Long before Brewster Transportation Canada rebranded itself under the Pursuit umbrella and three years before the Glacier Skywalk was constructed, prominent Rockies naturalist and author Ben Gadd was warning that the deteriorating moraine into which the company has cut their glacier-access road poses a danger to the people and machines which traverse it.
While the July 18 Ice Explorer accident at the Athabasca Glacier is still under investigation, and Gadd wouldn’t speculate on cause of the tragedy, in 2011 the former Jasper resident wrote to JNP’s then-superintendent, Greg Fenton, alerting him that the gradual deformation of the moraine poses a significant risk to public safety.
“The scenario that comes to mind is catastrophic,” Gadd wrote. “Ice Explorers, shuttle buses, parking bays, park visitors and Brewster staff being swept 75 metres down to the ice in a slurry of mud and boulders.”
Gadd was referencing a 2008 PhD-level scientific paper that appeared in the geo-technical journal Landslides. The paper, called “Large-scale moraine deformation at the Athabasca Glacier,” documented “progressive gravitational deformation leading to a network of fractures, bulging, and the development of a large gap in the moraine crest” since the early 1950s.
In other words, Gadd translated, “it says that the staging area is creeping downhill toward the ice at a rate of 1.4 metres per year… because the glacier is melting downward, providing less and less support for the moraine, which is also being pushed down from above.”
The authors, based out of the University of Calgary, concluded their paper by noting that as a major attraction with thousands of visitors travelling onto the glacier each day during the tourist season via specialized mechanized vehicles, the moraine deformation raises concern as to the overall stability of slopes and the future viability of this operation.
“Despite the slow rate of deformation…the potential for failure cannot be discounted,” it states.
In his seven-page letter, the main theme of which was to call into question Parks Canada’s consideration of approving the Glacier Skywalk, Gadd asked Fenton if he would prioritize the safety of park visitors and Brewster staff using the moraine, and close the staging area immediately.
He never got a reply.
Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com
