Mt Odaray & Stephen SE1 from Odaray Prospect

Mount Stephen, , is a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

located in the Kicking Horse River Valley of

Yoho National Park Yoho National Park ( ) is a national park of Canada. It is located within the Rocky Mountains along the western slope of the Continental Divide of the Americas in southeastern British Columbia, bordered by Kootenay National Park to the south and ...

, km east of

Field Field may refer to: Expanses of open ground * Field (agriculture), an area of land used for agricultural purposes * Airfield, an aerodrome that lacks the infrastructure of an airport * Battlefield * Lawn, an area of mowed grass * Meadow, a grass ...

, British Columbia, Canada. The mountain was named in 1886 for George Stephen, the first president of the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canad ...

. The mountain is mainly composed of

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especia ...

s and dolomites from the

Cambrian The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million years ag ...

Period, some 550 million years ago. The

Stephen Formation The Stephen Formation is a geologic formation exposed in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia and Alberta, on the western edge of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It consists of shale, thin-bedded limestone, and siltstone that was deposite ...

, a stratigraphical unit of the

Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin The Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) underlies of Western Canada including southwestern Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan, Alberta, northeastern British Columbia and the southwest corner of the Northwest Territories. This vast sedimentary ...

was first described at the mountain and was named for it. Stephen has a subpeak known as Stephen SE1, at the end of a 1 km ridge, 132° from the main peak, visible from Lake O'Hara.

Climbing

The first ascent was made on September 9, 1887 by James. J. McArthur and his assistant T. Riley, which was made even more difficult by the surveying equipment they also carried with them. Unfortunately for them, smoke from forest fires limited visibility from the top. Beginning at 4:30 am, it took them four hours to pierce dense forest to reach tree line. After another three hours, the final rocks were reached which bore the inscription "Hill, Whatley, Ross, September 6, 1886". Above the rocks, they had to navigate an ice couloir and a knife-edged arete before reaching the summit. Sometime between this ascent and one in 1892, an estimated of rock had fallen in the upper section of the mountain, making the climb notably easier. The main route (a scramble) ascends slopes on the southwest face but requires much route finding and the final section of to the top is rated difficult. A

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

on the summit may prevent parties from reaching the top so if in doubt of conditions, attempts should wait until August. The route also passes through a

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

bed and thus requires a special park permit to be in the area. The elevation gain is . For rock climbers, a route on the north ridge is rated III 5.7 with generally good rock formations composed mainly of

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tec ...

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 ...

, Mount Stephen 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. Weather conditions during winter make Mount Stephen one of the better places in the Rockies for ice climbing. 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 Mount Stephen drains into the Kicking Horse River.

References

Gallery

File:MtStephenAugust2009.JPG, Mount Stephen as seen from Field, British Columbia, Canada File:Northwest face of Mt. Stephen from the top of Mt. Field, Showing North Gully and Fossil Gully (21234082902).jpg, Northwest face of Mt. Stephen from the top of Mt. Field, showing North Gully and Fossil Gully File:Canadian Pacific Railroad Hotel and Mount Stephen, Field, British Columbia, c. 1908.jpg, Hotel and Mount Stephen in 1908 {{DEFAULTSORT:Stephen Three-thousanders of British Columbia Mountains of Yoho National Park Kootenay Land District

Climbing

Climate

See also

References

Gallery