Mount Waddington
| Mount Waddington | |
|---|---|
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| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 4,019 m (13,186 ft) |
| Prominence | 3,289 m (10,791 ft) |
| Isolation | 562 kilometres (349 mi) |
| Listing | |
| Coordinates | 51°22′20″N 125°15′44″W / 51.37222°N 125.26222°WCoordinates: 51°22′20″N 125°15′44″W / 51.37222°N 125.26222°W |
| Geography | |
 Mount Waddington
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| Parent range | Waddington Range |
| Topo map | NTS 92N/06 |
| Climbing | |
| First ascent | 1936 by Fritz Wiessner and William House |
| Easiest route | Rock/ice climb |
Mount Waddington, once known as Mystery Mountain, is the highest peak in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia, Canada. Although Mount Fairweather and Mount Quincy Adams, which straddle the US border between Alaska and British Columbia are taller, Mount Waddington is the highest peak that lies entirely within British Columbia. It and the subrange which surround it, known as the Waddington Range, stands at the heart of the Pacific Ranges, a remote and extremely difficult set of mountains and river valleys.
It is not so far north as its extreme Arctic-like conditions might indicate and Mount Waddington and its attendant peaks pose some of the most serious expedition mountaineering to be had in North America — and some of the most extreme relief and spectacular mountain scenery.
From Waddington's 13,186 ft fang to sea level at the heads of Bute and Knight Inlets is only a few miles; across the 10,000-foot-deep (3,000 m) gorges of the Homathko and the Klinaklini Rivers stand mountains almost as high, and icefields even vaster and whiter, only a few aerial miles away, with a maw deeper than the Grand Canyon, comparable in relief to the Himalayas (to which the terrain of British Columbia was compared by colonial-era travellers).
Mount Waddington is the namesake of the Mount Waddington Regional District, which takes in the seaward slope of the Waddington Range and the adjoining coastline and parts of northern Vancouver Island adjacent to Queen Charlotte Strait.
In 1925, while on a trip to Mount Arrowsmith, Vancouver Island, Don and Phyllis Munday spotted what they believed to be a peak taller than Mount Robson, then accepted as the tallest peak entirely within British Columbia. In the words of Don Munday, "The compass showed the alluring peak stood along a line passing a little east of Bute Inlet and perhaps 150 miles away, where blank spaces on the map left ample room for many nameless mountains." While there is debate as to whether the peak they saw was Mount Waddington (Don Munday observed that the feat is impossible), they almost certainly saw a peak in the Waddington Range, and this led the Mundays to explore that area.
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Wikipedia