Columbia Icefield

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Athabasca Glacier, Columbia Icefield, Canadian Rockies.

Visitors on the Icefield.

One of the "snowcoaches".

The Columbia Icefield is a large icefield located in the Canadian Rockies, astride the Continental Divide of North America. The icefield lies partly in the northwestern tip of Banff and the southern end of Jasper National Park. It is about 325 km² in area, 100 to 365 metres (328' to 1,197') in depth and receives up to seven metres (23 feet) of snowfall per year. The icefield feeds eight major glaciers, including:

Athabasca Glacier
Castleguard Glacier
Columbia Glacier
Dome Glacier
Stutfield Glacier
Saskatchewan Glacier

Some of the highest mountains in the Canada Rockies are located around the edges:

Mount Andromeda (3,450 m)
Mount Athabasca (3,491 m)
Mount Bryce (3,507 m)
Castleguard Mountain (3,090 m)
Mount Columbia (3,747 m)
Mount King Edward (3,490 m)
Mount Kitchener (3,505 m)
North Twin Peak (3,684 m)
South Twin Peak (3,566 m)
Snow Dome (3,456 m)
Stutfield Peak (3,450 m)

Part of the icefield, the Athabasca Glacier, is visible from the Icefields Parkway. The Athabasca Glacier has receded significantly since its greatest modern-era extent in 1844. During the summer months visitors to the area can travel onto the glacier in the comfort of large "snowcoaches".

The icefield was first reported in 1898 by J. Norman Collie and Hermann Woolley after they had completed the first ascent of Mount Athabasca.

The Athabasca River and the North Saskatchewan River originate in the Columbia Icefield, as do tributary headwaters of the Columbia River [1]. As the icefield is atop the triple Continental Divide these waters flow ultimately north to the Arctic Ocean east to Hudson's Bay (and thence to the North Atlantic Ocean), and south and West to the Pacific Ocean respectively. Hudson's bay is in some major watershed divisions considered to be in the Arctic watershed, in which case this is arguably not a triple continental divide point.