 | Mount Waddington from the north, with the Angel Glacier leading up to the NW summit (photo by Joel Connelly) <click to enlarge> |
Mount Waddington
13186 ft (4019 m) Highest peak within British Columbia . |
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| Location: | Coast Mountains, southwest British Columbia, about 45 miles (70 km) SW of Tatla Lake | ||
| Lat / Long: | 51.4° N, 125.3° W | ||
| Volcanic Type: | Non-volcanic | ||
| First Ascent: | Fritz Wiessner and William House, 1936 | ||
| First Ski Descent: | Peter Chrzanowski, Sylvain Saudan, and Eric Pehota, 1990 (helicopter ascent) | ||
| Skiable Vertical: | over 7000 ft (2000 m), possibly about 13000 ft (4000 m) down to the ocean | ||
| Mount Waddington is the highest peak in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia, a spectacular fang of ice-covered rock rising above the vast encircling glaciers. The main summit is an icy rock tower, which requires advanced rock climbing skills and is probably unskiable, while the roughly 13100 ft (4000 m) high NW summit is glaciated on its northwest side and has now been skied several times from its top (the photo above has a fine view of this ski route on the Angel Glacier). Although only a few meters shorter than the true summit, the NW summit is separated from it by a deep cleft and an unclimbed, extremely hazardous-looking knife-edge ridge. The Waddington Range has many of the highest, steepest, and most spectacular peaks in the Coast Mountains, in a remote location about 175 miles (280 km) northwest of Vancouver. The shortest access is by air from the village of Tatla Lake, landing on the Dais or Franklin Glaciers to the south of the peak. Another possible access is to fly into logging camps at the head of Knight Inlet, a spectacular 80 mile (130 km) long fjord to the southwest of the range, or at Scar Creek above Bute Inlet on the southeast of the range, and then hike and ski over 20 miles (30 km) to the main south side icefields. | |||
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| Topographic map of the Waddington Range (1:250,000 scale) from 92N Mount Waddington <click to enlarge> |
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More photos and info about routes, access, etc. may be added in the future ... |
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