Monday, September 07, 2015

Monday 7th September 2015…Day14!!!

Woke up from my very expensive sleep and was packed up and on the road by 8.45am because this morning at 10 am I was going on an escorted tour of the Athabasca Ice field.

The drive was quite lovely here are some shots!!

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The first sight of the glacier…

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I am not a fan of escorted tours but this is the only way to get on the ice fields or there is the alternative of a bus tour that drives up a gravel road and you get 10 minutes on the ice with hundreds of others!!!!

I would ask you to Goggle the ice fields here and read all about their formation, their decline and other facts because the tour guide was so knowledgeable but too much to remember…..

The tour was with Icewalks and our guide, Sabina, was great and only 12 in the group!!!

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Getting ready!!

Sign the waiver and get issued a set of crampons and off we go…my first glacier walk and the weather could not have been any more perfect!!!

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Sabina was a font of knowledge and see the sign …that is where the glacier was in 1982!!!

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I am ready to go…

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this may help!!!

Crevices are small, usually narrow cracks or gaps in a surface. Think of the word as a synonym of split, crack, rent, and cranny. A crevasse is a large fissure, especially in a glacier. The word’s synonyms include abyss and chasm. Crevice and crevasse are not actually homophones—as crevice is pronounced KREV-iss, while crevasse is pronounced kruh-VOSS—but their similarity in sound and meaning makes them easy to confuse.

The words have a common origin—the Old French cravace—but they came to English at different times. Crevice has borne its modern meaning in English since the 14th century, whereas crevasse came to English in the 19th century via Alpine mountain-climbing lingo.

Had to judge the depth but they were awesome!!!

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The other alternative!!!

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Sabina was a great guide!!!

I have received many e mails telling me that my photos of animals, lakes, snow capped mountains are indeed spectacular but we want to see you….OK OK maybe no e mails but remember it is my blog…so here you go ladies!!!!!!

 

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After all this fun it was time to get serious and so some challenging climb on the glacier but I did ok!!!

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Next Sabina broke some ice and gave us all a taste of very fresh glacier water!!!

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It was indeed a wonderful three hours and so glad I found the time to do this!!!

I then started my drive towards Banff about 140 km but a couple of stops along the way first a short hike to Pony bridge!!!

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The next stop was Peyto lake but I found my camera could not really do justice to the colors of the water!!!

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A few more views before I reached Banff!!!

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Banff is a very expensive town so I am staying at a wonderful airbnb home in Canmore about 19 km from Banff…my lovely hostess Sarah is a river rafting guide and her home is lovely and my bathroom and bedroom and deck really nice and I can use the rest of the house…so I did and watched the last set of the Murray V Anderson tennis match from New York, what a thriller!!!

My room

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I made a light meal, had a wonderful soak in the tub and it is 10.30pm already…

So there you have it two blogs in one day hope you enjoyed your trip down the Icefields Parkway!!!

Yashi Kochi!!!

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