Crowsnest Mountain

Crowsnest Mountain and Crowsnest Lake on Crowsnest Highway from

Crowsnest Mountain and the Seven Sisters (left) bdep2

View from the summit of Crowsnest Mountain to the west; in the middle ground, the watershed of the High Rock Range, behind British Columbiabdep3

The Crowsnest Mountain (English for " Crow's Nest Mountain" ) is a 2785 m high mountain in the Canadian Rocky Mountains in southwestern Alberta. He is very isolated and is just to the north over a saddle with its neighbors, the Seven Sisters connected. It lies east of the continental divide between the Pacific and Arctic. Not far from the mountain offers the Crowsnest Pass a transition of this watershed, which is at once between the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia; the pass road, the Highway 3 is called on its entire route through the Rocky Mountains as the Crowsnest Highway.

Name

The name comes from the Cree Indians, who derived it from nesting in the area black birds. In fact, it is said to have acted but not crows, but crows here.

Geology

The upper regions, the steep walls of the mountain, made ​​of limestone, which originated in the Paleozoic, while the lower parts of the mountain are made formed in the Mesozoic strata and are therefore younger. This feature is reflected in the paradoxical statement, the mountain stands upside down ( "upside down" ), resist. Originally, the upper, older layers to the adjacent High Rock Range were connected. During the orogeny, they were shifted to the east, across the younger rock strata that now form the base of the mountain. Glacier flows eventually made ​​for a removal of the rock around the mountain and left it in its present form.

First ascent

The British climber Edward Whymper, first ascent of the Matterhorn, had already traveled the region in 1903 and planned for 1904, the ascent of the mountain, which had previously been thought impossible. With the Canadian climber Tom Wilson, who worked as a young man for the Canadian Railway in the Rocky Mountains and discovered Lake Louise in 1882, had agreed Whymper that this circle with the Swiss guides Christian Hassler Sr. and Frederick Michel the mountain and explore should. After they had refunded Whymper report, this would determine how to proceed. Wilson and the two Swiss broke on July 26, 1904 and built on the west side of the mountain camp. On July 29, Whymper reached a telegram that the mountain was climbed and we expect further instructions. The three climbers had the temptation can not resist and climbed the mountain on July 28. Whymper reacted angrily, because this first ascent had escaped him, but because his instructions had been ignored even more.

Meanwhile, the mountain is often climbed in 1915 opened increase from north is regarded as moderately difficult ( UIAA II).