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Stage 2015/09 [A031] |
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| Jasper - Columbia Icefield (Icefield Parkway) | |||
| ⇨ 66 mi / 107 km | |||
| ⇧ 1450 m (garmin edge 1000) | |||
Cycling from Smithers, British Columbia to Vancouver.Stage from Jasper to the Glaciers of Columbia Icefields following Icefields Parkway.One of the most epic cycling tours of the world. |
 After eight days on the Yellowhead Highway, we turn off to the Icefield Parkway today. Length and elevation gain of today´s cycle stage suggest that this will be quite a demanding day. Therefore, we start early in the morning at 06:30. At this hour temperatures are well below freezing. |
 The first hours we have the Icefield Parkway all for us alone. In Canada too, the sun is rising in the east. However, it takes an unpleasantly long time until it is high enough for the sunbeams to reach the small cyclists in the shadow of the mountain peaks. |
 At Jasper, the Icefiled Parkway follows the Athabasca River. |
 At some point it is time for the sun to rise above the mountain peaks and it starts to be a pleasant day. |
 Fotostop at Athabasca Falls (waterfall 23m) and Sunwapta Falls (waterfall 18m). |
 We continue along the Athabasca River. When we approach the altitude of 1500m it gets cold again. |
 Endless chain: not a reference to the bike chain but much more a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains. |
 The Icefield Parkway is quite steep and on some stages demanding. Wind, cold weather and gradients of 9% are challenging. The view of the rivers, mountains, waterfalls and glaciers is worth the effort. |
 Break at the Glacier Skywalk at an altitude of about 1920m: the Skywalk is a steel structure with a glass bottom, which allows a look down to the valley some 280m / 918ft below you. The view is gigantic: in front of us high mountains with glaciers, deep below us we see mountain goats graze. |
 The last kilometers to the Columbia Icefield are quite demanding again. The slope is initially low, but the cold and headwinds are noticeable unpleasant. |
 The last 2 km to the Columbia Icefield Discovery Center, where our hotel is located, show an increase of the gradient of well above 5%. At the same time, the last kilometers offer spectacular views of the Athabasca Glacier, one of the 5 glaciers of the Columbia Icefields. At the hotel we realize that tomorrow´s breakfast buffet is too late for our planning. But the people who run this place were very nice and helpfull: they opened the little store for us and allowed us to buy some sandwiches, which we could store in the fridge of the hotel room until the morning. Overall the hotel makes a very bicycle-friendly impression. |
 Beer of the day: Lucky Camp. Originally founded in 1934 (i.e. directly after the prohibition) in San Francisco, then expanded northbound due to its success all along the Pacific coast with an own brewerie in Vancouver. Today owned by the Labatt Brewery and thus part of the multinational Interbrew Group. |