Phyllis's Engine is a granite pinnacle located in

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

Phyllis's Engine is set within

Garibaldi Provincial Park Garibaldi Provincial Park, also called Garibaldi Park, is a wilderness park located on the coastal mainland of British Columbia, Canada, 70 kilometres (43.5 mi) north of Vancouver. It was established in 1920 and named a Class A Provincial ...

and is part of the

Garibaldi Ranges The Garibaldi Ranges are the next-to-southwesternmost subdivision of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains; only the North Shore Mountains are farther southwest. They lie between the valley formed by the pass between the Cheakamus River and ...

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 ...

. It is situated north of

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, north-northwest of

Mount Carr Mount Carr is a mountain summit located in British Columbia, Canada. Description Mount Carr is set within Garibaldi Provincial Park and is part of the Garibaldi Ranges of the Coast Mountains. It is situated north of Vancouver and south-sout ...

, and south of

line parent A peak's line parent is the closest higher peak on the highest ridge leading away from the peak's "key col". A col is the lowest point on the ridge between two summits and is roughly synonymous with pass, gap, saddle and notch. The highest col ...

Castle Towers Mountain Castle Towers Mountain is a triple summit mountain on the east side of Garibaldi Lake in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. The first ascent party from the BC Mountaineering Club named the mountain after its appearance in August 1911. Clima ...

. Precipitation runoff and glacial meltwater from the west side of the peak drains to

Garibaldi Lake Garibaldi Lake is a turquoise-coloured alpine lake in British Columbia, Canada, located north of Squamish and south of Whistler. The lake lies within Garibaldi Provincial Park, which features mountains, glaciers, trails, forests, flowers, m ...

, and the eastern slope drains to Cheakamus Lake.

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 west aspect rises in .

History

The peak is named after Phyllis Dyke (Mrs. Edward Beltz), a pioneering

British Columbia Mountaineering Club The British Columbia Mountaineering Club (BCMC) is a mountaineering organization, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Founded on October 28, 1907 as the Vancouver Mountaineering Club, it became one of the centres of Canadian Mountaineering, part ...

member who thought the arrangement of pinnacles and spires resembled a 19th-century

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

, so her fellow climbers jokingly referred to the landform as "Phyllis's Engine", circa 1914.G. P. V. Akrigg, Helen B. Akrigg (1997), ''British Columbia Place Names'', UBC Press, , p. 207 The name was formally submitted by Karl Ricker in 1978 as recommended by Neal Carter of the BC Mountaineering Club, and contrary to popular belief, the name does not refer to

Phyllis Munday Phyllis Beatrice Munday (née James; 24 September 1894 – 11 April 1990) was a Canadian mountaineer, explorer, naturalist and humanitarian. She was famed for being the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Robson (with Annette Buck) in ...

. The toponym was adopted as "Phyllis' Engine" on March 9, 1979, and officially changed to "Phyllis's Engine" on January 6, 1995, 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 ...

. 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 Phyllis's Engine was made in 1966 by F. Gratwhol and T. Kempter.

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 ...

, Phyllis's Engine is located in the

marine west coast An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring co ...

climate zone of western North America. 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 The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

, 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 Sphinx Glacier on the west slope and the Cheakamus Glacier on the east slope.

Gallery

File:Phyllis's Engine and Mount Carr.jpg, Phyllis's Engine (lower left) and Mount Carr (upper right) File:Trips 05 - Garibaldi - 07 - Phyllis Engine (90953684).jpg File:Phyllis's Engine.jpg, Phyllis's Engine, centered, viewed from west summit of Castle Towers Mountain. File:Garibaldi Lake 2.jpg, Castle Towers Mountain (left of center), Phyllis's Engine (center), Mt. Carr (right) viewed from Garibaldi Lake. Phyllis's Engine can be seen best when image is enlarged to maximum degree.

References

External links