Mount Murchison is a mountain summit located at the convergence of the

North Saskatchewan River The North Saskatchewan River is a glacier-fed river that flows from the Canadian Rockies continental divide east to central Saskatchewan, where it joins with the South Saskatchewan River to make up the Saskatchewan River. Its water flows event ...

valley and

Mistaya River The Mistaya River is a short river in western Alberta, Canada. It flows through the Canadian Rockies, and a section of the Icefields Parkway was built along its course. Mistaya River originates in Peyto Lake, a glacial lake of typical blue colour ...

valley of

Banff National Park Banff National Park is Canada, Canada's first National Parks of Canada, national park, established in 1885 as Rocky Mountains Park. Located in Alberta's Rockies, Alberta's Rocky Mountains, west of Calgary, Banff encompasses of mountainous ter ...

, in the

Canadian Rockies The Canadian Rockies () 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 part of the Canadian Cordillera, w ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

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 main summit has two high points: the Southeast Peak is 3,348 m, whereas the Northwest Peak is 3,333 m and separated by 700 m distance. Its nearest higher peak is

Mount Cline Mount Cline is a mountain in western Alberta, Canada, north of Saskatchewan Crossing, southwest of Nordegg. The mountain is located in the North Saskatchewan River Valley, west of Resolute Mountain. It was named in 1898 by J. Norman Colli ...

, to the north. Mount Murchison is situated immediately southeast of the confluence of the

, and Howse River near Saskatchewan Crossing, where the

Icefields Parkway Highway 93 is a north–south highway in Alberta, Canada. It is also known as the Banff-Windermere Parkway south of the Trans-Canada Highway ( Highway 1) and the Icefields Parkway north of the Trans-Canada Highway. It travels through Banff Nat ...

intersects with the David Thompson Highway.

History

Named by

James Hector Sir James Hector (16 March 1834 – 6 November 1907) was a Scottish-New Zealand geologist, naturalist, and surgeon who accompanied the Palliser Expedition as a surgeon and geologist. He went on to have a lengthy career as a government employed ...

as he traversed the Mistaya Valley in September of 1858, Mount Murchison honors Sir Roderick Impey Murchison (1792-1871), a prominent Scottish geologist and director of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. The mountain's name became official in 1924. The first ascent of the Northwest Peak was in 1902 by Norman Collie, H.E.M. Stutfield, G.M. Weed, and Hans Kaufmann. 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 Southeast Peak was made August 25, 1996, by Reg Bonney, Rick Collier, John Holmes, and Jerre Skvaril.

Geology

Like other mountains in Banff Park, the Murchison

massif A massif () is a principal mountain mass, such as a compact portion of a mountain range, containing one or more summits (e.g. France's Massif Central). In mountaineering literature, ''massif'' is frequently used to denote the main mass of an ...

is composed of

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock formed by the cementation (geology), cementation of sediments—i.e. particles made of minerals (geological detritus) or organic matter (biological detritus)—that have been accumulated or de ...

laid down during the

Precambrian The Precambrian ( ; or pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pC, 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 t ...

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 143.1 Mya. ...

periods. Formed in shallow seas, this sedimentary rock 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, 80 to 70 million years ago, and ended 55 to 35 million years ago. The exact duration and ages of beginning and end of the o ...

. The massif, which covers an area measuring five km by seven km (7400 acres), is characterized by seven rocky towers and glacial ice of the ''Murchison Icefield''.

Towers of Murchison

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 ...

, Mount Murchison is located in a

subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a continental climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of ...

with cold, snowy winters, and mild summers. Temperatures can drop below -20 °C with wind chill factors below -30 °C. Weather conditions during winter make Mount Murchison a destination in the Rockies for

ice climbing Ice climbing is a climbing discipline that involves ascending routes consisting entirely of frozen water. To ascend, the ice climber uses specialist equipment, particularly double ice axes (or the more modern ice tools) and rigid crampons. ...

Precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...

runoff from Mount Murchison drains into tributaries of the

Saskatchewan River The Saskatchewan River (Cree: , "swift flowing river") is a major river in Canada. It stretches about from where it is formed by the joining of the North Saskatchewan River and South Saskatchewan River just east of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan ...

Ice Climbing Routes

Ice Climbing Routes with

grades Grade most commonly refers to: * Grading in education, a measurement of a student's performance by educational assessment (e.g. A, pass, etc.) * A designation for students, classes and curricula indicating the number of the year a student has reach ...

on Mount MurchisonMount Murchison
SummitPost * ''But My Daddy's a Psycho'' - WI5 * ''Murchison Falls'' - WI4-5 * ''Virtual Reality'' - WI6 * ''Balfour Wall'' - WI 2-4 * ''Cosmic Messenger'' - WI5 * ''Imaginary Voyage'' - WI3 * ''Laughter in the Dark'' - WI4 * ''Alien Abduction'' - WI5 * ''Syndrome'' - WI6

Gallery

File:Peyto Lake Overlook of Mistaya Valley.jpg, Towers of Murchison File:Mount Murchison.jpg, North aspect File:Banff Park Mount Murchison.jpg, The north aspect of Mount Murchison File:Towers of Mt. Murchison.jpg, Towers of Mt. Murchison

History

Geology

Towers of Murchison

Climate

Ice Climbing Routes

Gallery

See also

References

External links