Stutfield Falls

The Stutfield Glacier is a distributary glacier which radiates from the Columbia Icefields and is prominently identified from the Icefields Parkway. The glacier descends a series of precipitous cliffs on the west flank of Mount Kitchener which cause the glacier to cleave to the valley floor. Because most of the melt from the glacier originates in the higher lobe on the mountainside, a considerable volume of water plunges over these cliffs where the glacier breaks in potentially dozens of separate streams of water, several quite considerable in volume. Because the falls drop into a lower lobe of the glacier below, it's difficult to tell how tall the falls are exactly, but based on rough topographic data it seems likely the total drop is at least 200 meters. If there prove to be exposed upper tiers to the falls as well its height may potentially exceed as much as 300 meters. Unfortunately because there are no trails which cross the Sunwapta River and approach the toe of the glacier, there is no sane way to get closer to the falls, so the only view available is a slightly obstructed view over the top of trees from the Icefields Parkway, from a distance of about 6-1/2 kilometers away.