The Columbia Icefield

One mountain of snow that drains into three different oceans

The largest icefield in the Rocky Mountains, about 325 square kilometres of it, between 100 and 365 metres deep, taking up to seven metres of snow a year. It sits on a triple continental divide, and Snow Dome above it is the hydrological apex of this continent: melt off one mountain leaves for three oceans, north to the Arctic, east to Hudson Bay and on to the North Atlantic, and south and west to the Pacific. The Athabasca and the North Saskatchewan both start here, and so do headwater tributaries of the Columbia. Six major glaciers come off it: the Athabasca, Castleguard, Columbia, Dome, Stutfield and Saskatchewan. The Athabasca is the one that comes down to the highway and has its own pin on this map.