Against her better judgment, Chris Gitelson follows her childhood friend, Aileen Sesso, onto the glass floor of the Glacier Skywalk and sits down.

They’re 280 metres above the Sunwapta Valley, a canyon with the Sunwapta River running through it, on opening day for the skywalk, a controversial development in Jasper National Park.

I can’t stay here. I can’t. I can’t believe I’m sitting out here

“I love it,” said Ms. Sesso. “I have a keen sense of adventure, so this is not scary for me.”

Ms. Gitelson isn’t so sure.

“I haven’t really looked down yet,” she said. “Oh, my God. Oh, I can’t stay here. I can’t. I can’t believe I’m sitting out here. You made me do this.”

Gavin Young / Postmedia NewsVisitors take in the opening day of the Glacier Skywalk near Alberta’s Columbia Icefields in Jasper National Park Thursday May 1, 2014.

Ms. Sesso, who has been friends with Ms. Gitelson since they were Grade 1 classmates in Brooklyn, N.Y., laughs.

“You don’t even want to know the things I made her do when we were kids,” said Ms. Sesso, as the pair embarks on their latest adventure in the Canadian Rockies with their husbands.

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