Glaciers and mountains are a part of our Albertan heritage. Many of us fondly recall our first summer road trip through the Rockies to see the Columbia Icefields. Or we remember the first time we turned the corner on Highway 1 to Banff and the impressive hulk of Mount Norquay. 

Chance always has a say in our experience of the mountains. Rain might block the view. We might arrive on a sunny day or after a surprise autumn snowfall and be stunned by the views. 

It’s clear, however, that those of us who made it to the Rockies in the 20th century saw bigger glaciers than those existing today. We can still travel to the Rockies to see today’s glaciers, but we haven’t (yet) figured out how to travel back in time to see the glaciers as they once were. 

But we can dig through photo archives to see how massive our favourite glaciers were in the past. These photos remind us of our glorious heritage and might make us think about the need to protect our glaciers from further melting. 

But sometimes, the comparison photos contain surprises, like the last set of pictures of the Plain of the Six Glaciers shown in this article—but we’ll leave that surprise for you to discover! 

Athabasca Glacier

The Athabasca Glacier is the first of two major glaciers that make up the Columbia Icefields. Halfway between Jasper and Banff, it’s arguably the most impressive of the glaciers along the Icefields Parkway. It’s also the most visited; 1.2 million visitors visit the Icefields Parkway every year, most stopping at the Columbia Icefields.

Historical data and recent measurements show the glacier has retreated 600 metres and thinned an average of 60 metres since the 1960s. 

Saskatchewan Glacier

Right across the valley from the Athabasca Glacier is the Saskatchewan Glacier. The glacier is the starting point of the North Saskatchewan River. It’s not visible from the road like the Athabasca Glacier is. If you hike the five to six hours it takes to get above this glacier, you’ll be rewarded with incredible views showing how far the glacier has retreated.

Peyto Glacier

Peyto Glacier is the longest-studied glacier in the Rockies. It debuted in National Geographic in 1899. Scientists began studying it in 1933, and current studies will last until 2090. Studying this glacier has shown scientists the effect of future glacier melt on our streams and rivers. “We’ll still see a decrease in stream flow of about 7 percent,” Caroline Aubry-Wake told AlbertaViews. 

Bow Glacier

Right next door to the Peyto Glacier lies the Bow Glacier. As its name suggests, it’s the headwaters of the Bow River. The glacier was so massive that it flowed to current-day Canmore during the last Ice Age. In the past twenty years, glacier retreat formed a new lake at the top of the waterfall. 

Crowfoot Glacier

The Crowfoot Glacier is a four-minute drive from the Peyto and Bow Glaciers. Early explorers named it for its shape. If you look at the image from the 1940s, you’ll see that the glacier looked like a crow’s foot. 

Angel Glacier

Angel Glacier is another glacier early explorers named for its shape. Look at the first image again; you’ll see an angel lying on the rock, wings spread out as if ready to take flight.

This glacier is located in Mount Edith Cavell, another name worth remembering. Edith Cavell was a British nurse during World War One. Parks Canada tells us that she was “executed in World War One for her part in helping Allied prisoners escape occupied Brussels.

Plain of the Six Glaciers ​​

The Plain of the Six Glaciers made international news recently for the dramatic ice loss of the glaciers. A nature photographer hiked up to find all the snow and ice gone and made a viral video called “What Glaciers?” now with over one million views. 

As the above pictures show, seeing the glaciers in all their glory in recent years is a matter of chance. There was more snow in 2018 than in 2013. One year’s snowfall does not make a glacier, of course. The snow needs to remain for several years and be compressed into ice. 

Overall, the glaciers in the Lake Louise area have been getting smaller for a long time already. But if you go after a good autumn snowfall, you might glimpse how the glaciers once looked.