About half way between Lake Louise and Jasper you can find the Icefield center, the base for some tourist attraction like the glacier skywalk and Ice explorer, as this is run by the same company as the gondola, I get a chance to do these attraction for free.
The Ice explorer is some huge buses the bring on on the middle of the glacier, on a small area that have been secured. I think for someone that have never seen a glacier before the experience can be really nice, but for anyone that just a bit of experience with glacier it will just feel like goin walking on a carpark few days after a big snow fall.
The skywalk is a really new attraction, it is basicly just a big viewpoint on the side of the road, with a glace floor to make you feel a bit more the high of it. it feel to me that it is just one of the many amazing viewpoint that are all along the road that have been closed, just to force tourist to pay for a viewpoint that use to be free, and they put a bit of attraction with this huge glace floor and lot’s of information about glacier and wildlife to justify to make people pay for something that supposed to be free.
these attraction are still interesting, but i wouldn't pay for it.
few weeks after doing these attraction i came back in these area just to climb some of the mountain around. the first one i did is Wilcox peak (2884m), it is fairly easy and not to long to reach the summit but the view from the top is really amazing. You can clearly see the ice explorer and the skywalk, that looks a bit ridiculous from up there (have a look on the photosynth) as it is often described in scrambling guide, it is the “best view for energy spent” in the Canadian Rockies.
The next day I decided to do another mountain, Nigel Peak (3211m). It is just next to Wilcox peaks, it is a bit higher and much more difficult climb. the view from up there is also amazing, but that day there was a bit of smoke all around so the view wasn't as clear as the day before on Wilcox peak.
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