The Athabasca Glacier
Hike or 4x4 a glacier
From The Icefield Centre it’s a short walk to the tip of the Athabasca Glacier past date markers that show it’s retreated over 1.5km in the past 125 years (and lost half its volume).
The foot of the glacier is riddled with dangerous crevasses, so if you want to walk it join a tour:
Brewster’s Ice Explorers ($103/adult,) will take you on a 90min/5km, ride over the glacier with a chance to get out and walk safely on
the ice. Tours around the middle of the day are often booked up or very
busy.
For a proper hike on the ice join a reasonably strenuous ice walk run daily (June –September). They take 3–6hr (Adults $124), explore the lower half of the glacier and offer superb views of its features, surrounding ice-carved landscapes and other alpine glaciers.