Crowsnest Mountain
Crowsnest Mountain is a mountain in the southern Canadian Rockies of southwestern Alberta, Canada. It can be seen from Alberta Highway 3 west of the town of Coleman in the Crowsnest Pass. The mountain was originally named by the Ktunaxa First Nations due to ravens nesting in the area.[1] The scrambling route on the north side was first ascended in 1915.[1]
| Crowsnest Mountain | |
|---|---|
 Crowsnest Mountain, March 2010 | |
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 2,785 m (9,137 ft)[1] |
| Prominence | 925 m (3,035 ft)[2] |
| Parent peak | Mount Erris[2] |
| Listing | Mountains of Alberta |
| Coordinates | 49°42′13″N 114°34′26″W[3] |
| Geography | |
  Crowsnest Mountain | |
| Parent range | Crowsnest Range |
| Topo map | NTS 82G10 Crowsnest |
| Geology | |
| Age of rock | Paleozoic (upper), Mesozoic (lower) |
| Mountain type | Limestone[1] |
| Climbing | |
| First ascent | July 28, 1904 by Tom Wilson, Christian Hasler sr., Friedrich Michel[1] |
| Easiest route | moderate scramble[4] |
Geology
The grey rocks exposed in the cliffs on the upper part of Crowsnest Mountain are limestones and shales of Late Devonian to Early Mississippian age (the Palliser at the base, overlain by the Exshaw and Banff, with the Livingstone Formation at the summit). They were moved up from the west along the Lewis thrust fault and emplaced over younger rocks (the Late Cretaceous Belly River Formation) that underlie the wooded lower slopes of the mountain. During that movement they were formed into a broad syncline by fault-bend folding.[5][6]
The Devonian to Mississippian rocks are part of the Lewis thrust sheet which was originally continuous from the High Rock Range immediately to the west. The thrust sheet has since been cut through by erosion along Allison Creek, however, leaving Crowsnest Mountain and its northerly neighbour, Seven Sisters Mountain, standing together as an isolated klippe.[5][6]
References
- "Crowsnest Mountain". cdnrockiesdatabases.ca. Retrieved 2005-07-22.
- "Crowsnest Mountain". Bivouac.com. Retrieved 2008-12-31.
- "Crowsnest Mountain". Geographical Names Data Base. Natural Resources Canada. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
- Kane, Alan (1999). "Crowsnest Mountain". Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies. Calgary: Rocky Mountain Books. pp. 56–58. ISBN 0-921102-67-4.
- R.A.Price, 1961. Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 61-24 and Map 35-1961.
- R.A. Price, 1962. Geologic structure of the central part of the Rocky Mountains in the vicinity of Crowsnest Pass. Journal of the Alberta Society of Petroleum Geologists, vol. 10, no. 7, p. 341-351.
