Canada 2008 (209)

The Columbia Icefield is the largest mass of ice in the Rocky Mountains. Straddling the boundaries of Alberta and British Columbia as well as Banff and Jasper national parks, the icefield stretches for more than 25 kilometres across the Continental Divide. From its melting snows and many glaciers, waters flow across North America to the Atlantic, the Arctic and the Pacific oceans.

The most accessible part of the icefield is the Athabasca Glacier, a six kilometre tongue of ice flowing to within a kilometre of the Icefields Parkway.