Mount Spickard (pronounced SPICK' erd) is a mountain peak in the

North Cascades The North Cascades are a section of the Cascade Range of western North America. They span the border between the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. state of Washington and are officially named in the U.S. and Canada as the Cascad ...

, a mountain range in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

. Located south of the Canada–US border, it is part of the Chilliwack Group, a subrange of the

Skagit Range The Skagit Range ( ) is a Mountain range#Sub-ranges, subrange of the Cascade Range in southwestern British Columbia, Canada and northwestern Washington (state), Washington, United States, which are known in Canada as the Canadian Cascades or, offi ...

which is part of the North Cascades. It is composed mainly of

gneiss Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures an ...

and is part of two major drainage basins: that of the

Skagit River The Skagit River ( ) is a river in southwestern British Columbia in Canada and northwestern Washington in the United States, approximately 150 mi (240 km) long. The river and its tributaries drain an area of 1.7 million acres (690,000& ...

and

Fraser River The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of Vancouver. The river's annual d ...

. With a topographic prominence of over , Mount Spickard is one of the most prominent peaks in the state, and has two minor summits. It was named for a climber who fell to his death while ascending another nearby mountain peak. The first to ascend it was Walter B. Reaburn, in 1904.

Description

Mount Spickard rises to in the northernmost extreme of

North Cascades National Park North Cascades National Park is an American national park in the state of Washington. At more than , it is the largest of the three National Park Service units that comprise the North Cascades National Park Complex. North Cascades National Par ...

, making it the 5th highest peak in the park and the 16th highest in the state. Its

prominence In topography, prominence (also referred to as autonomous height, relative height, and shoulder drop in US English, and drop or relative height in British English) measures the height of a mountain or hill's summit relative to the lowest contou ...

of is the ninth-greatest in the state and makes it the 70th-most prominent peak in the United States. It is located northwest of

Jack Mountain Jack Mountain is the 17th highest mountain in Washington state. It is one of the 10 non-volcanic peaks in Washington State over . It towers dramatically over the south end of Ross Lake, rising above the lakeshore in only . Nohokomeen Glacier ...

, the nearest higher peak. The main summit of Spickard has two sub-peaks. The taller of the two is a summit, with a prominence of , to the northeast of the true summit. The shorter is located southwest of the main peak and rises to , but has of prominence. In his popular climbing guide,

Fred Beckey Friedrich Wolfgang Beckey (14 January 1923 – 30 October 2017), known as Fred Beckey, was an American rock climber, mountaineer and book author, who in seven decades of climbing achieved hundreds of first ascents of the tallest peaks and best ro ...

uses the name "Peak 8824" for the northeast sub-peak. High ridges connect Mount Spickard to other peaks. A ridge to the southwest connects Spickard with Twin Spires (also called

Mox Peaks Mox Peaks () is in North Cascades National Park in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. Located in the northern section of the park, Mox Peaks consist of several summits in close proximity to each other that are nearly the same altit ...

) and the Ridge of Gendarmes. The high ridges to the southeast of Mount Spickard are somewhat broken up by glacier-couloirs but connect Spickard with summits known as Tombstone Peak and Peak 7153. Another high ridge extends to the northeast. The ridge to the northwest is broken by a saddle point but otherwise extends several miles, curving north and east, around Silver Lake to Mount Custer Ridge, Mount Rahm, and Devils Tongue.

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

topographic maps

Hydrology

There are many glaciers on Mount Spickard's slopes and neighboring ridges.

Silver Glacier Silver Glacier is in North Cascades National Park in the U.S. state of Washington and descends to the northwest from near the summit of Mount Spickard. Silver Glacier descends from , and Silver Lake lies below the current terminus of the glacie ...

extends over a mile from Spickard's summit north through a large

cirque A (; from the Latin word ') is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from Scottish Gaelic , meaning a pot or cauldron) and (; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform ...

to Silver Lake. The high terrain southwest of Mount Spickard is intensely glaciated, with numerous glaciers, some very large, extending over to

Mount Redoubt Redoubt Volcano, or Mount Redoubt (Denaʼina language, Dena'ina: ''Bentuggezh K’enulgheli''), is an active volcano, active stratovolcano in the largely volcanic Aleutian Range of the U.S. state of Alaska. Located at the head of the Chigmit ...

. There are four main drainage basins reaching to the slopes of Mount Spickard. Depot Creek flows west and northwest to join the

Chilliwack River Chilliwack ( )( hur, Ts'elxwéyeqw) is a city in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Chilliwack is surrounded by mountains and home to recreational areas such as Cultus Lake and Chilliwack Lake Provincial Parks. There are numerous outdoor ...

and, ultimately, the

, which flows into the Pacific Ocean in

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. On the south side of Spickard are some headstreams of Perry Creek, which flows east to Little Beaver Creek and, via Ross Lake, the

. To the north Silver Lake Glacier sends meltwater into Silver Lake. Meltwater streams from glaciers on the east side of Mount Spickard join the outflow, Silver Creek, which flows east from Silver Lake to Ross Lake. Access to the mountain is difficult due to the remote and rugged nature of the area. The easiest approach is from

via

Chilliwack Lake Chilliwack Lake is a lake in the upper basin of the Chilliwack River southeast of the city of the same name in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. The lake, while entirely within Canada, is located just north of the border between Br ...

and Depot Creek. There are two common approaches within Washington, both via

water taxi A water taxi or a water bus is a watercraft used to provide public or private transport, usually, but not always, in an urban environment. Service may be scheduled with multiple stops, operating in a similar manner to a bus, or o ...

on Ross Lake.

History

The geologist Reginald A. Daly studied the Spickard area in 1902 and 1906. He described Mount Spickard (then called Glacier Peak) and its neighbors as the most inaccessible summits of the entire U.S.–Canada border region west of the

Flathead River The Flathead River ( fla, label=Salish, člq̓etkʷ ntx̣ʷetkʷ, , kut, kananmituk), in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Montana, originates in the Canadian Rockies to the north of Glacier National Park and flows southwest into Flath ...

of the Rocky Mountains. The first ascent was made in 1904 by Walter B. Reaburn. A second ascent was made the following year by Thomas Riggs Jr., George Neuner Jr., and J. Beall. In 1906, Noel J. Ogilvie and a Canadian party climbed Mount Spickard. Mount Spickard was called Glacier Peak until 1963, when it was renamed in memory of Warren Spickard. Spickard was a distinguished mountaineer, who died in 1961 while climbing the nearby Northwest Twin Spires (also called Northwest Mox Peak or Northwest Mox). He had climbed Mount Spickard in 1955.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spickard, Mount Mountains of Whatcom County, Washington North Cascades of Washington (state) Mountains of Washington (state)

Description

Hydrology

History

See also

References