First things first...I did not take this picture. This was taken from the Club Tread website (photo taken by Paul Chicoine) and is a view of Wegemount Glacier in 1976. As you can see, the glacier is thick and runs directly into the lake. The next picture shows what it looks like today, and how dramatically it's changed in the past 3 decades.

Ashik and Neel at the Wedgemount Lake trailhead.

After 3 hours of hiking uphill, we finally made the lake. It was a beautiful day and the lake was an incredible shade of blue. After a quick break and some subway, we decided to head around the north shore of the lake towards the Wedgemount Glacier.

A picture looking back at Wedgemount Lake and Rethel Mountain. Besides the lake (which is always cool), the whispy clouds were really unique. The classic shot of Wedgemount Lake is always taken from just near the hut. It was cool to go beyond the hut and get a different perspective of the lake....

Wedgemount Deep Thoughts....

The trail ends at a snowfield just before the glacier. At this point, we decided to head up and over the snowfield on some nasty rocks. Ashik and Neel both learned firsthand about rockfall and got a taste of some light scrambling.

Tear drop from the skies.... Looking back at Wedgemount Lake from the snout of Wedgemount Glacier. It's unfortunate to see how much Wedgemount Glacier has receeded. In the 70's, the glacier reached all the way to the lake.

At the beginning of the day, we contemplated hiking up Mt. Cook (mountain in the top right of this picture) after getting to the lake. After reaching the lake, we decided that we'd had enough of the straight up hiking, and decided instead to go check out the glacier up close and personal.

Looking straight up at the glacier. If we were better trained, we'd have kept hiking up the glacier with axes, crampons and possibly ropes. Further up, there's ice caves to explore and also several routes up Wedge, Weart, Parkhurst and Rethel mountains. Maybe next time we'll invest in a guide to lead us up.

Taking a break at the glacier. The glacier is quite dirty as it's constantly grinding up the rock and debris into a fine "rock flour". This rock flour, in turn, is carried into the lake from the glacier drainage and is what causes the spectacular blue colors of Wedgemount Lake.

Ashik doesn't really like water...In this picture, he's attempting to build a small bridge across a creek of glacier runoff. His attempts were futile, as each boulder tossed into the runoff was just swallowed up by the icy water. After much heckling, Ashik gave into peer pressure and forded the river. Luckily for him, he was not swept away and managed to cross the creek (see next picture as he conquers his fears once and for all).

Proof that fears can be conquered. After 5 minutes of building a bridge (which inevitably failed), and another 10 minutes of perusing the rocky shore for an easier crossing, Ashik finally decided to go for it and ford the gushing river. Luckily the current was minimal, and water only ankle deep.

A small creek leading into Wedgemount Lake (Rethel Mountain in the background)

Taken in July 2007, almost 30 years since the previous picture. The Wedgemount Glacier no longer runs directly into the Lake. In fact, it's a decent hike just to reach the snout of the glacier from the hut. We noticed red paint markings in several areas which look to be attempts of tracking the receeding glacier.

A new trail was established last Fallthat leads to the shoreline of Wedgemount Lake. This is a great addition, and hopefully will prevent unnecessary trampling of the fragile alpine vegetation.