Coronation Mountain
- 3170 m (10,401ft)
- First Ascent
- Naming History
Located between Freshfield Creek and Forbes Brook
Province: Alberta
Park: Banff
Headwater: Saskatchewan
Ascent Party: Interprovincial Boundary Commission
Named by: J. Norman Collie
Named for: The mountain was named on August 9, 1901 which was the coronation day of King Edward and Queen Alexandra.
The following incident that occured during the Boundary Survey's ascent of Coronation Mountain was documented in the Interprovincial Boundary Survey's Report, this section likely written by Arthur Wheeler: "The party on the 1st August made the ascent of Coronation Mountain, when there occurred a very serious mishap resulting in the absolute loss of a book of field notes of the work from the commencement of the season. The climbing party in charge of the chief assistant, Mr. A.J. Campbell, made the ascent of the peak by a route both difficult and dangerous and completed work at the summit. When descending by another route it became necessary at one place to lower the other two members of the party ? both of whom were novices and in their first season at mountaineering ? down a bad piece of cliffs; the survey instruments, camera, transit, and a rucksack containing a satchel with the field book in it, sweaters, etc., then had to be lowered separately. Untying the rucksack from the rope, one of the assistants placed it upon a too narrow ledge and the moment he removed his hand it fell off, struck the ledge on which he was standing and bounded over the edge out of sight. Climbing down it was nowhere to be seen. For two days, in pouring rain, every possible spot in the vicinity was searched and only one conclusion was probable. On bounding over the ledge the rucksack must have fallen into a narrow rock gully with a steep incline to its mouth, across which flowed of mass of glacier ice. Directly opposite the mouth of the gully there was a large hole in the ice, doubtless carved by water flowing down the gully, which furnished a run-off channel for the melting snow from above. The incline of the gully continued steeply under the ice and the only conclusion possible was that the rucksack had continued its course down the gully and under the ice. Mr. Campbell lowered a weighted rope for one hundred and fifty feet down through the hole in the ice and found that the steep incline continued beyond that distance. There was no possible way of ascertaining where the rucksack had gone. This serious loss necessitated the re-occupation of a number of stations on the west side of Bush Pass, and Mr. Campbell, who in my absence was at his wits? end to know just what to do in the circumstances, took the only common-sense action possible by re-occupying them immediately. All the photographic views previously taken, were safe at the camp, but the transit readings for azimuths and orientation of the views, without which the views themselves were of little value, had to be done again".