JULY/AUGUST  2007 NEWSLETTER

Peakfinder Updates
As you enjoy the mountains this summer we hope you make use of the "Google Earth" option available throught the website. The following areas of high resolution images are worth looking at if you're going to be in any of these areas: Waterton National Park, Crowsnest Pass, Goodsir Towers, Bow Valley near Banff Townsite and Mount Hector, and Athabasca Valley.

We regularly hear from visitors who have spotted errors or, in some cases, information that could be explained better. Recommendations regarding these are most welcome and improve the quality of the website. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have a correction or comment. 

As you travel in the mountains this summer, please keep www.peakfinder.com in mind and take some "portraits" of mountains that we can add to the collection for the mountain community to enjoy.

There are now 3300 photos on www.peakfinder.com and sometimes errors are made in their captions. Several Peakfinder users have located mistakes and advised us so that they can be corrected. Please let us know if you find an error.

If you have a favourite mountain photo or any information about the peaks of the Canadian Rockies that you would like included in Peakfinder please contact daveb at peakfinder dot com.

Please note that all of the previous newsletters have been archived and are available on the site. If you're interested in esoteric lists, unusual mountain names, etcetera, browse through the earlier issues. 


July/August's Unusual Canadian Rockies Name

MOUNT FIFI
Mount Edith, Mount Louis, and Mount Fifi were all named one day in 1886 when Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John A. MacDonald, and his wife were making a cross country trip on the recently completed Canadian Pacific Railway. Louis Stewart, the park superintendent's son, took Lady MacDonald's "attendant", Edith Orde, and her dog Fifi hiking to Edith Pass. The pass provides views of the three peaks and a park surveyor named them after the two hikers and the dog.

There are many mountains in the Rockies named after people but this may be the only one officially named after a dog. In 1911 a bulldog named Hoodoo, even though he had to be hauled up the final cliffs by a rope, reached the summit of a mountain near Snake Indian Pass in Jasper National Park and was honoured by having the peak named after him. Sadly, the name was never officially adopted and the peak was named Monte Cristo Mountain in 1934 although no one knows why.

Zeke's Peak near Mount Sir Douglas in the Kananaskis Lakes area is unofficially named after a dog that accompanied the first ascent party to the summit in 1973.
Enter "Mount Fifi" to learn more about this mountain. 

Look who's honoured in the Canadian Rockies

BILLY GRAY
Mount Gray was named in 1951 to honour William J. "Billy" Gray, a UBC student and founding member of the BC Mountaineering Club. Billy Gray and Charles Drysdale, a co-worker, drowned in the Kootenay River during a geological survey. Mount Drysdale and Mount Gray stand on opposite sides of Wolverine Pass in Kootenay National Park.
For additional information about Mount Gray enter the mountain's name in the appropriate search box on the main page.

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