Waddington

Mount Waddington
Mount Waddington (far background, center) viewed from a distance
Elevation	metres ( ft)
Location	British Columbia, Canada
Range	Waddington Range
Prominence	m ( ft)[1]
Coordinates	51°22′30″N, 125°15′30″W
Topo map	NTS 92N/06
First ascent	1936 by Fritz Wiessner and William House
Easiest route	Rock/ice climb

Mount Waddington is the highest peak in the Coast Mountains. It and the subrange which surround it, the Waddington Range, stand at the heart of the Pacific Ranges, which is to say it is in a remote and extremely difficult set of mountains and stupendous 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 13,000'-plus fang to sea level at the heads of Bute and Knight Inlets is only a few miles; across the 10,000 deep 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 Himalaya (to which the terrain of British Columbia was compared by colonial-era travellers).

History

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, the then accepted 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."^[2] While there is some debate as to whether the peak they saw was indeed Mount Waddington (in fact Don Munday himself observed that the feat is impossible^[3]), they almost certainly saw a peak in the Waddington Range, and this led the Mundays to explore that area, and discover the mountain in fact.

Over the next decade, the Mundays mounted several expeditions into the area in an attempt to climb it. Known to them as "The Mystery Mountain", in 1927 the height was measured at 13,260 feet (by triangulation)^[2], and the Canadian Geographic Board gave it the name Mount Waddington after Alfred Waddington who was a proponent of a railway through the Homathko River valley. They reached the lower summit in 1928, deeming the main summit too risky.

Precipitation and weather

The Waddington Range massif is known for fierce as well as unpredictable weather, located as it is at the brunt of the warm, wet winds that soak the British Columbia Coast, of which it is the highest point. Precipitation levels in the area of the peak are among the highest in the Coast Range, although higher-rainfall locations exist elsewhere, such as at Mount Washington and in other locations on Vancouver Island and in the Canadian Cascades.

Access

To reach Mount Waddington, one could take a long approach originating from Vancouver, with the bulk of the journey comprising of a long boat ride through the Strait of Georgia and the Knight Inlet, taking up to three days. A shorter water approach from Port McNeill, British Columbia, a northern community of Vancouver Island accessible by scheduled daily air connections and/or road from Victoria, reducing the water journey to less than a day may be undertaken.

Alternately trails and rough roads do exist from the Chilcotin side of the range, and may be accessed via BC Highway 20, from Williams Lake, departing from the main route to Bella Coola at Tatla Lake to connect to the Homathko River and up a side creek or glacier from there. This inland route is also the access route for the neighbouring Niut and Pantheon Ranges.

Mount Waddington is a popular destination among mountain climbers since it is the highest peak in the Coast Mountains and a challenging climb. It has been compared to Mont Blanc's structure.

Notes

1. ^ Mount Waddington in the Canadian Mountain Encyclopedia
2. ^ ^{a b} Munday p4
3. ^ Fairley p 59

References

• Munday, Don (1993). The Unknown Mountain. Coyote Books. ISBN 0-9692457-4-2. 
• Fairley, Bruce (1994). The Canadian Mountaineering Anthology. Lone Pine. ISBN 1-55105-041-2. 

External links

• Mount Waddington on Peakware.com

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