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View of Athabasca Glacier from the Columbia Icefields Visitor Center.
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Our guide Lily
(in orange) gives safety instructions to the group before stepping onto the
toe of the glacier.
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Very deep
millwell - one of the many natural hazards that riddle Athabasca Glacier.
Millwells are the glacier's natural plumbing, funneling glacier melt water
beneath the ice.
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This view shows
just how deep some of the millwells are. The center of the glacier is over 30
stories thick.
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Lily hangs on
to a client to prevent any accidents while peering into the millwell.
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Ice caves form
in the lateral moraine of the glacier.
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Lily explains
how some millwells can become clogged with snow.
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View of AA
Glacier (on left) and Andromeda Glacier (on right).
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Approaching the
icefalls. The Columbia Icefield, just beyond the top of the icefalls, is the
largest non-polar accumulation of ice in North America with a surface area about the size of the city of Vancouver, BC and a maximum depth of 1200 feet.
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Close up view
of crevasses near first icefall.
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View looking
down Athabasca Glacier from the first icefall.
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After just one
guided tour, we quit our day jobs to become expert ice climbers!
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