Following the South Ram River past the historic Headwater's Caimg, this trip leads to the source of the river at the Ram River Glacier. At the base of the Ram River Glacier lies a small lake with two old nordic style shelters built several decades ago. Research teams of the Ram River Glacier use this location as a base camp for their work in the summer. The Ram River Glacier is the water source for the South Ram River, and eventually the North Saskatchewan River. A variety of wildlife including bighorn sheep and mountain goats inhabit the upper ram valley south of the lower ram falls. This area contains several environmentally sensitive species which are characteristic of higher elevation ecosystems of Alberta. Given our environmental backgrounds in related fields of Natural Resources precautions were taken to minimize our impacts in this ecosystem.
Access: Helicopter, foot. We were able to access the glacier by ATV from the Ram River staging area ( N52° 04 30.7 W115° 56 36.1 Elev:5607ft. ) and traveling to the lower headwater falls of the Ram River. This trail has since been closed to ATV use. From there a short scramble is required to reach the upper Ram valley above the falls and it is approximatley another 9 km to the base of the glacier. The scramble above the upper Ram River Falls is unmarked and should not be attempted without appropriate gear and knowledge of the area. We will not disclose our access as we would like to keep people who should be there out, if they do manage to make it to the area under the current restrictions.
Ram Glacier Research : Michael N. Demuth (P.Eng., P.Geo.) is a research scientist with Natural Resources Canada. His work is funded by NRCan, EC, Alberta Environment and various funding programmes such as the Climate Change Action Fund (CCAF), the Program on Energy Research and Development (PERD), and the AP2000-Systematic Climate Observation Program. His work observations from this site form part of Canada's contribution to the specialized terrestrial networks of the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS-GTN-Glacier). One of the goals of their work is to partition the climate change signal into its natural and human-induced components.
They currently have University and private sector partners working on several sites. Apparently the small huts on this site were built as part of glacier hydrology/water resources studies conducted for the UNESCO International Hydrological Decade initiated in 1965. This work was conducted initially by the old EMR Mines and Technical Surveys group and subsequently by the National Water Research Institute of Environment Canada. The Ram River Glacier site was closed down after 1975, but recently reopended as part of a rejuvenated research programme to attend the glacier/water resource issues of the eastern slopes and the western prairies. Since 1998, Environment Canada and Natural Resources Canada have created a "National Glaciology Programme", for which Michael N. Demuth is a lead investigator as it concerns studies of glaciers in the Cordillera.
Michael N. Demuth has provided some of his work on the Ram River Glacier which can be viewed here:
