Gap Mountain is a mountain summit located at the southern end of the Opal Range in the

Canadian Rockies The Canadian Rockies (french: Rocheuses canadiennes) or Canadian Rocky Mountains, comprising both the Alberta Rockies and the British Columbian Rockies, is the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains. It is the easternmost par ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

. The nearest higher neighbor is Elpoca Mountain, to the east. Gap Mountain is situated 5.0 km south of

Mount Wintour Mount Wintour is a ridge-like mountain summit located in the Opal Range of the Canadian Rockies of Alberta, Canada. It is situated in the Kananaskis River Valley east of Lower Kananaskis Lake Lower Kananaskis Lake is a natural lake that was tu ...

, within

Peter Lougheed Provincial Park Peter Lougheed Provincial Park is a provincial park located in Alberta, Canada. The park is in Kananaskis Country about west of Calgary, along the Kananaskis Trail. This park is within Alberta's Rocky Mountains. The park was originally named ...

. Gap Mountain is a conspicuous peak seen from

Alberta Highway 40 Alberta Provincial Highway No. 40, commonly referred to as Highway 40, is a south-north highway in western Alberta, Canada. It is also named Bighorn Highway and Kananaskis Trail in Kananaskis Country. Its segmented sections extend fro ...

Highwood Pass Highwood Pass is a mountain pass in Kananaskis Country, Alberta, Canada. It lies west of Mount Rae and Mount Arethusa of the Misty Range, south of the Elbow Pass. It lies within the Peter Lougheed Provincial Park on Alberta Highway 40. The Hi ...

. It is a popular climbing destination because it offers interesting, exposed scrambling on its eastern flanks with excellent summit views of

Kananaskis Country Kananaskis Country is a multi-use area west of Calgary, Alberta, Canada in the Rocky Mountain Foothills, foothills and front ranges of the Canadian Rockies. The area is named for the Kananaskis River, which was named by John Palliser in 1858 after ...

History

George Pocaterra named it for its location at the gap between the Opal Range and Elk Range. The mountain's toponym was officially adopted in 1978 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 Can ...

Geology

Gap Mountain is composed of

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms wh ...

laid down during the

Precambrian The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of th ...

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...

periods. Formed in shallow seas, this

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particle ...

was pushed east and over the top of younger rock during the

Laramide orogeny The Laramide orogeny was a time period of mountain building in western North America, which started in the Late Cretaceous, 70 to 80 million years ago, and ended 35 to 55 million years ago. The exact duration and ages of beginning and end of the o ...

. Gap Mountain was created during the

Lewis Overthrust The Lewis Overthrust is a geologic thrust fault structure of the Rocky Mountains found within the bordering national parks of Glacier in Montana, United States and Waterton Lakes in Alberta, Canada. The structure was created due to the collision of ...

. The steeply tilted strata are virtually the same in each peak of the Opal Range, with softer layers sandwiched between harder layers.

Climate

Based on the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

, Gap Mountain is located in a subarctic climate zone with cold, snowy winters, and mild summers. Temperatures can drop below −20 °C with wind chill factors below −30 °C. June through September offer the most favorable weather to climb or view Gap Mountain. Precipitation

runoff Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to: * RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program * Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed * Runoff or run-off, a stock market ...

from the mountain drains into Pocaterra Creek, a tributary of the

Kananaskis River The Kananaskis River is a mountain river in western Alberta, Canada. It is a tributary of the Bow River, crossing the length of Kananaskis Country. The river was named by John Palliser in 1858 after a Cree. Course The Kananaskis originates in ...

Gallery

File:Gap Mountain.jpg, Southwest aspect in winter File:Gap Mountain sw winter.jpg, Northwest aspect in winter File:Kananaskis Park…Highwood Pass Gap Mountain.jpg, Highwood Pass and Gap Mountain File:Elpoca Mountain and Gap Mountain.jpg, Gap Mountain (left) and Elpoca Mountain (right)

References

External links