Chief Mountain

View from the north to the Chief Mountain

The Chief Mountain is a significant elevation on the border of Glacier National Park in the U.S. state of Montana.

Location and Geology

The distinctive cliff of Chief Mountain dominates with its height of 2768 m the surrounding prairie by several hundred meters. Including the hill at his feet, he rises more than 1,500 feet above the surrounding landscape, the eastern side is a nearly vertical wall of about 450 meters. Its isolated location on the border between Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation just a few kilometers south of the border to Alberta made ​​him a major landmark in the exploration of the American West.

The summit is the foremost, most easterly point of the Lewis thrust, a thrust of older, up to 1.5 billion year old rocks from the Proterozoic through younger layers of Quaternary and Cretaceous and the last 100 million years. After being separated by erosion from the ceiling of the Lewis overthrust, he stands today as cliff freely on the much younger bedrock. It consists of Precambrian limestones.

History

The mountain was the resident Blackfoot due to its location and its appearance as sacred. In British maps of the late 18th century it was recognized as Kings Peak. During the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific, Meriwether Lewis reached the mountain in 1805 and named it Tower Peak, this name was the end of the 19th century, replaced by the still in use today, as he is the translation of his name from the language of Blackfoot - ' Big Chief ' (English Big Chief ) - came close. The northwest of the Blackfoot living enemy Stoney called him HuGa Baha ( ' Chief Hill '). With the establishment of Glacier National Park in 1910 were the peak itself and the western wall in the administrative area of the National Park Service, while the eastern flank remained under the care of the Blackfoot Indians.

Tourism

The Chief Mountain is named and orientation point of the Chief Mountain International Highway, an open only from mid-May to mid-September road link between the Waterton Lakes National Park and Glacier National Park. It offers great views of the Chief Mountain and the mountains of both national parks.

The first ascent by white settlers took place on September 8, 1892 by Henry Stimson with the help of another white man and a black foot Indian, during which the sacrificial sites were at the summit with bison bones found which prove that the summit previously indigenous as a place of worship peoples had served. Only in 1951 was the second ascent of the already chosen by Stimson route over the east, now - is considered normal route - despite known alternative routes.

The mountain is regarded as mountaineering challenge, even the simplest climbs on summit ridge sections of class 4 of Glacier National Park Rock & Grading Systems. This difficult climbs are classified, the difficulty mainly lies in the exposure of and where a fall has serious or even fatal consequences. Despite the low technical difficulty therefore security cable is recommended. In addition, the sedimentary rock provides insufficient opportunities for use of aids.