Chinook Peak is a mountain summit located in the

Canadian Rockies The Canadian Rockies (french: Rocheuses canadiennes) 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 ...

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 Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Description

Chinook Peak is situated 10 kilometers southwest of the town of Coleman in the

Crowsnest Pass Crowsnest Pass (sometimes referred to as Crow's Nest Pass, french: link=no, col du Nid-de-Corbeau) is a low mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Canadian Rockies on the Alberta–British Columbia border. Geography The pass i ...

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. For roads numbered N3, see N3. For roads numbered 3A, see 3A. International * Asian Highway 3 * Europea ...

, the Crowsnest Highway. It is set on land managed by

Castle Wildland Provincial Park Castle Provincial Park is a provincial park in southern Alberta, Canada. It is located within the Municipal District of Pincher Creek No. 9 west of the Town of Pincher Creek, sharing a northern boundary with the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass, ...

. Precipitation

runoff Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to: * RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program * Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed * Runoff or run-off, a stock market ...

from the mountain drains into tributaries of the nearby

Crowsnest River The Crowsnest River is a tributary to the Oldman River in southwestern Alberta, Canada. Location From its source in Crowsnest Lake at an elevation of about in the Canadian Rockies, Crowsnest River meanders eastward through the Municipality ...

Topographic relief Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin word ...

is significant as the summit rises 1,300 meters (4,265 feet) above the river in 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles).

Sentry Mountain Sentry Mountain is a summit located in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta, Canada. Description Sentry Mountain is situated 10 kilometers west-southwest of the town of Coleman in the Crowsnest Pass area and can be seen from Highway 3, the Crowsne ...

is to the northwest and the nearest higher neighbor is

Andy Good Peak Andy Good Peak is located just south of Crowsnest Pass on the Canadian provincial boundary between Alberta and British Columbia on the Continental Divide. It was named in 1916 after Andy Good, a hotel owner in nearby Crowsnest Pass whose bar stra ...

, to the southeast on 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

Chinook Peak was named by Jim Kerr, a resident of the Crowsnest Pass. Jim knew that when snow started blowing from the top from the west, a

chinook wind Chinook winds, or simply Chinooks, are two types of prevailing warm, generally westerly winds in western North America: Coastal Chinooks and interior Chinooks. The coastal Chinooks are persistent seasonal, wet, southwesterly winds blowing in from ...

would soon follow. When mapping this area, Dr. Raymond A. Price of the

Geological Survey of Canada The Geological Survey of Canada (GSC; french: Commission géologique du Canada (CGC)) is a Canadian federal government agency responsible for performing geological surveys of the country, developing Canada's natural resources and protecting the en ...

mapping this area, used this name to identify the peak.Aphrodite Karamitsanis (1991), ''Place Names of Alberta, Vol I: Mountains, mountain parks, and foothills'', University of Calgary Press, , p. 49 The mountain's toponym was officially adopted in 1962 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 Canada ...

Geology

Chinook Peak 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 The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, 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 the ...

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 Mya. The J ...

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 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

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, 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 o ...

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 ...

, Chinook Peak has an alpine

subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a 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 an ocean, ge ...

with cold, snowy winters, and mild summers. Temperatures can drop below −20 °C with wind chill factors below −30 °C.

Gallery

File:Chinook Peak (Alberta).jpg, Northeast aspect File:Chinook Peak, north.jpg, North aspect File:Chinook Peak in winter.jpg, Chinook Peak in winter File:Chinook Peak AB.jpg, Chinook Peak centered at top File:Flathead Range Crowsnest Pass area.jpg, Flathead Range
Left to rightː Mount Coulthard, Andy Good Peak, Mount Parrish, Chinook Peak. File:Chinook Peak - Alberta.jpg, Chinook Peak (left)

References

External links

* Chinook Pea
weather forecast
* Climbing Chinook Peak (photos)

{{Canadian Rockies, state=collapsed Two-thousanders of Alberta Canadian Rockies Chinook Jargon place names Crowsnest Pass, Alberta