Athabasca Glacier Hike: What to Expect?

Kris and I joined some friends on the Athabasca Glacier hike last summer in July. We were part of a group with another couple and a guide. It was a spectacular adventure! Made for some gorgeous pictures and some excellent quality time with friends and Kris. My partner got to experience repelling down into a crevasse. He’s braver than I am! It was a different hiking trip than we usually do. We got to walk a variety of terrain including snow and ice. Having a guide aware of the dangers around us was key. We got to see large volumes of water rushing down the glacier throughout our hike. It was shocking to see with our own eyes how incredibly fast the glacier is melting.

Location

The tour is located on the Athabasca Glacier. You’ll meet your guide at Glacier Road Alberta T0E 1E0 (toe of the Athabasca Glacier trailhead). There is a parking lot at the end of the road.

Company

We booked through Rockaboo Mountain Adventures.

Price

• $175/person
• Half day (four hours) from 10:30 A.M. to 2:30 P.M.
  • 2 to 8 km will be hiked, depending on how the group feels. There is an elevation gain of 150 m. Ensure your hiking group is fit.
• Group sizes are 10 people maximum.

Ages

• 12 years and older (younger children can accompany their parents on a private tour)
• No experience is required.

Hours of Operation

Rockaboo Company runs tours from June 1 to September 30 2022.

Gear Provided

• hiking boots
• crampons
• hiking poles
• sunglasses
• repelling equipment to explore crevasses 

Gorgeous Athabasca Glacier Hike

Athabasca Glacier Hike Pictures

The glacier sits in between two rocky mountains. It extends a lot further back than you might think. Many small rivers are flowing down the snow as you can see from the picture. It creates a lovely blueish colour to take gorgeous pictures. The landscape with the white and black snow was urging us to take several pictures.

Crampons

The snow was quite soft. We were happy to have brought our crampons to grip our feet since the snow quickly turned to ice when exposed to the sun. Sunglasses are important to protect your eyes. The sun’s rays are extremely reflective off the snow. It would be dangerous and likely to get snow blindness if you went on this excursion without sunglasses.

Tip: Wear sunscreen to avoid getting sunburnt.

Foot of the Glacier

Starting Time for Athabasca Glacier Hike

Beginning the hike at 10:30 A.M. in full daylight was more enjoyable than starting the Mount Batur Sunrise hike at 3:45 A.M.

Tip: Allow enough time to reach this destination. If you’re staying in Jasper, allow one hour of driving. Plan to leave an hour and a half earlier to give yourself enough time to pack everything up in your backpack, get dressed appropriately for the weather at the toe of the Athabasca Glacier trailhead and take a pee break. There are no bathrooms on the glacier.

View

This is the view from the parking lot. It looks deceivingly close to our destination to get to the Ice Explorers. It took a while to get there though, having to cross a major river at the foot of the glacier, as you can only imagine with all the water trickling down, eventually by the bottom, there is a significant volume of rushing water. We also had to constantly watch our steps to avoid small and large crevasses.

It’s not the prettiest view from the bottom as we see rocks, but over time, that’s what remains after a glacier melts. The rocks land at the bottom. It’s a sad reality for sure.

Ascending the Glacier

Group Size

We had a group of seven people (our friends, us and another couple we didn’t know plus our guide). By booking the tour group of ten people maximum, if your group doesn’t reach the maximum size, other people can join your group. If you’d prefer an intimate group, booking a private tour is possible at an extra cost.

Ice Explorers

The road in the picture allows the Ice Explorers to drive back and forth with tour groups between the Columbia Icefield parking lot and the glacier. The Ice Explorers tour takes thirty minutes of driving each way and stops on the glacier for visitors to disembark and take a look for a few minutes before heading back.

Hiking Upward

Our journey was fairly easy at this point. We were mostly hiking on large sheets of snow. We didn’t need to watch our steps too much at this point.

Athabasca Glacier Hike

The hike was slow and steady as we kept gradually going up. We started seeing rushing water in river form. It’s important to get in shape as it will enhance the enjoyment of this hike. It doesn’t matter what type of exercise you do, but working on your cardio by doing activities such as Zumba, biking or hiking up mountains, will ensure you aren’t huffing and puffing the entire way up. If you include your friends in the workout, as I do, it encourages being active with them and also allows you to socialize. It’s time-efficient as well.

Skiing

This would be an hazardous place to do ski mountaineering. Only experienced skiers should attempt this trek in the winter.

Descending into Athabasca Glacier

Our group turned into a repelling team to help lower different members into the crevasse. The guide stood next to the person repelling to help them belay while everyone else stood further back.

Kris wanted to go down into the crevasse. I was a bit intimated after our guide informed us that there was a rushing river underneath. I wasn’t so inclined afterwards to join the repelling group. Of course, you’re attached to a rope but it wasn’t appealing moving forward. We also had to wait for the equipment to be set up and took a break to eat lunch. I got cold quickly waiting around. It wasn’t tempting to be frozen and repel. Kris did enjoy the challenging experience!

Tip #1: Bring extra layers such as a fleece to wear while standing on the ice and eating lunch. You’ll cool off quickly. Thick mitts could be helpful too.

Tip#2: Bring a butt pad to sit on to have padding between the snow and your butt to eat lunch. It could be nice to sit and take a break from standing.

Tip #3: Bring an easily edible lunch. Ex: sandwich or cheese and crackers with salami.

A Gorgeous Day for a Hike

It seemed like the perfect place to take a picture of us as a couple! There are so many different cool places to take different shots of you and your partner or with your family. The snow at times reminded us of winter even though we did the Athabasca Glacier hike in July. The hike is only open in the summer. It would be quite treacherous to do it in the winter!

Tip: Wearing a Merino 250 Top Base Layer might be a good idea to keep your upper body warm. It can get cold on the glacier, even if the temperatures at the bottom of the glacier are warm. Bring layers with you including a winter hat, mittens, and a windbreaker to protect you from windy gusts.

Large Snow Melts

We needed to watch our footing not to step into crevasses. We also wanted to avoid stepping in pools of water or streams headed down the glacier. It was incredible the volume of water rushing down the glacier like a small river! It was rather shocking actually. We weren’t interested in a ride down on a wet slide! It would be extremely cold to fall into those pools of water! Especially on a glacier! I remember going as a kid twenty years ago and there were pools of water but nothing like we saw in July 2021. It’s important to check out these places to realize how quickly the glaciers are melting. It’s one thing to hear about it on the news but to see it for yourself, helps the idea sink in and understand how quickly our world is changing.

If you love water and it’s making you think of kayaking adventures, Desolation Sound offers lots of fun!

Watch Out: Big Crevasses

Thankfully we had our guide to alert us of the dangers that lay around us. The crevasses are easily hidden from view. The scary thing about a crevasse is that dangers lurched beneath the ice. The ice might look thick on top but with one wrong step on a thin piece of ice, or falling into a crevasse, could potentially get you stuck underneath or you could disappear forever! The guide helps to prevent this outcome!

Tip: Pay close attention to every step taken and follow your guide’s lead. Approach crevasses with extreme caution if you’re brave enough to step close to one. I was very far away, not willing to attempt seeing it at all. Seeing this picture was the closest I’ve been to see the inside of a crevasse, I’m weak in the knees seeing it now.

Athabasca Glacier Hike: The Descent

Kris’ bright yellow jacket made him easy to spot the entire time on the glacier.

Tip: Visible coats are important, especially in poor weather conditions.

It was wonderful to have our guide show us different snow and ice formations that we might have missed on our adventure.

Reaching The Ice Explorers

Our group slowly made our way back to the parking lot after a great adventure! It was cool to see how much further we went past the Ice Explorers and have that gorgeous view of the glacier on our way down. It was neat to see it from a different perspective. The dirt road shows where Ice Explorers travel to reach their destination. They have quite a bumpy road with major hills hence why the vehicles have such big tires with huge threads. The road constantly changes with the yearly glacier melts. If you explore over many years, you’ll see the shift in the road placement.

Final Thoughts

The Athabasca Glacier hike was a wonderful experience! I would highly recommend going with a guide. We learned so much from him. The terrain is melting like crazy if you’re not familiar with the melting conditions, you could find yourself in a very scary situation by going without a guide. Ours was attentive to our needs (how fast we wanted to hike or who wanted to go into the crevasse). He taught us so much about how the glacier moves, and its surroundings. It opened up our eyes to the realization that our glaciers are melting extremely quickly and we should try to do more to protect them. It was a gorgeous landscape to explore and learn. We had the opportunity to hike a glacier and add it to our outdoor resume. The best part is that we got beautiful pictures from our lovely day outside!