The Ice Field
Sounds like some sort of dark thriller novel, doesn't it? Well, the reality is much more prosaic. Yesterday I went on a trip with Owen and his roommate Kevin to the Columbia Icefield, seeing as I was working at 11pm that night and had some time to kill.
The bus left the hotel at 10:30 in the morning, so we didn't need to get up too early. As I stepped out, the sun was pleasanly present after a couple days of absence due to snow (yes, it is still snowing around here). A few wispy clouds looked like they were cotton gently ripping apart on the summits of the mountains as we made our way to the desk where we bought our tickets.
The bus driver/tour guide explained as we set off that the drive from Banff to Jasper is said by many to be one of the most scenic in the world. I can defintely see where that is coming from. The further north you go the more amazing the mountains become, because the glaciers start becoming more apparant and more dramatic. And you can tell they are there too- something I didn't really know before, but because of the highly pressurized nature of glacial ice, it actually turns blue because pretty much all the oxygen is out of it. It's a striking sight.
About halfway there, the driver noted about 4 cars stopped in the road ahead of us, next to a lake shore. He referred to this as a "bear jam" and told us to keep our eyes peeled since it was quite possible there was a bear or some sort of animal around that people had stopped to look at. Sure enough, after a minute or so a black bear darted between the various trees and shrubs by the lake. Unfortunately I could not get a picture of it, but Kevin managed to get something of a shot of it. Not a grizzly, but pretty cool anyways.
The rest of the trip wound its way through the mountains, past the moraines left by glaciers, waterfalls and icefalls and all the other remnants of the glacial periods. At one point the driver noted a particular mountain slope to our right that had fresh avalanche debris on it, and said that this particular slope had very violent avalanches during the winter, and that they even went over the road and knocked down trees on the other side. Sure enough, most of the trees to our left were still flattened.
Finally we arrived at the ice field centre, grabbing a quick lunch before boarding another bus out to the glacier, where we went on one of the special ice coach to head to the actual icefield. It wasn't what I imagined. I pictured a vast field where you pretty much just looked around and saw a plain of ice in all directions. It wasn't like that- it was more like a valley, with mountains on two sides, the centre behind us (and mountains behind that) and in front was a sort of rolling hill of ice. Still, it was pretty interesting. 8 glaciers flow out of the Columbia ice field, and it covers 325 square kilometers. Kevin is from South Africa, so he was even more amazed by it.
On the way back, the tour guide talked a fair bit left and so I dozed off on the bus. But my day was hardly over- after all, I had to work at 11 still!
The night shift is kind of like a combination of closing and opening- you have to clean everything and stock everything for the morning. There were no customers, but apparently when it gets busy during the summer people come from the hotel bar drunk and want stuff. Since Graeme was training both myself and one of the Kates, things were done very very quickly. We were able to sit around for quite a while, because we couldn't do anything until the new stuff was ready from the other departments (bakery and such). Seems like it would be really boring by yourself, but that's not entirely a bad thing- I don't mind being bored as much as other people seem to. What is annoying about it is that it messes up your sleep schedule.
Case in point: after the shift finished, I went home and fell asleep, having been awake (not counting the nap on the bus) for almost 24 hours. I have today off, but I have to work at 7 am tomorrow, so I have to be able to get to sleep at some reasonable time tonight. I think I got it worked out, as I got up at about 11:30 and I think I can stay up until 11 or so tonight.
I will have pictures of my trip up here soon, as soon as I can get them onto someone's laptop and onto my photobucket. Until then,
Stay Frosty
Trevor
The bus left the hotel at 10:30 in the morning, so we didn't need to get up too early. As I stepped out, the sun was pleasanly present after a couple days of absence due to snow (yes, it is still snowing around here). A few wispy clouds looked like they were cotton gently ripping apart on the summits of the mountains as we made our way to the desk where we bought our tickets.
The bus driver/tour guide explained as we set off that the drive from Banff to Jasper is said by many to be one of the most scenic in the world. I can defintely see where that is coming from. The further north you go the more amazing the mountains become, because the glaciers start becoming more apparant and more dramatic. And you can tell they are there too- something I didn't really know before, but because of the highly pressurized nature of glacial ice, it actually turns blue because pretty much all the oxygen is out of it. It's a striking sight.
About halfway there, the driver noted about 4 cars stopped in the road ahead of us, next to a lake shore. He referred to this as a "bear jam" and told us to keep our eyes peeled since it was quite possible there was a bear or some sort of animal around that people had stopped to look at. Sure enough, after a minute or so a black bear darted between the various trees and shrubs by the lake. Unfortunately I could not get a picture of it, but Kevin managed to get something of a shot of it. Not a grizzly, but pretty cool anyways.
The rest of the trip wound its way through the mountains, past the moraines left by glaciers, waterfalls and icefalls and all the other remnants of the glacial periods. At one point the driver noted a particular mountain slope to our right that had fresh avalanche debris on it, and said that this particular slope had very violent avalanches during the winter, and that they even went over the road and knocked down trees on the other side. Sure enough, most of the trees to our left were still flattened.
Finally we arrived at the ice field centre, grabbing a quick lunch before boarding another bus out to the glacier, where we went on one of the special ice coach to head to the actual icefield. It wasn't what I imagined. I pictured a vast field where you pretty much just looked around and saw a plain of ice in all directions. It wasn't like that- it was more like a valley, with mountains on two sides, the centre behind us (and mountains behind that) and in front was a sort of rolling hill of ice. Still, it was pretty interesting. 8 glaciers flow out of the Columbia ice field, and it covers 325 square kilometers. Kevin is from South Africa, so he was even more amazed by it.
On the way back, the tour guide talked a fair bit left and so I dozed off on the bus. But my day was hardly over- after all, I had to work at 11 still!
The night shift is kind of like a combination of closing and opening- you have to clean everything and stock everything for the morning. There were no customers, but apparently when it gets busy during the summer people come from the hotel bar drunk and want stuff. Since Graeme was training both myself and one of the Kates, things were done very very quickly. We were able to sit around for quite a while, because we couldn't do anything until the new stuff was ready from the other departments (bakery and such). Seems like it would be really boring by yourself, but that's not entirely a bad thing- I don't mind being bored as much as other people seem to. What is annoying about it is that it messes up your sleep schedule.
Case in point: after the shift finished, I went home and fell asleep, having been awake (not counting the nap on the bus) for almost 24 hours. I have today off, but I have to work at 7 am tomorrow, so I have to be able to get to sleep at some reasonable time tonight. I think I got it worked out, as I got up at about 11:30 and I think I can stay up until 11 or so tonight.
I will have pictures of my trip up here soon, as soon as I can get them onto someone's laptop and onto my photobucket. Until then,
Stay Frosty
Trevor
posted by Sibtiger | 3:43 PM
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