In the afternoon we visited the Columbia Ice Field. It was 45 degrees with a cutting wind. Specially designed vehicles transport visitors to the glacier. There are 6 of these vehicles in the world- the Canadians have 5. The U.S. has one in Antarctica. The vehicles cost 750K in 2000, now they'd be a million and a half. The huge tires cost $6000 each. What pictures of the ice field and the glacier can't capture is the true depth of the ice. We were standing on a mile of ice. The glaciers protruding like tongues off the mountains may be 250 feet deep and hundreds of thousands of years old. We each had a drink of water from the glacier- the best water we've ever had. At the staging post for the ice terrain vehicles there were chipmunks...the little creatures raided the trash and occasionally boarded the vehicle for a ride to the ice field. Vast, deep ice such as it is here is difficult to comprehend.
Some of the mountains we photographed were 12,000 feet. At the glacier it was merely 10,000.
In winter temperatures drop to minus 50, 50 below zero and with wind chills at 70 below. Exposed skin will freeze in less than a minute. To stand on this makes one realized how insignificant man truly is.
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