The ice road between Fort McMurray and Fort Chipewyan is maintained by the Wood Buffalo municipality, which provides road condition information here and the ice road onward north through Wood Buffalo National Park is maintained by Parks Canada, which provides information on conditions here. In summer, the options for getting to Fort Chip are either a boat or a plane – there is no permanent road from any direction. ARRIVING FLIGHTS BUFFALO MACFort Chipewyan, or “Fort Chip,” a hamlet inside the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, is a 99-mile (159.5-km) drive from Fort Mac on the winter ice road and from there it’s another 212 miles (340 km) to Fort Smith, across the provincial line in Northwest Territories. Winter travel is facilitated by ice roads over frozen lakes that take more direct routes rather than circumventing water. The ease of getting around the region varies depending on the time of year. (Credit: awmcphee, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons) The beginning of the winter ice road from Fort McMurray to Fort Chipewyan. Although the first written description of the oil sands dates back to 1790, exploration didn’t start for another 130 years and significant development didn’t begin until after the global oil crisis of the 1970s. Bitumen oil deposits are so heavy and thick – hence the description “oil sands” – they must be heated or diluted to liquify to the consistency of cold molasses. Surrounded by boreal forest, or snow forest, at the confluence of four rivers – Athabasca, Clearwater, Hangingstone and Horse – Fort Mac is an economic boomtown thanks to the Athabasca oil sands, the world’s largest proven reservoir of crude bitumen, containing an estimated 166.3 billion barrels. It also encompasses eight hamlets and 39 other localities. The municipality covers 37,555 square miles (97,267 square kilometers) making it larger than the country of Portugal or the U.S. Technically, Fort Mac isn’t a city, but an urban service area within the larger Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo in northeast Alberta. Wednesdays and Sundays Starting November 30įort McMurray Airport, 100 Snow Bird Way, on Google Mapsįort McMurray International Airport is less than 9½ miles (15 km) southeast of downtown Fort McMurray, or “Fort Mac,” as it’s called locally. Fort McMurray International Airport (YMM)
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