Five metres of depth gone a year, and the dated markers show you where it used to end
A tongue of the Columbia Icefield that comes down almost to the highway, six kilometres long, six square kilometres in area, and between 90 and 300 metres thick. It is the most visited glacier in North America and it is going: it loses about five metres of depth a year, and in the past 125 years it has pulled back more than 1.5 kilometres and lost over half its volume. The markers along the approach walk are dated, which is the part that stays with people. Snow coaches run onto it from the Icefield Centre, which is open mid-April to mid-October. Walking out there on your own is not recommended and that is not boilerplate: the crevasses are covered by snow bridges you cannot see, and people have died on this ice, including three passengers in a coach rollover in July 2020. Go with a guide and rope, or stay on the path and read the dates.
Other places on the map within a couple of hours.
