Sentry Mountain is a

summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

located 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 ...

Description

Sentry Mountain is situated 10 kilometers west-southwest of the town of

Coleman Coleman may refer to: Places Antarctica * Coleman Glacier (Antarctica) * Coleman Peak, Ross Island Canada * Coleman, Alberta * Coleman, Ontario * Coleman, Prince Edward Island United Kingdom * Coleman, Leicester, England United States * C ...

in the

Crowsnest Pass Crowsnest Pass (sometimes referred to as Crow's Nest Pass, ) is a low mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Canadian Rockies on the Alberta–British Columbia border. Geography The pass is located in southeast British Columbia an ...

area and can be seen from

Highway 3 The following highways are numbered 3, H-3, PRI-3, AH3, E03 and R3. For roads numbered A3, see A3 roads. For roads numbered M3, see M3 (disambiguation)#Roads, M3. For roads numbered N3, see N3 (disambiguation)#Roads, N3. For roads numbered 3A, see ...

, the Crowsnest Highway, which traverses the northern base of the mountain. It is the northernmost peak of the Flathead Range and is set on land managed by Castle Wildland Provincial Park. Precipitation runoff from the mountain drains into headwaters of the

Crowsnest River The Crowsnest River is a tributary to the Oldman River in southern Alberta, southwestern Alberta, Canada. Location From its source in Crowsnest Lake (Alberta), Crowsnest Lake at an elevation of about in the Canadian Rockies, Crowsnest River me ...

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 summit rises 1,080 meters (3,543 feet) above Crowsnest Lake in 1.5 kilometer (0.9 mile). Neighbors include Chinook Peak, to the southeast, and Mount Tecumseh is to the north. The mountain lies east of the

Continental Divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not ...

History

Sentry Mountain was originally named "Sentinel Mountain", but was changed in 1915 to avoid confusion with another by the same name.Aphrodite Karamitsanis (1991), ''Place Names of Alberta, Vol I: Mountains, mountain parks, and foothills'', University of Calgary Press, , p. 221''The Canada Gazette'' Volume 49, Issues 1-13, (1915) p. 89. The mountain's toponym was officially adopted in 1924 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 ...

Geology

Sentry Mountain 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

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

period 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 ...

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 ...

, Sentry Mountain has an alpine

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.

Gallery

File:Sentry Mountain.jpg, Sentry Mountain on the right, but some maps label the peak on the left as Sentry Mountain as it is slightly higher.
The peak to left is unofficially known as "Ostracized Peak". File:Chinook and Sentry.jpg, Chinook Peak (left) and Sentry Mountain (right) rising above Crowsnest Valley File:Sentry Mountain, Crowsnest Highway.jpg, West side Sentry Mountain on the left, from eastbound Highway 3 File:Coleman, Alberta.jpg, Sentry Mountain (right) seen from Coleman

References

External links

* Sentry Mountai
weather forecast
* Climbing Ostracized Peak & Sentry Mountain (photos)
explor8ion.com
{{Geographic Location 2 , Center = , North = Mount Tecumseh
Crowsnest Lake , Northeast = Crowsnest Mountain , East =

Crowsnest Pass, Alberta The Municipality of Crowsnest Pass is a specialized municipality in southwest Alberta, Canada. Within the Rocky Mountains adjacent to the eponymous Crowsnest Pass, the municipality formed as a result of the 1979 amalgamation of five municipalit ...

, Southeast = Chinook Peak , South = Mount Ptolemy , Southwest = Tent Mountain , West =

, Northwest =

Two-thousanders of Alberta Flathead Range (Canada) Crowsnest Pass, Alberta