Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Mount Castleguard

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Topo map
  
NTS

Province
  
Alberta

Parent range
  
Canadian Rockies

Elevation
  
3,090 m

Mountain range
  
Canadian Rockies

Mount Castleguard

First ascent
  
1919 by the Interprovincial Boundary Commission

Similar
  
Mount Bryce, Mount Brazeau, Pilot Mountain, Mount Saskatchewan, North Twin Peak

Mount Castleguard is an isolated mountain located near the southern edge of the Columbia Icefield at the northern edge of Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. In 1918, Irish land surveyor Arthur Oliver Wheeler named the mountain because of its castle-like appearance, which seemed to stand guard over the southern portion of the Columbia Icefield. Mount Castleguard was first ascended in 1919 by the Interprovincial Boundary Commission, which determined the exact location of the boundary between British Columbia and Alberta along the continental divide.

Map of Castleguard, Improvement District No. 9, AB, Canada

Author Lewis Freeman, in his 1925 book Roof of the Rockies, described the view from the summit:

Possibly lacking the sheer breath-taking wonder of the first sight of Kinchinjunga's snows from Darjeeling, the view from the summit of Castleguard is still one of the great mountain panoramas of the world. Set on the southern rim of the Columbia Icefields, with no other peak encroaching on its domain for many miles, there are no masking barriers close at hand to cut off the view in any direction. Not only are almost all the great peaks of the Canadian Rockies system notched into the splendid panorama, but also many of those of the Selkirk and Gold Ranges, far beyond the purple-shadowed depths that mark the great gorge of the Columbia River.

References

Mount Castleguard Wikipedia