John Pomeroy first visited the Athabasca Glacier in Jasper National Park around 45 years ago when it was only a 40-metre walk away from the parking lot.
The hydrologist with the University of Saskatchewan, who has been doing research at the glacier, now describes it as a long walk to get to the ice.
“It has vastly changed over that period of time and continues to retreat,” Pomeroy said. “The Sunwapta Lake formed after the 1950s because ice [has been] retreating for a long time. That was the only lake downstream of the glacier, and now there are three proglacial lakes that have formed in the last decade.”
The Athabasca Glacier had over 40 centimetres of icemelt alone during one week earlier in September and about five metres so far in the last year. In Banff National Park, the Peyto Glacier experienced 4.7 metres of melt this year up to …