Ingenium
On Thin Ice - Athabasca Glacier Expedition Photo Gallery
Photo Credit
Landscape shot of a snowy hill in the Athabasca Glacier region Alberta, Canada
Lets Talk Energy and Will Gadd descended into Alberta’s Athabasca Glacier to explore the effects of climate change on the glacier. The team was joined by Martin Sharp, a glaciologist from the University of Alberta who helped explain the impacts that climate change has had, and will have, on the area in general and the ice fields in particular. For more information on the glacier expedition read: On Thin Ice - Athabasca Glacier Expedition.
Will Gadd leads Dr. Martin Sharpe, Jonathan Boutin (Ingenium), and Sean McShane (Discover Network) across the Athabasca Glacier to the access hole.
At 3,307 meters, Mount Chephren in Banff National Park towers over the surrounding valley.
Sun rises over a glacier lake, fed by melt waters from the Columbia Icefield. Snow that falls on the icefield can end up in rivers that flow to the Pacific Ocean, the Arctic Ocean, and into Hudson’s Bay.
Dr. Martin Sharpe, Glaciologist from the University of Alberta, inspects the wall of the ice cave. Glacier ice is formed as snow is compressed and recrystallizes as ice.
Using a climbing rope, Will Gadd lowers himself deeper into the Athabasca Glacier. Over the course of the trip, the team descended to a depth of 82 meters.
Ten meters under the ice, sunlight is diffused into a muted blue glow, giving an otherworldly look to the ice caves.
Jonathan Boutin from Ingenium walks through a channel carved by summer melt water. The expedition which took place in mid-December would have been impossible in the summer.
Photographer and guide John Price and RedBull Athlete Will Gadd examine ice stalactites deep under the Athabasca Glacier.
Jonathan Boutin and Dr. Martin Sharpe examine the walls of the cave. Coated in biofilm, (a matte of bacteria or fungus), the inside of the glacier hovered around -1 degree, supporting the biofilm and flying insects. Outside temperatures were below -30 degrees.
Will Gadd rappels into a sinkhole deep in the heart of the Athabasca Glacier. The team descended deeper than 80 meters, but the passages in fact continued for kilometers.
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