Mount Athabasca is in the

Columbia Icefield The Columbia Icefield is the largest ice field in North America's Rocky Mountains. Located within the Canadian Rocky Mountains astride the Continental Divide along the border of British Columbia and Alberta, Canada, the ice field lies partly ...

Jasper National Park Jasper National Park, in Alberta, Canada, is the largest national park within Alberta's Rocky Mountains, spanning . It was established as Jasper Forest Park in 1907, renamed as a national park in 1930, and declared a UNESCO world heritage site ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. The mountain was named in 1898 by J. Norman Collie, who made the first ascent on August 18 of that year. Athabasca is the

Cree language Cree ( ; also known as Cree–Montagnais language, Montagnais–Naskapi language, Naskapi) is a dialect continuum of Algonquian languages spoken by approximately 86,475 people across Canada in 2021, from the Northwest Territories to Alberta to ...

name for "where there are reeds", which originally referred to

Lake Athabasca Lake Athabasca ( ; French: ''lac Athabasca''; from Woods Cree: , " herethere are plants one after another") is in the north-west corner of Saskatchewan and the north-east corner of Alberta between 58° and 60° N in Canada. The lake is ...

. Mount Athabasca is unusual, in that water flows to the Pacific Ocean from the western slope, the Arctic Ocean from the northeastern slope, and to Hudson Bay from the southeastern slope.

Geography of Alberta Alberta is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. Located in Western Canada, the province has an area of and is bounded to the south by the United States state of Montana along 49° north for ; to the east at 110° west b ...

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Routes

There are several climbing routes, including: * North Glacier (Normal Route) II * Silverhorn II * AA Col II * Regular North Face III 5.8 * North Ridge III 5.5 * The Hourglass 300m, III, AI3-4 One of the most prominent features of Mount Athabasca is a horned-shaped tip near the top called the "Silverhorn". The Silverhorn is one of the easier routes to the summit but requires more caution and ability than the normal route because of blue ice and falling ice from other parties. Although not apparent from the typical roadside view of the mountain, the south side of Silverhorn contains a

scrambling Scrambling is a mountaineering term for ascending steep terrain using one's hands to assist in holds and balance.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. It can be described as being between hiking and climbing, rock climbing. "A scramble" is a relat ...

route but one must still cross the north

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

to get to it. From the top of the Silverhorn, the summit is a rather easy 15-minute plod in good summer weather over the narrow snow-covered summit ridge.

References

External links

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Mount Athabasca on C.R.A.G.
Icefields Parkway near Columbia Icefield

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athabasca Three-thousanders of Alberta Mountains of Jasper National Park