The Lillooet Icecap, also called the Lillooet Icefield or the Lillooet Crown, is a large icefield in the

Pacific Ranges The Pacific Ranges are the southernmost subdivision of the Coast Mountains portion of the Pacific Cordillera. Located entirely within British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada, they run northwest from the lower stretches of the Fraser River to B ...

of the

Coast Mountains The Coast Mountains () are a major mountain range in the Pacific Coast Ranges of western North America, extending from southwestern Yukon through the Alaska Panhandle and virtually all of the British Columbia Coast, Coast of British Columbia sout ...

in southwestern

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. It is about northwest of the towns of Pemberton and Whistler, and about north of

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

. The Lillooet Icecap is one of the largest of several large icefields in the Pacific Ranges which are the largest temperate-latitude glacial fields in the world. At its maximum extent including its glacial tongues it measures east to west and north to south; its central icefield area is approximately in diameter. The Lillooet Icecap is the source of several major rivers which radiate out from it in a wheel pattern. The

Lillooet River The Lillooet River is a major river of the southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia. It begins at Silt Lake, on the southern edge of the Lillooet Crown Icecap about 80 kilometres northwest of Pemberton and about 85 kilometres northwest of W ...

is fed by the Lillooet Glacier on the icefield's southern flank and runs southeast via Pemberton to Harrison Lake. The

Bridge River The Bridge River is an approximately long river in southern British Columbia. It flows south-east from the Coast Mountains. Until 1961, it was a major tributary of the Fraser River, entering that stream about six miles upstream from the town of L ...

is fed by the Bridge Glacier on the icefield's eastern flank and runs east to the town of

Lillooet Lillooet () is a district municipality in the Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern British Columbia. The town is on the west shore of the Fraser River immediately north of the Seton River mouth. On BC Highway 99, the locality is by road abo ...

. On the icefield's north side are the

Taseko River The Taseko River or Dasiqox in the original Chilcotin, is a tributary of British Columbia's Chilko River, a tributary of the Chilcotin River which joins the Fraser near the city of Williams Lake. The Taseko has its origins at Taylor Pass in t ...

(a tributary of the

Chilcotin River The Chilcotin River /tʃɪlˈkoʊtɪn/ located in Southern British Columbia, Canada is a long tributary of the Fraser River. The name Chilcotin comes from Tŝilhqot’in, meaning "ochre river people," where ochre refers to the mineral used by ...

), the

Lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the Peerage o ...

and

Tchaikazan River The Tchaikazan River is an important tributary of the Taseko River in the Chilcotin District of the Central Interior of British Columbia, flowing into it from the southwest at the narrows of the Taseko Lakes from its source on the north flank of M ...

s (tributaries of the Taseko), and the Edmond River which feeds

Chilko Lake Chilko or ''chilco'' may refer to: *Chilko River *Tŝilhqox Biny, known as Chilko Lake. *Various plants in Chile and Argentina: :*Some of the ''Baccharis'' genus: ::*'' Baccharis chilco''; ::*'' Baccharis fevillea'', also known as chilca; ::*'' Bac ...

, the source of the

Chilko River The Chilko River is a river in the Chilcotin District of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada, flowing northeast from Chilko Lake to the Chilcotin River. Its main tributary is the Taseko River. The Chilko is the Chilcotin River's ...

, which like the Taseko is a tributary of the

. On the west side of the icecap are the sources of the

Southgate River The Southgate River is a river in the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in British Columbia, Canada, entering the head of Bute Inlet, on that province's South Coast, just east of the mouth of the Homathko River at Waddington Harbour. The lo ...

runs to Waddington Harbour at the head of

Bute Inlet Bute Inlet is one of the principal inlets of the British Columbia Coast. It is long from the estuaries of the Homathko and Southgate Rivers at the head of the inlet, to the mouth, where it is nearly blocked by Stuart Island, and it averages a ...

and shares a common delta with the

Homathko River The Homathko River is one of the major rivers of the southern Coast Mountains of the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is one of the few rivers that penetrates the range from the interior Chilcotin Country to the coastal inlets of the P ...

, and the Toba River, which runs to

Toba Inlet Toba Inlet is one of the lesser, but still principal, inlets of the British Columbia Coast. It is fourth in the series north from the 49th parallel which begins with Burrard Inlet, which is the harbour for the city of Vancouver. Between it and J ...

. The divide between the Lillooet and Southgate Rivers is on the southwestern flank of the icefield and is named Ring Pass. This was investigated for a possible route for the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

but the survey party led by Stanley Smith was lost and never found. The Stanley Smith Glacier and Frank Smith Glacier in the central area of the Lillooet Icecap are named in their memory. Southwest of Ring Pass is the

Compton Névé The Compton Névé is a névé in the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in southwestern British Columbia, Canada, located southeast of the Homathko Icefield and Mount Gilbert and to the south of the Bishop River. It lies west of the Lillooet ...

, another large icecap. The Lillooet Icecap and Compton Névé form one contiguous icemass, but because they are two distinct massifs of the lower elevation and active glacial movement in Ring Pass they have been customarily considered to be separate.

External links

Lillooet Icefield
Canadian Mountain Encyclopedia *
''Bridge Glacier Retreat Acceleration, BC, Canada'', GlacierChange blog
Glaciers of the Pacific Ranges Ice fields of British Columbia {{canada-glacier-stub

See also

External links