Ice Caves and Tourists

[Peter]

I don't get it. Big warning signs, and still people wander across to peek into the ice caves below an overhanging glacier.

Edited November 13, 2013 by Peter

[PaulGS]

I imagine you've run into your share of folks over the years who've been in places in the backcountry where they probably shouldn't be.

[Peter]

Sure have, Paul. And that's why they put up signs - to protect the tourists from themselves.

This is beneath Angel Glacier on Mt Edith Cavell. For what it's worth, a few weeks after I took this shot, a huge chunk of ice fell off and crashed down on the area in the photo. It narrowly missed killing a few. Fortunately, there was no one in the ice cave, which collapsed completely.

The summer before this, an entire glacier ("The Ghost") fell into the glacial lake from a different face at the same location. It fell perhaps 350 meters and landed in the lake, creating a tsunami that swept a wall of water and debris 20 ft high down the valley. For the approximate volume of ice, imagine a city block, cubed. If it hadn't happened at 5:00 in the morning, 200 -300 people would have been killed.

The valley trails were destroyed, and more signs posted, but the last time I was there the same idiots were traipsing around in the same forbidden areas.

[Dogwood]

I'm like Bill Burr. I'm so pro swine flu. Maybe it's just me, in my travels I notice the trend of so many human centric irrational people with the goal of self satisfaction these days. I strive to always not be one.