Note to all: If you ever go to the Canadian Rockies, you must go out and stand on the Athabasca Glacier. It is simply non-negotiable. (Stay far back from the ice avalanches, however.)
Posted by DeLong at July 7, 2003 07:06 PM | TrackBack
I'll admit that, as someone with a moderately serious interest in Mars, I'm an exception -- but there is something weird and wonderful about the fact that, reading this post, I realized that it's possible to be much much more familiar with Athabasca Vallis on Mars than with the Athabasca on earth from which it takes its name. Athabasca was one of the shortlisted landing sites for NASA's two Mars Exploration Rovers; it's a landscape in Amazonis that has seen floods of both lava and water in all likelihood relatively recently. It was ruled out because the surface looks too rough in radar returns to risk landing on.
Until I read this post, I couldn't have told you the first thing about Athabasca on earth. This is woeful ignorance -- but I can't help feeling it's also a tiny little precurssor to the coolness of being a multi planet species.
Posted by: Oliver Morton on July 8, 2003 03:35 AM"Note to all: If you ever go to the Canadian Rockies, you must go out and stand on the Athabasca Glacier."
And you better do it while the going is still good.
"The Athabasca Glacier has retreated one-third of a mile (0.5 km) in the last 60 years and has thinned dramatically since the 1950s-60s (State of the Canadian Cryosphere, 2002)."
http://www.climatehotmap.org/newpoints.html
Posted by: Pooh on July 8, 2003 06:03 AMYou might also like Thomas Wharton's novel Icefields (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671002201), which is set on a fictional glacier based on the Athabasca glacier and is a lovely book to boot.
Posted by: Gene on July 8, 2003 08:11 AMYou must also stand on the edge of Lake Louise and take a look around, especially across the lake at the glaciers in the background. This is not negotiable either.
Posted by: richard on July 8, 2003 02:31 PMIndeed it is not. But the only problem is that if you then turn around you find yourself staring at this huge way out-of-place hotel...
Posted by: Brad DeLong on July 8, 2003 06:37 PM"But the only problem is that if you then turn around you find yourself staring at this huge way out-of-place hotel..."
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess. I think the hotel is utterly glorious and fits in wonderfully with the setting.
Indeed. To my eye the hotel is ideally suited to its location, and its lawns and gardens are utterly necessary as frame and counterpoint to that most perfect of all mountain views.
All the majestic old railway hotels are delightfully opulent architecture: the Empress in Victoria, the Bessborough in Saskatoon, le Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City, the Fort Garry in Winnipeg... (long pause for nostalgic reflection).
Since you don't permit hand-crafted html, here's a link with some history:
http://quebec.worldweb.com/FeaturesReviews/AccommodationGuide/8-267.html
Canadian Reader,
To my mind, Chateau Lake Louise is best seen from above - way above - on either of the two routes to the tea houses. It possesses some terrific rooms too. What could be better than breakfast in one's room whilst looking over the lake?
The Frontenac though, beautiful as it may be, is a shocking hotel. I much prefer Club Vista at the Hilton with its quite good food, soundproofing, and views over the old city and the St. Laurence.
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