Twenty-one kilometres of cave that ends under the Columbia Icefield
Canada’s second longest cave, 21,311 metres of surveyed passage as of 2024 and 388 metres deep, running north from its entrance in Banff National Park until it ends UNDERNEATH the Columbia Icefield. Plugs of glacial ice have been pushed down into the far passages from the sole of the icefield above, which happens nowhere else on Earth. The entrance has been gated since the 1970s, and Parks Canada issues permits to qualified parties on application. Getting there is a 20 kilometre ski hauling sleds, or a helicopter, and it is done in mid or late winter because the entrance floods the rest of the year. The classic trip is 9 kilometres of passage and four or five days underground at two camps. Not a visit: an expedition.
Other places on the map within a couple of hours.
