The Kaskawulsh Glacier is a vast, temperate

valley glacier A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams ...

nestled in the St. Elias Mountains, within

Kluane National Park Kluane National Park and Reserve (; french: Parc national et réserve de parc national de Kluane) are two protected areas in the southwest corner of the territory of Yukon. The National Park Reserve was set aside in 1972 to become a national par ...

in the

Canadian territory Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British Nor ...

Yukon Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...

Geography

Located approximately above sea level, the glacier covers more than of the surrounding landscape. It terminates at the head of two river valleys, the Slims and the Kaskawulsh River, which feed the

Yukon River The Yukon River ( Gwich'in: ''Ųųg Han'' or ''Yuk Han'', Yup'ik: ''Kuigpak'', Inupiaq: ''Kuukpak'', Deg Xinag: ''Yeqin'', Hän: ''Tth'echù'' or ''Chuu k'onn'', Southern Tutchone: Chu Nìikwän, russian: Юкон, Yukon) is a major watercour ...

(via

Kluane Lake Kluane Lake is located in the southwest area of the Yukon. It is the largest lake contained entirely within Yukon at approximately , and long. Kluane Lake is located approximately northwest of Haines Junction. The Alaska Highway follows most of ...

) and

Alsek River The Alsek River (; Tlingit ''Aalseix̱' '') is a wilderness river flowing from Yukon into Northern British Columbia and into Alaska. It enters the Gulf of Alaska at Dry Bay. Most of the Alsek River's basin is within protected wilderness areas ...

systems respectively. The Kaskawulsh is the result of two converging outlet glaciers, the Central and North Arms, and is an impressive wide at its broadest point.

Waterflow

Until 2016, abundant melt water from the Kaskawulsh was channeled by ice dam to drain through the

Slims River The Slims River (Ä’äy Chù) was a glacially fed river in the Canadian territory of Yukon. Until 2016, it originated in the Kaskawulsh Glacier, then ran approximately 15 mi (24 km) into the southern terminus of Kluane Lake. Over the ...

, north to

, and ultimately to the

Bering Sea The Bering Sea (, ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasses on Earth: Eurasia and The Am ...

. In 2016, as the glacier receded, the predominant flow abruptly switched to the Kaskawulsh River, flowing east and then south to

and to the

Gulf of Alaska The Gulf of Alaska (Tlingit: ''Yéil T'ooch’'') is an arm of the Pacific Ocean defined by the curve of the southern coast of Alaska, stretching from the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island in the west to the Alexander Archipelago in the east ...

. As the water level at Kluane Lake continues to drop, researchers expect this will become an isolated lake cut off from any outflow.

Tourism

Backpackers can visit the Kaskawulsh along the popular Slims River West Trail, which follows the Slims River south for before ending at the summit of Observation Mountain near the toe of the glacier. Backpackers can also follow the Slims River East Route to reach the toe of the glacier, also known as the

glacier terminus A glacier terminus, toe, or snout, is the end of a glacier at any given point in time. Although glaciers seem motionless to the observer, in reality glaciers are in endless motion and the glacier terminus is always either advancing or retreati ...

. File:Kaskawulsh Glacier 1992.jpeg, Terminus of the Kaskawulsh Glacier File:Kaskawulsh Glacier Moraines.jpg, Kaskawulsh Glacier medial moraine. August 2013 File:Kaskawulsh Glacier Seen from the NW.jpg, Kaskawulsh Glacier seen from Mount Weyprecht. August 2013

References

{{Commons Category, Kaskawulsh Glacier Glaciers of Yukon Kluane National Park and Reserve Saint Elias Mountains