Combatant Mountain, also called Mount Combatant, is a

summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, Canada.

Description

Combatant Mountain is located in the

Waddington Range The Waddington Range is a subrange of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. It is only about in area, relatively small in area within the expanse of the range, but it is the highest area of the Pacif ...

of the

Coast Mountains The Coast Mountains () are a major mountain range in the Pacific Coast Ranges of western North America, extending from southwestern Yukon through the Alaska Panhandle and virtually all of the British Columbia Coast, Coast of British Columbia sout ...

, in a remote wilderness area that few visit. Combatant Mountain is set north of the community of Campbell River and northeast of

Mount Waddington Mount Waddington, once known as Mystery Mountain, is the highest peak in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia, Canada. Although it is lower than Mount Fairweather and Mount Quincy Adams, which straddle the United States border between Alaska ...

, the highest peak of the entire Coast Mountains range. Combatant ranks as the third-highest peak in the Coast Mountains, seventh-highest in British Columbia, and 33rd-highest in Canada. Precipitation runoff and glacier meltwater from the mountain drains to Bute Inlet via the Homathko River.

Topographic relief Terrain (), alternatively relief or topographical relief, is the dimension and shape of a given surface of land. In physical geography, terrain is the lay of the land. This is usually expressed in terms of the elevation, slope, and orientati ...

is significant as the summit rises 1,360 meters (4,462 feet) above the Tiedemann Glacier in 1.5 kilometer (0.9 mile). Combatant Mountain has some of the more challenging and famous rock-climbing routes of the Waddington Range.

History

A photo identifying the peak as "Mt. Combatant" was published in 1929 in the Canadian Alpine Journal. The

first ascent In mountaineering and climbing, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in climbing guidebook, guide books), is the first successful documented climb to the top of a mountain or the top of a particular climbing route. Early 20th-century mountaineers a ...

of the summit was made in 1933 by

Don Munday Walter Alfred Don Munday (1890–1950) was a Canadian explorer, naturalist and mountaineer famous for his explorations of the Coast Mountains with his wife Phyllis, and especially for the exploration of the Waddington Range. Early life Don Munday ...

, Phyllis Munday, Hans Fuhrer, and Henry S. Hall Jr.Chic Scott (2000), ''Pushing the Limits: The Story of Canadian Mountaineering'', Rocky Mountain Books, , p. 119, 409. The name "Combatant Mountain" was identified in 1948 by mountaineer Don Munday and the toponym was officially adopted October 5, 1950, by the

Geographical Names Board of Canada The Geographical Names Board of Canada (GNBC) is a national committee with a secretariat in Natural Resources Canada, part of the Government of Canada, which authorizes the names used and name changes on official federal government maps of Canad ...

. Munday wrote that the peak "presents a slender, fairly symmetrical form, ...a pair of pale reddish buttresses support the twin peaks and a slanting shelf of some breadth breaks the continuity of the eastern buttress in its otherwise clean upthrust out of Tiedemann Glacier. Combatant claims rank as a classic of mountain architecture because of its simplicity and unity in expressing aspiration."''The Unknown Mountain'', Don Munday, Hodder & Stoughton Limited, 1948, p. 202. ''Skywalk'' is a classic climbing route on the Southwest Buttress that was first climbed in 1982 by Scott Flavelle and Dave Lane. The South Buttress was first climbed in August 1994 by Greg Child, Greg Collum and Steve Mascioli via a route they named ''Belligerence''.

Climate

Based on the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

, Combatant Mountain has an

ice cap climate An ice cap climate is a polar climate where no mean monthly temperature exceeds . The climate generally covers areas at high altitudes and Polar regions of Earth, polar regions (60–90° north and south latitude), such as Antarctica and some of ...

. Most

weather front A weather front is a boundary separating air masses for which several characteristics differ, such as air density, wind, temperature, and humidity. Disturbed and unstable weather due to these differences often arises along the boundary. For ins ...

s originate in the Pacific Ocean and travel east toward the Coast Mountains where they are forced upward by the range (

orographic lift Orographic lift occurs when an air mass is forced from a low elevation to a higher elevation as it moves over rising terrain. As the air mass gains altitude it quickly cools down adiabatically, which can raise the relative humidity to 100% and cr ...

), causing them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or snowfall. As a result, the Coast Mountains experience high precipitation, especially during the winter months in the form of snowfall. Winter temperatures can drop below −20 °C with wind chill factors below −30 °C. This climate supports the Chaos, Scimitar, and Tiedemann glaciers surrounding Combatant Mountain.

Gallery

Waddington Range peaks.jpg, Left to rightː Combatant Mountain, Mount Tiedemann, Asperity Mountain, Serra Peaks

Description

History

Climate

Gallery

See also

References

External links