Peyto Main
Reference CryoNet Station Information

Peyto Glacier in Banff National Park is a valley outflow glacier Wapta Icefield in the Waputik Mountains, a part of the Canadian Rocky Mountains – the headwaters of major river systems in western Canada [location map is included]. During the 1960s, the area of the glacier was 13.4 km². However, it has been continuously losing mass since the mid-1970s (9.9 km² of the glacier as of 2016) and the new proglacial lake formed at the tongue of the glacier is increasing in size every year. The lake in the research basin has been named as ‘Lake Munro’ by the Centre for Hydrology (University of Saskatchewan) to honor Scott Munro’s research contribution to the glacier. Peyto Creek flowing out of Lake Munro drains the Peyto Glacier Research Basin (22.4 km²) and discharges to Peyto Lake, which has outflow into the Mistaya River, one of the tributaries of the North Saskatchewan River.

Although the first record of Peyto Glacier goes back to the photograph in 1896 by Walter D. Wilcox, significant research of the glacier began in 1965, when it was selected as one of the research sites for the International Hydrological Decade (IHD). The past studies over the glacier is well documented in the book – ‘Peyto Glacier: One Century of Science’ edited by Demuth et al., (2006). Automatic weather stations (AWS) were installed on the ice and off-glacier sites and several post-IHD-period micrometeorological studies were made by Dr. Scott Munro, University of Toronto. These climate stations are now being continued by the Centre for Hydrology – University of Saskatchewan.

Changing Cold Regions Network, 3. Wapta Icefield/Peyto Glacier, AB. http://ccrnetwork.ca/science/WECC/western-cordillera/peyto-glacier.php