Mount Wilson is a mountain summit located in the

North Saskatchewan River The North Saskatchewan River is a glacier-fed river that flows from the Canadian Rockies continental divide east to central Saskatchewan, where it joins with the South Saskatchewan River to make up the Saskatchewan River. Its water flows eventual ...

valley of

Banff National Park Banff National Park is Canada's oldest National Parks of Canada, national park, established in 1885 as Rocky Mountains Park. Located in Alberta's Rockies, Alberta's Rocky Mountains, west of Calgary, Banff encompasses of mountainous terrain, wi ...

, 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 ...

. Its nearest higher peak is

Mount Cline Mount Cline is a mountain in western Alberta, Canada, north of Saskatchewan Crossing, southwest of Nordegg. The mountain is located in the North Saskatchewan River Valley, west of Resolute Mountain. It was named in 1898 by J. Norman Coll ...

, to the northeast. Mount Wilson is situated immediately north of the confluence of the

, Mistaya River, and

Howse River The Howse River is a tributary of the North Saskatchewan River in western Alberta, Canada. The Howse River is a braided river, with several streams crossing in its flood plain. It is formed when Freshfield, Forbes, David and Lagoon Creek unite a ...

near Saskatchewan Crossing, where the

Icefields Parkway Highway 93 is a north–south highway in Alberta, Canada. It is also known as the Banff-Windermere Parkway south of the Trans-Canada Highway ( Highway 1) and the Icefields Parkway north of the Trans-Canada Highway. It travels through ...

intersects with the

David Thompson Highway #redirectAlberta Highway 11 David Thompson Highway #redirectAlberta Highway 11 Alberta Provincial Highway No. 11, commonly referred to as Highway 11 and officially named the David Thompson Highway, is a provincial highway in central A ...

.__NOTOC__

History

Mount Wilson honours Tom Wilson (1859–1933) who was an early explorer in the Canadian Rockies. The mountain was named in 1898 by Norman Collie. The

first ascent In mountaineering, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in guide books) is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain or the first to follow a particular climbing route. First mountain ascents are notable because they en ...

of the mountain was made in 1902 by James Outram and Christian Kaufmann. The mountain's name was officially adopted in 1924 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

Like other mountains in Banff Park, Mount Wilson 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 from 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 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 ...

. The west and south aspects of the mountain are characterized by rugged, rocky cliff bands, whereas the north and east aspects of Mount Wilson are covered by expansive glacial ice called the Wilson Icefield.

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 ...

, Mount Wilson is located in a

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 ...

zone with cold, snowy winters, and mild summers. Temperatures can drop below −20 °C (−4 °F) with wind chill factors below −30 °C (−22 °F). Weather conditions during winter make Mount Wilson one of the premier places in the Rockies for ice climbing.

Precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

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 Mount Wilson drains into tributaries of the

Saskatchewan River The Saskatchewan River (Cree: ''kisiskāciwani-sīpiy'', "swift flowing river") is a major river in Canada. It stretches about from where it is formed by the joining together of the North Saskatchewan and South Saskatchewan Rivers to Lake Winn ...

Ice Climbing Routes

Ice Climbing Routes with

grades Grade most commonly refers to: * Grade (education), a measurement of a student's performance * Grade, the number of the year a student has reached in a given educational stage * Grade (slope), the steepness of a slope Grade or grading may also r ...

on Mount Wilson: * ''Dancing With Chaos'' – WI6Mount Wilson
Mountain Project * ''Midnight Rambler'' – WI3 * ''Wilson Major'' – WI3-6 * ''Lady Wilson's Right Tit'' – WI4 * ''Lady Wilson's Cleavage'' – WI3 * ''Totem Pole'' – WI5 * ''Living in Paradise'' – WI6+ * ''Suntori'' – WI6 * ''Skinny Puppy'' – WI5 * ''Phil Spectre's Nightmare'' – WI6 * ''Mixed Monster'' – M8 WI5+

Gallery

File:Icefields Parkway 08.jpg, Mt. Wilson from northbound

File:Mount Wilson in Banff National Park, Canada.jpg, Mount Wilson File:Mount Wilson's cliffs.jpg, Mount Wilson's lower cliffs seen from Saskatchewan Crossing

References

External links

* Parks Canada web site
Banff National Park
* Mount Wilson weather
Mountain Forecast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson Three-thousanders of Alberta Mountains of Banff National Park Canadian Rockies Alberta's Rockies