Spire Peaks is a mountain 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

Spire Peaks 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 ...

and north-northwest 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 ...

Mamquam Mountain Mamquam Mountain is a mountain in the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in southwestern British Columbia, Canada, located southeast of Eanastick Meadows and east of Brackendale, British Columbia, Brackendale. It represents the highest summi ...

, with the

Mamquam Icefield The Mamquam Icefield is an icefield in southwestern British Columbia, Canada, located at the headwaters of Skookum Creek. It lies at the southern end of Garibaldi Provincial Park and is one of the southernmost icefields in the Pacific Ranges of th ...

between the two. The southwest summit has an elevation of 2,279 meters and the northeast peak is 2,245 meters, and they are separated 500 meters apart.

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 north aspect rises 1,280 meters (4,200 feet) in two kilometers (1.2 mile). Precipitation runoff and glacial

meltwater Meltwater (or melt water) is water released by the melting of snow or ice, including glaciers, glacial ice, tabular icebergs and ice shelf, ice shelves over oceans. Meltwater is often found during early spring (season), spring when snow packs a ...

from the north side of the peak drains to

Pitt River The Pitt River in British Columbia, Canada is a large tributary of the Fraser River, entering it a few miles upstream from New Westminster and about 25 km ESE of Downtown Vancouver. The river, which begins in the Garibaldi Ranges of the Coa ...

, and the southern slope drains to Skookum Creek, thence Mamquam River.

History

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 summit was made July 22, 1913, by

Don Munday Walter Alfred Don Munday (1890–1950) was a Canadian explorer, naturalist and mountaineer famous for his explorations of the Coast Mountains with his wife Phyllis, and especially for the exploration of the Waddington Range. Early life Don Munday ...

and Ben Hanafin.Kathryn Bridge (2006), ''A Passion for Mountains: The Lives of Don and Phyllis Munday'', Rocky Mountain Books, , p. 36, 227. Don would write a poem about the climb, ''Spire Peak—First Ascent'', and recall that the rocks "were as hot as a stove." The toponym was officially adopted March 9, 1979, 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 ...

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 ...

, Spire Peaks 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 Spire Glacier on the northeast slope.

Gallery

File:Pyramid Mountain and Spire Peak.jpg,

Pyramid Mountain Pyramid Mountain can refer to: ;Antarctica * Pyramid Mountain (Antarctica), in the Quartermain Mountains * Pyramid Mountain (Churchill Mountains), in the Churchill Mountains ;Canada *Pyramid Mountain (Alberta) in Jasper National Park, Alberta * Pyr ...

(left), Spire Peaks (right), south aspect File:Pyramid, Spire, Trick.jpg, Pyramid Mountain (left), Spire Peaks (left of center), Trick Peak (right) File:Pyramid, Spire Peaks, Trick.jpg, Pyramid Mountain and Spire Peaks to left, Trick Peak (right). Southwest aspect. File:Spire Peaks from Elfin Lake.jpg, Pyramid Mountain and Spire Peaks to left, Trick Peak (right). From Elfin Lake. File:Pyramid, Spire Peaks, Trick Peak.jpg, Pyramid Mountain and Spire Peaks to left, Trick Peak (right). Southwest aspect.

References

External links