Glacier bus ride

People love to visit the Columbia Icefields. But if you're not an accomplished hiker, how do you venture onto the glacier without falling into a crevasse?

Simple. Take the bus. These enormous vehicles are called Ice Explorers. There are only 23 in the world and they're unique to the Icefields, except for one that ended up in Antarctica. Oh, and one got as far as Banff.

The bus engines are 260 horsepower and their tires are soft -- filled only to 18 psi, to avoid damage to the ice. Climbing the moraine, they travel over the steepest unpaved road in North America, with a 32 percent grade, as this picture from the window shows. Scary.