Castleguard Mountain with Saskatchewan Glacier

Castleguard Mountain, also known as Mount Castleguard, is an isolated

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually highe ...

located near the southern edge of the

Columbia Icefield The Columbia Icefield is the largest ice field in North America's Rocky Mountains. Located within the Canadian Rocky Mountains astride the Continental Divide along the border of British Columbia and Alberta, Canada, the ice field lies partly in ...

at the northern edge of Banff National Park in

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, Canada. In 1918, Irish land surveyor Arthur Oliver Wheeler named the mountain because of its castle-like appearance, which seemed to stand guard over the southern portion of the Columbia Icefield. Castleguard was first ascended in 1919 by the Interprovincial Boundary Commission, which determined the exact location of the boundary between British Columbia and Alberta along the continental divide. Author Lewis Freeman, in his 1925 book ''Roof of the Rockies'', described the view from the summit:

Geology

Castleguard is composed of

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...

laid down during the Precambrian to

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...

periods. Formed in shallow seas, this sedimentary rock was pushed east and over the top of younger 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, 70 to 80 million years ago, and ended 35 to 55 million years ago. The exact duration and ages of beginning and end of the ...

Climate

Based on the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

, Castleguard is located in a subarctic climate with cold, snowy winters, and mild summers. Temperatures can drop below −20 °C with wind chill factors below −30 °C.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Three-thousanders of Alberta Canadian Rockies

Geology

Climate

See also

References

Further reading

External links