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FEBRUARY 2001 NEWSLETTER
Peakfinder Updates During the past month we have begun the task of placing photographs with the other information for each peak. At this point there only about 100 of the almost 1500 peaks in the database have photos. Try Mount Robson or Mount Balfour to see how they look. If you have a favourite photo of a mountain and would like to have it placed on the site please let us know. The photos should be a "portrait" of the mountain (cropped if necessary) and not one just showing a particular ridge or part of the peak. They should be jpg's, ideally scanned at 72 dpi and with a width of 250 pixels. Attach them to an email and forward them to dave@peakfinder.com. You will, of course, be given credit for the photograph on the site. One Peakfinder user could not locate one of
his favourite mountains, Yamnuska. This was because the
official name of the mountain is now Mount Laurie. There are
at least 149 cases like this that we know of and so there is
now a link on the main page to a table that relates
former/other names to the current name as found in the primary
database. |
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February's Unusual Canadian Rockies name CHRYSLER PEAK |
| February's estoteric list of mountains
CONTINENTAL
DIVIDE PEAKS BETWEEN VERMILION PASS AND HOWSE PASS |
Look who's honoured in the Canadian Rockies JAMES WALKER |
| Pyramids of the Canadian Rockies
There are at least seven mountains in the Canadian Rockies
that have been known as "Pyramid." Only two retain the
name and another carried the name only briefly before having it
changed in order to avoid confusion with the other
"Pyramids." The other four, ironically the ones that
most resemble a pyramid, were never formally named Pyramid. Peter Fidler was the first European to enter the Canadian
Rockies and the first to name a peak. His journal entry on
December 7, 1792, referred to, ìa remarkable high cliffÖ
very much resembling a pyramid ñfrom which very near
resemblance I shall call it by that name.î The bearings noted
in his journal indicate he was referring to what we now know as
Mount Glasgow in the headwaters of the Elbow River. The best known of the "Pyramids" is located nine
kilometres north of Jasper. Its near-perfect triangular shaped
profile when viewed from the east must have impressed James
Hector of the Palliser Expedition who named the mountain as he
approached it during his expedition to Athabasca Pass in 1859.
Although the mountain's slopes from this angle are similar to
those of the Egyptian pyramids, the peak lacks the three
dimensional aspect which a true pyramid requires. Mount Chephren, visible from the Bow Pass Viewpoint, was
named Pyramid Mountain by J. Norman Collie in 1897. At the same
time he named its neighbour, which was covered in snow, White
Pyramid. Pyramid Mountain, in contrast, had very little snow. In 1918 the Interprovincial Boundary Commission decided
that Pyramid Mountain's name must be changed in order to avoid
confusion with the Pyramid Mountain near Jasper. J. M.
Thorington, a prominent mountaineer and author of the era, liked
the association of the peak with the pyramids of Egypt and
recommended the name Chephren. Chephren, or Khafre, was the
fourth pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt and built the
second of the three Great Pyramids. His reign began in 2565 BC
and it is his likeness that is thought to have been the model
for the Sphinx. White Pyramid's name was thought to be different
enough from the Pyramid Mountain near Jasper and that name was
retained. While travelling in the Bow River Headwaters near White Man
Pass in 1845, Catholic priest/explorer Pierre-Jeanne de Smet
wrote, "The valley is bounded on either side by a
succession of picturesque rocks, whose lofty summits, rising in
the form of pyramids, lose themselves in the clouds." On
his map he noted only one of these, naming it "The
Pyramid." This must have been the peak now known as Mount
Assiniboine. In 1892, Arthur Coleman named the fourth highest peak in
the Rockies ìPyramid.î It was subsequently renamed Mount
Clemenceau by the Interprovincial Boundary Comission in 1919
after Georges Clemenceau, the president of France during the
final year of the First World War. Mount
McPhail, in the upper Highwood Valley, was known locally as
"The Pyramid" until it was officially named by the
Boundary Commission in 1918. Of the five mountains which have
carried the name "Pyramid," Mount Glasgow, Mount
McPhail, and Mount Assiniboine clearly are the closest to the
correct shape when viewed from the appropriate angles. However
none of them were ever officially named Pyramid. |