Columbia Icefield

The Columbia Icefield (English Columbia Icefield ) is an expansive icefield in the Canadian Rockies in Banff and Jasper National Park. It is one of the largest accumulations of ice south of the Arctic Circle. Its area is 325 km ², the thickness of 100-365 m and the annual snowfall amount up to seven meters.

The ice field is the accumulation area of eight major glaciers, including the Athabasca, the Castle Guard, the Columbia, the dome, the Stutfield and the Saskatchewan Glacier.

In the vicinity of the ice field are some of the highest mountains in the Canadian Rockies: Mount Columbia ( 3747 m), the North Twin Peak ( 3684 m), the South Twin Peak ( 3566 m), Mount Bryce ( 3507 m), Mount Kitchener ( 3505 m), Mount Athabasca ( 3491 m), Mount King Edward ( 3490 m), the Snow Dome ( 3456 m), Mount Andromeda ( 3450 m), the Stutfield peak ( 3450 m) and Castle Guard Mountain ( 3090 m).

The Columbia Icefield feeds the origin of several rivers, including the Athabasca River and the North Saskatchewan River. Since it is on a triple watershed of the North American Continental Divide, the rivers flow both into the Arctic Ocean ( north ), as well as in the Hudson Bay and thus the Atlantic Ocean (east ) and the Pacific ( south and west ).

About the Columbia Icefield was the first time in 1898 by J. Norman Collie and Hermann Woolley reported after their first ascent of Mount Athabasca.

Part of the Columbia - Icefield ( Athabasca and parts of the dome and Stutfield glacier ) is visible from the Icefields Parkway. The Columbia Icefield Centre, a tourist center, from which guided tours in summer with special buses ( the Snow coaches ) can be made on the Athabasca Glacier is located at this point.

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