Alpine landscape. A.O. Wheeler/Interprovincial Boundary Survey R214/Library and Archives Canada/e010675608, 1917.

This historic black and white photo from 1917 shows a face-on view of the Athabasca Glacier, seen from directly across the valley from below Wilcox Peak. The bottom half of the photo features a long white glacier flowing in a broad curve downward into a bare, stony valley from a saddle-shaped ridgeline stretched between two high rocky mountain peaks. The mountains to either side are partially covered in snow and ice. The massive curving glacier fills much of the valley bottom, and is flanked by rocky moraine ridges on either side for most of its length. The toe of the glacier is near the bottom of the barren valley, at the bottom of the image, and runs out of frame on the viewer’s lower right side. The top half of the photo is dominated by an off-white overcast sky.