A new electric tourist buggy that drives out on the Athabasca Glacier.ROAM Creative and Pursuit/Supplied
Two giant buses pass each other on the steep gravel road leading to the Athabasca Glacier, an ever-melting finger of ice that’s part of the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park. Rocco Russo, our tour guide and bus driver, exchanges waves with the other driver and his passengers. One bus burns diesel. The other one, the one Russo is driving, runs on electricity – mostly from solar and regenerative braking that recharges the battery.
It’s springtime in the Canadian Rockies, the time of year when four seasons of weather can be crammed into 10 minutes. Tourists are getting a crash course in mountain meteorology. Bright sunshine turns to swirling snow, hail, a sprinkle of rain, then back to blue sky.
A lucky few are also experiencing something else as the first visitors to ride an electric-powered Ice Explorer bus. This Canadian-designed-and-built, big-wheeled 52-passenger bus with wide windows and solar panels on its roof hums quietly as it climbs the steep glacier road. It’s specially made for travelling on snow and ice and is a one of a kind in the world. At least so far.
American-owned Pursuit Attractions and Hospitality, Inc. operates in the U.S., Costa Rica, Iceland and Canada, where it owns more than 50 hotels, restaurants, and visitor attractions in the Canadian Rockies.
The electric tourist buggy is Canadian-designed-and-built and features solar panels on its roof.ROAM Creative and Pursuit/Supplied
Every year approximately 1.2-million people travel the Icefields Parkway between Lake Louise and Jasper. Many of them are on Pursuit bus tours and often they are visiting the company’s marquee attraction: the Columbia Icefield Adventure, a three-hour excursion that takes tourists aboard buses onto the Athabasca Glacier.
One hundred and fifty years ago this glacier stretched close to where Pursuit’s Glacier View Lodge now stands. Since then, the ice has receded two kilometres, leaving behind a barren glacial outwash of rock and gravel.
When Pursuit was looking for places to invest in decarbonizing its operations, the Columbia Icefield was an obvious choice. It’s an iconic attraction that gets a lot of eyeballs. Fittingly, it’s also a place where visitors can witness glacier loss and consider the connection with climate change and burning fossil fuels.
Bringing the electric Ice Explorer from concept to completion took three years. It’s a triumph for Pursuit’s project partner Noble Northern, the Manitoba-based company that cut its teeth manufacturing custom electric tundra buggies used for polar-bear viewing in northern Manitoba.
Many of the approximately 1.2-million people that travel the Icefields Parkway between Lake Louise and Jasper are on Pursuit bus tours, often visiting the company’s marquee attraction: the Columbia Icefield Adventure.ROAM Creative and Pursuit/Supplied
On a single charge, the Ice Explorer’s battery holds enough juice for between 30 and 35 trips up and down the glacier, with the solar panels on the bus’s roof and its regenerative breaking system topping up the battery between charges. In order to maximize efficiency, Noble Northern cut the frame weight in half.
“It’s a very advanced and unique vehicle, and we’re really proud of the fact that it’s Canadian innovation and making it supported six high-end manufacturing jobs,” says Tye Noble, president of Noble Northern.
This shiny blue and white electric bus is a significant milestone for Pursuit. One of them doing eight trips per day for a 150-day season could prevent 52 tonnes of CO₂e (carbon dioxide equivalent) from entering the atmosphere, according to Afzal Minhas, COO of GreenStep, the Kelowna-based consulting firm that is helping Pursuit cut greenhouse gas emissions. For every trip booked, Pursuit contributes two dollars into a GreenStep-managed EcoFund that is then invested back into company decarbonization projects, such as electrifying the Ice Explorer.
Pursuit is a big player in Canadian Rockies mass tourism. Decisions it makes can have an impact. Alex Grant, VP of Operations for Pursuit’s Banff Jasper Collection, knows the company is under the public microscope.
On a single charge, the Ice Explorer’s battery holds enough juice for between 30 and 35 trips up and down the glacier.ROAM Creative and Pursuit/Supplied
Two years ago, some of Pursuit’s competitors in Rockies tourism, led by Adam Waterous – the Calgary oil-patch investor and owner of the Mt. Norquay Ski Resort – filed a complaint against Pursuit with the Canadian Competition Bureau for monopolization of attractions in the Canadian Rockies. In 2025, the bureau cleared the company of wrongdoing but Grant admits that the publicity left some lingering negative public perceptions.
Grant prefers to focus on the company’s efforts to green up operations one tonne of carbon at a time.
“If we have a successful operating experience this year, then we will definitely look at how we can expand this across our entire operations,” he said. This could include replacing the entire fleet of 20 diesel-powered Ice Explorer buses and exploring possibilities for electrifying its fleet of motor coaches and tour boats operating in Jasper and Banff national parks.
On this tempestuous spring day, tourists are definitely curious about the big electric ice bus. The surrounding mountains have suddenly vanished among threatening clouds. It’s snowing again. German, French, Cantonese and a good old American drawl can be heard among the crowd shuffling around on a slushy parking lot carved into the surface of the Athabasca Glacier. Many of them seem less interested in mountain panoramas than they are in snapping selfies with Russo, the gregarious tour guide, in front of this Canadian-made electric Ice Explorer that he’s lucky enough to be the first to drive.
More green leaders in tourism
Churchill, Man.: Churchill Wild (churchillwild.com) sets a high sustainability bar. This polar bear viewing company deploys a range of sustainability measures in its accommodations, including grey-water recycling, solar power and design that uses ambient light to minimize reliance on fossil fuels. It also uses as much locally sourced lumber and recycled materials as possible in its lodge construction, and harvests fruits and vegetables from its Prairie Wild farm in southern Manitoba.
Newfoundland and Labrador: Tour Gros Morne’s (tourgrosmorne.com) sustainability pledge includes using low-carbon transportation when possible, as well as locally sourced food from Gros Morne Farm and Market, Gros Morne Coffee Roasters, and local fishers and farmers that minimize plastic waste. The company’s Take 3 for the Sea commitment requires guides and encourages guests to collect three pieces of garbage while on adventures in Grose Morne National Park.
Vancouver Island, B.C.: The Inn at Laurel Point (laurelpoint.com) at the mouth of Victoria’s Inner Harbour has been racking up sustainability awards for years. In 2009 this classic property, with a gorgeous wing designed by the late modernist architect Arthur Erickson, became the first carbon neutral hotel in British Columbia through a range of carbon reduction, waste diversion and operational efficiency measures. The hotel holds four Green Keys through Green Key Global, achieved Biosphere Sustainable Certification in 2023 and has earned three EcoStar Awards over the past decade.
Special to The Globe and Mail
The writer was a guest of Pursuit. It did not review or approve this article. Stories are based on merit; The Globe does not guarantee coverage.
