Glacial recession on the Wapta Icefields

Our glaciers are melting at an alarming rate. There is a large rock ridge jutting out of the glacier tongue near the Bow Hut (not pictured) that I had never seen before. The first photo shows how thin the ice is up high beside the Onion. At this rate I predict there will be no glacier tongue visible from the Bow Hut in 5-10 years.

The dirt covered ice is melting so fast that we could only gather very grey, silty water at the Bow Hut. Even in the cool morning.

The second photo is of the glacier dropping down towards the Peyto Hut. The ice on the Mt. Thompson side has melted to the point where a rock band now separates the upper and lower glacier. That's the end of the Thompson shoulder up on the left of the photo. We used to walk right down beside it to access the hut with no issue. This terrain is barely recognizable to me now.

The last photo is on the Iceberg Lake moraine as described in the post from yesterday.

Cheers,
Shaun King
ACMG / IFMGA Mountain Guide