couple of centimetres further down the valley. However due to climate change, the glacier has been melting for the last hundred years and it has retreated more 1.5km.
The Columbia Icefield Discovery Centre is located opposite the Athabasca Glacier. Here you are able to purchase a Columbia Icefield Adventure tour, giving you the opportunity to walk on the glacier. To do this you’ll travel on huge ice explorers! You can also visit the skywalk, a u-shaped glass bottomed structure, with interpretive displays, slightly further down from the centre. If you want a more adventurous experience you are able to purchase guided hikes on the Athabasca Glacier. Glaciers are really dangerous due to hidden cracks, known as crevasses, the guides are specially trained and will show you where to walk to avoid any dangerous situations. When we visited we booked the Columbia Icefield Adventure and it was amazing!
The Glacier Tour on the Columbia Icefield
I was so excited about this Glacier Tour as I had never been on a glacier before. The tour starts at the Discovery Centre, when you buy your tickets you’ll have purchased a specific time (more details below). As soon as your time is called, you’ll board a coach for a short ride to the bottom of the glacier. Then you’ll transfer over to an ice explorer. These are huge!
There are 24 ice explorers in the world! These have been specially designed and 22 of these are used here at the Columbia Icefield Discovery Centre! The other two are used in Antarctica by the US and Australian Governments. Each ice explorer is 4 metres high and weighs 25 tonnes! They have 6 very large wheels each one is 1.5 metres high and 1 metre wide. In fact, one ice explorer costs $1.5 million CAD! Each tyre costs $5000 CAD, so you’re sitting on $30,000 CAD of rubber! The wheels have low pressure as this helps to increase the surface area of tyres so they have more traction on the slippery and ice and with steep gradients. Talking about steep gradients, on your way to glacier, you end up going down a steep hill such that you’ll find yourself sitting at a tilt of 45 degrees.
From a distance the glacier looks all white however as you’re driving up to it you’ll it’s a whole range of colours and a lot of it is actually a dirty brown colour, because of all the dirt and rock that has built up. It takes around 30 minutes to arrive at the Glacier from the Discovery Centre, all the time the guides driving the buses are sharing knowledge and they make the experience really fun!
When you arrive at the glacier the guides will let you know how long you have on the glacier and what area you can be in. You’ll get to spend about 20 – 25 minutes on the glacier. Even though there are lots of people on the ice, you can always find a spot to take a photo with no one else. You’ll also see a line of flags of different countries for you to take a picture with! Remember the number of your ice explorer as there often up to 6 on the glacier at any one time!
There was also a stream of running water, which we used to fill up our bottle with fresh glacial water! I’d definitely recommend bringing an empty bottle. Remember that you are walking on ice so it can be slippery. I witnessed several people falling over because they were running around, I winced every time I saw them fall. You’ll notice how white some parts of the glacier are and you’ll see parts which are bright blue. When time’s almost up, head back to your ice explorer to take you down the glacier. Then you’ll switch back into a normal coach to go to the Skywalk.
Our coach ended up taking us to the discovery centre so we just boarded another coach to take us to the Skywalk. Coaches leave very regularly and the staff are so helpful so they’ll let you know when you can get on one. It only takes about 10 minutes to get to the skywalk, in fact if you drove from Jasper you will have seen it on the way to the Discovery Centre. The Skywalk is 1km long walkway with a glass bottom that hangs over the Sunwapta Valley. The walkway is interpretive with interactive boards to give you an all-round experience of the glacier. The Skywalk experience takes about 40 minutes depending on how long you spend there. Then board a coach back to the discovery centre to get some food or go back to your car to continue your journey along the Icefields Parkway.
Useful Information
- Tours are really frequent and leave every 15/30 minutes, however it does get really busy in summer. From researching you can walk in and buy tickets but you will have to queue for ticket. Then also may have to wait for your time slot. I would book in advance to save all of this hassle. When you book you’ll be asked to choose a time slot. We booked ours a couple of days in advance when we knew the weather was going to be good. The Discovery Centre was the 3rd stop for us as we drove along the Icefields Parkway so we booked our tour for 10:30am. We left Jasper at about 7:30am and got here with plenty of time to spare! I always add contingency time in because who knows what may happen. You can book your tickets here
- The Columbia Icefield Adventure ticket includes both the Ice Explorer Glacier Tour and the Skywalk. You can’t buy a ticket for just the Ice Explorer Tour. Although you can buy a ticket just for the Skywalk if you would prefer. However if you’re able to I would do the Ice Explorer Tour, as for me, this was the best bit!
- The Columbia Icefield Adventure is wheelchair accessible. If this is something you require, then you must book at least 72 hours in advance by phone or in person. They can then ensure the appropriate arrangements are made. The Skywalk is also fully accessible.
- You’ll be glad to know that there are toilets, and lots of them, at the Discovery Centre. There are no toilets on the tour though so make sure you go before you board your coach.
- There is also a café so if you wanted to buy some food you are able to. We brought a packed lunch and ate on one of the benches outside.
- The whole tour lasts about 2.5 hours to 3 hours. It takes about 30 minutes to get to the glacier, you then have around 20 – 25 minutes on the glacier, then around a 40 minute journey to the Skywalk and then you’ll spend around 40 minutes – 1 hour here depending on how long you take, then you’ll board a coach for a 15 minute journey back to the Discovery Centre.
- On the glacier it can be pretty cold so bring lots of layers and put these on at the Discovery Centre.
- You should also wear sturdy shoes like trainers or hiking boots, as your feet will get cold. Also it can be a bit slippery.
- I’d recommend wearing sunglasses! When you’re on the glacier you’ll find that the white ice can be very bright on the eyes!
- Also remember to bring an empty water bottle so that you can fill it up with the cold, fresh, glacial water.
The Columbia Icefield Discovery Adventure is an absolute must as your driving along the Icefields Parkway – it’s an amazing experience and will make you want to visit even more glaciers! To find out where else you should you stop along the Icefields Parkway read my post here.
