Peak Finder

Photo: Cairngorm from the southeast on the Icefields Parkway

Cairngorm

  • 2610 m (8,563ft)
  • Naming History
52.9331N -118.191W
Located in the Miette River Valley 2 km south-southwest of Mount Kinross

Range: Victoria Cross
Province: Alberta
Park: Jasper
Headwater: Athabasca
Major Valley: Miette
Visible from Highway: 16, 93N
Year Named: 1916
Named by: Morrison Bridgland
Named for: Cairngorm is Gaelic for "blue-green mountain." There is a range in Scotland called Cairngorm Mountains.

"Cairngorm" is not Mount Cairngorm or Cairngorm Peak. Just "Cairngorm." It was named by surveyor Morrison Bridgland after a group of granitic mountains in the Scotland Highlands. "Gorm" in Gaelic means blue-green and in July and early August, the upper slopes of the mountain do have shades of green on them. However the ancient name for the Scottish Crairn Gorm is "Monadh Ruadh," and this meant "red mountains," which the peaks of the Victoria Cross Range certainly are.

Photo: Cairngorm (left) and Mount Kinross from the southeast on the Icefields Parkway

Looking northwest to Cairngorm from the Icefields Parkway