Some of the lower points of the Selkirks, just west of the Columbia
valley, not more than 7,000 or 8,000 feet in height, face the opposite
Rocky mountains with 100 or more glaciers in sight at once, the view
beyond the wide and deep valley sweeping 150 miles of the main chain on
its snowy western side. Unfortunately up to the present no path has been
made to such a lookout point, and the dense forest makes the ascent
difficult.
The greatest névé in Canada, so far as known, is the Columbia snowfield
covering 100 square miles and sending tongues of ice down into a dozen
valleys, but this is 80 miles northwest of Lake Louise and can only be
visited with a camp outfit and packtrain. Its northern limit will be
within new boundaries of Jasper Park and some day a good road will lead
through the mountains past this splendid glacier region from the Grand
Trunk Pacific to the Canadian Pacific opening up to the public the
finest glacial playground in Canada.
_The Robson Region._
The beauties of the Louise, Field and Glacier regions on the Canadian
Pacific are well known to the public and have been seen by thousands but
the exceedingly impressive glacial surroundings of Mt. Robson near the
Yellowhead Pass on the Grand Trunk Pacific have so far been little
visited. Mt. Robson, rising 13,087 feet above the sea, the highest point
in the Canadian Rockies, is invisible from the pass itself, hidden by
the nearer Rainbow mountains but bursts upon the view where Grand Forks
river enters the Fraser. Only a few miles away at the head of the low
valley its tremendous cliffs, mostly too steep for snow to lie, rise for
10,000 feet, crowned with a snowy pyramid. A trail leads up the Grand
Forks through the valley of a Thousand Falls where the main river
tumbles 1,500 feet in a wild canyon and reaches the rear side of Mount
Robson 5,700 feet above the sea. From some low mountains to the
northwest there is perhaps the most splendid view in North America of
mountains, glaciers and lakes. The blue seracs of the Tumbling glacier
seem to be rushing down thousands of feet from the Helmet and the main
peak of Robson to plunge into Berg lake, which doubles them by
reflection. To the left the main glacier, starting in great icefalls on
the northeast of the peak, sweeps a curve of five or six miles round the
dark rocks of the Rearguard. Behind the main glacier toward the south
rises the unbroken snow slope of Mt. Resplendent ending with a
projecting cornice of snow at 11,000 feet.
[Illustration]