The Columbia Ice Fields in Banff, Canada

Last Spring, my boyfriend and I did a road trip up to Banff, Canada for a week. We wanted to have a classic road trip out West, and to camp in a tent in Banff. In many ways this displays our romantic notions of the Good- Ol’ American Road Trip, something we both have enjoyed since our childhoods. We both grew up in similar Midwestern families that, instead of flying to the Caribbean for vacations, would go camping, or take road trips to National Parks. In this way, our nostalgia for the freedom and escape of a road trip is due mostly to the environments in which we were raised.

There is one place we went to in Banff that I think deserves some extra cultural studies examination. The Columbia Ice fields is a glacier region in northern Banff National Park that has become a popular tourist destination. For a fee of $50 per person, you can board a huge Ice Explorer mobile (somewhere between a military tank and a moon-moblie) and ride out onto the famous Athabasca Glacier. The Ice Explorer rides over extremely rough terrain that not even a Hummer can handle. During the ride, the bus driver tells you all the facts about this fantastic vehicle, and about the beautiful glacier that surrounds you.

The Explorer rides out onto the glacier, and then lets the passengers off to walk around the Glacier in a designated area. The glacier itself is actually very dangerous and unstable and many people have died there over the years by falling into cracks in the ice. However, the Columbia Ice fields staff test the glacier and find specific safe zones that are stable enough for tourists to stand on.They even encourage tourists to bring water bottles along to fill up with fresh and pure glacier water.

What is interesting about this is that we came to Banff to “get away from it all” and to be surrounded by the mountains and nature. Yet, even here, there is a tourist attraction that you can pay lots of money to go and see. On the other hand, we would never have been able to say we stood on a glacier if it was not for this company. Despite the paradox of a tourist attraction in such a wild natural place, this turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip.

The Columbia Ice Fields gets millions of tourists each year that come from all over the world to stand on the Athabasca Glacier. I think what draws so many people to this place is that it mimics the romantic idea of an Explorer conquering the wild terrain. By paying to ride the Ice mobile, you get to conquer a glacier and tame mother nature, all without too much physical exertion. The message of this National Park is that you should enjoy nature, feel “at one” with it, and go out and explore it. They really go out of their way to make it easy for people to do so. The romantic idea of escaping into nature is indeed very attractive to lots of people, including myself. I loved Banff and loved the Columbia Icefields. Like many other visitors to Banff, I was eager and willing to pay my fifty bucks in order to stand on an amazing and somewhat terrifying glacier, drink the glacier water, and snap a few pictures.