Sentry 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 ...

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

Sentry Mountain is situated 10 kilometers west-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, which traverses the northern base of the mountain. It is the northernmost peak of the Flathead Range and 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 headwaters of the

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 1,080 meters (3,543 feet) above Crowsnest Lake in 1.5 kilometer (0.9 mile). Neighbors include

Chinook Peak Chinook Peak is a summit located on the eastern border of Mount Rainier National Park. It is also on the shared border of Pierce County, Washington, Pierce County and Yakima County, Washington, Yakima County in Washington (U.S. state), Washingto ...

, to the southeast, and

Mount Tecumseh Mount Tecumseh is a mountain located in Grafton County, New Hampshire. The mountain is named after the Shawnee leader Tecumseh (–1813), and is a part of the White Mountains. The east side of Tecumseh drains into the Mad River; the west si ...

is to the north. The mountain lies east of 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

Sentry Mountain was originally named "Sentinel Mountain", but was changed in 1915 to avoid confusion with another by the same name.Aphrodite Karamitsanis (1991), ''Place Names of Alberta, Vol I: Mountains, mountain parks, and foothills'', University of Calgary Press, , p. 221''The Canada Gazette'' Volume 49, Issues 1-13, (1915) p. 89. The mountain's toponym 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

Sentry 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. 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 ...

, Sentry Mountain 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:Sentry Mountain.jpg, Sentry Mountain on the right, but some maps label the peak on the left as Sentry Mountain as it is slightly higher.
The peak to left is unofficially known as "Ostracized Peak". File:Chinook and Sentry.jpg, Chinook Peak (left) and Sentry Mountain (right) rising above Crowsnest Valley File:Sentry Mountain, Crowsnest Highway.jpg, West side Sentry Mountain on the left, from eastbound Highway 3 File:Coleman, Alberta.jpg, Sentry Mountain (right) seen from Coleman

References

External links

* Sentry Mountai
weather forecast
* Climbing Ostracized Peak & Sentry Mountain (photos)
explor8ion.com
{{Geographic Location 2 , Center = , North =

Crowsnest Lake , Northeast =

Crowsnest Mountain Crowsnest Mountain is a mountain in the southern Canadian Rockies of southwestern Alberta, Canada. It can be seen from Alberta Highway 3 west of the town of Coleman in the Crowsnest Pass. The mountain was originally named by the Ktunaxa First N ...

, East =

Crowsnest Pass, Alberta The Municipality of Crowsnest Pass is a specialized municipality in southwest Alberta, Canada. Within the Rocky Mountains adjacent to the eponymous Crowsnest Pass, the municipality formed as a result of the 1979 amalgamation of five municipalit ...

, Southeast =

, South = Mount Ptolemy , Southwest =

Tent Mountain Tent Mountain is located on the border of Alberta and British Columbia on the Continental Divide. It was named in 1911 by Morrison P. Bridgland. See also * List of peaks on the Alberta–British Columbia border * Mountains of Alberta * Mountains ...

, West =

, Northwest =

Two-thousanders of Alberta Canadian Rockies Crowsnest Pass, Alberta