Oldhorn Mountain is a

summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topography, topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used ...

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.

Description

Oldhorn Mountain is located within Jasper National Park, in the

Trident Range The South Jasper Ranges are mountain ranges of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada. It is a part of the Central Main Ranges of the Canadian Rockies, located on the Continental Divide, in Jasper National Park (Alberta) and ...

of 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 ...

. The town of

Jasper Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases,Kostov, R. I. 2010. Review on the mineralogical systematics of jasper and related rocks. – Archaeometry Workshop, 7, 3, 209-213PDF/ref> ...

is situated to the north-northeast and 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 ...

is to the west. The nearest higher neighbor is

Throne Mountain Throne Mountain is a prominent mountain summit located in Jasper National Park, in the South Jasper Ranges of the Canadian Rockies of Alberta, Canada. It is situated south of the town of Jasper, and east of Tonquin Valley. The nearest highe ...

, to the southeast. 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 Oldhorn drains south into the

Astoria River The Astoria River is a short river in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada. It is an early tributary of the Athabasca River. The Astoria forms in the Tonquin Valley, collecting meltwater from the Fraser Glacier, The Ramparts, Mount Erebus, M ...

and topographic relief is significant as the summit rises 1,320 meters (4,330 feet) above the river in two kilometers (1.2 mile).

History

The landform was named in 1916 by William Pittman Hinton (1871–1955), who attributed the shape of the mountain to that of a horn. The Oldhorn name appeared in print in the 1921 guidebook, ''"A Climber's Guide to the Rocky Mountains of Canada"''. 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 summit was made in 1924 by Lawrence Coolidge, George Higginson, and Joe Johnson, with guide Alfred Streich.''Lawrence Coolidge, 1905-1950'' Americanalpineclub.org (1950)
/ref> The mountain's toponym was officially adopted on March 5, 1935, 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

The mountain 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 and 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 ...

. Specifically, it is Gog

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tect ...

overlaying eroded

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

of the

Miette Group The Miette Group is an assemblage of metamorphosed sedimentary rocks of latest Precambrian (Neoproterozoic) age. It is present in the Canadian Cordillera from the Lake Louise area of Alberta to the Yukon.Glass, D.J. (editor) 1997. Lexicon of Can ...

.Chris Yorath, Ben Gadd (2017), ''Of Rocks, Mountains and Jasper: A Visitor's Guide To The Geology Of Jasper National Park'', Dundurn Press, , p. 150. Rockslides on the south slope of the mountain have collected into heaps of talus which have been invaded by interstitial ice, thereby turning them into

rock glacier Rock glaciers are distinctive geomorphological landforms, consisting either of angular rock debris frozen in interstitial ice, former "true" glaciers overlain by a layer of talus, or something in-between. Rock glaciers are normally found at high ...

s that slowly creep downhill into the Astoria Valley.

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 ...

, Oldhorn 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. Winter temperatures can drop below -20 °C with wind chill factors below -30 °C.

References

External links