Wherein Moominmama is amazed and inspired by glaciers and a hike up the Athabasca...

Moominmama will never tire of the pure blue of glacial ice and water. Having seen this only in video and pictures, it thrilled me to my core to find myself actually on a glacier.

I had to apologize to my guide, Mel, that I was 60 going on 6 because I couldn't stop exclaiming over the wonder of what I was seeing. And it hurts in a uniquely personal way now to understand how quickly these ice fields are melting. 

A piece of tape on a pole drilled into the Athabasca Glacier was already eight inches higher off the ground only four days after that tape had been applied at then-ground level. Well above our heads was the measurement for the previous month. Much of the meltwater flows in rivulets, sparkling and cold, atop the glacier, as well as below. 

The trained glacier guides not only have to spend their days leading groups, but re-routing the stony ascent to the glacier because water is rushing down and washing away sections of the trail. Markers down below show years back, to when the glacier reached all the way to the highway. 

And the guides, of course, are necessary so you don't slip down into one of these beautiful but dangerous holes or crevasses. 

The Athabasca Glacier flows from the Columbia Icefield, the largest collection of glacial ice in all of the Rocky Mountains.

The Icefield sits atop the Continental Divide, sending water into three directions: east toward Hudson Bay and the Atlantic, west towards the Columbia River and north to the Arctic Ocean. The waters melting from the tongue of the Athabasca flow north.

These glacial waters feed watersheds for agriculture, recreation and human consumption all over the American continent and their disappearance will add to the dangers from climate change. 

In addition to the Athabasca Glacier, Moominmama earlier saw a smaller glacier on the mountain called Edith Cavell. 

There, the Angel Glacier has retreated up a steep incline with meltwater accumulating in a pool below along with some mini icebergs, a couple of which have landed on the stony banks. Both the glacier and the green water proved icy to the touch! 

Moominmama even heard a rumble marking an avalanche, a sound she first mistook for a bus crossing a bridge. Except there was no bus and no bridge! Fortunately, the avalanche was distant and posed no hazard. The Angel Glacier seen from above has icy wings on each side, which is probably where it got its name!

The water at the base is a pale green because there's a chalky particulate from the rocks suspended in the water. And the glacial runoff in the rivers is all this same color. It's only when the water pools in the lakes that the fine dust settles and allows the lake to take on a deep, clear blue. 

Rivers here don't flow, they thunder. The water  pounds, foams and churns. Fall in and you'll be bashed against the rocks. It looks terrifying. No kayaking in these rivers for sure! 

After the morning hike onto the glacier, Moominmama hiked up the opposite side, to Wilcox Pass pictured in the topmost photo. There I could see views of the Columbia Icefield and multiple glacial flows down the surrounding mountains. The middle tongue is Athabasca Glacier. 

My two weeks in Jasper National Park are winding down. I am still busy hiking, also getting into the lakes to kayak and swim as the weather turns hot. Next, I head south to Banff National Park where I'll spend my final week in the Canadian Rockies. I may actually shed a a few tears when it's time to go...

Below, a shot of the distinctive Mount Edith Cavell: a mountain named after a World War I nurse executed as a spy. In an area surrounded by mountains, I can always orient myself by finding Edith Cavell.