Peak Finder

Photo: Mount Louis (left) and Mount Fifi (right) from Highway #1 at the former site of the Town of Anthracite, 10.5 km east of Banff

Mount Fifi

  • 2621 m (8,600ft)
  • First Ascent
  • Naming History
51.2219N -115.690W
Located in the Forty Mile Creek Valley

Range: Sawback
Province: Alberta
Park: Banff
Headwater: Bow
Visible from Highway: 1
Ascent Date: 1921
Ascent Party: L.S. Crosby, J.W.A. Hickson
Ascent Guide: Edward Feuz jr.
Year Named: 1886
Named for: Louis Stewart, the park superintendent's son, took Lady MacDonald's "attendant", Edith Orde, and her dog Fifi hiking to Edith Pass. Mount Louis, Mount Edith, and Mount Fifi were named following the trip.

Mount Edith, Mount Louis, and Mount Fifi were all named one day in 1886 when Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John A. MacDonald, and his wife were making a cross country trip on the recently completed Canadian Pacific Railway. Louis Stewart, the park superintendent's son, took Lady MacDonald's "attendant", Edith Orde, and her dog Fifi hiking to Edith Pass. The pass provides views of the three peaks and a park surveyor named them after the two hikers and the dog. There are many mountains in the Rockies named after people but this may be the only one officially named after a dog. In 1911 a bulldog named Hoodoo, even though he had to be hauled up the final cliffs by a rope, reached the summit of a mountain near Snake Indian Pass in Jasper National Park and was honoured by having the peak named after him. Sadly, the name was never officially adopted and the peak was named Monte Cristo Mountain in 1934 although no one knows why. Zeke's Peak near Mount Sir Douglas in the Kananaskis Lakes area is unofficially named after a dog that accompanied the first ascent party to the summit in 1973.

Photo: Mount Louis (left) and Mount Fifi from the north on Forty Mile Creek

Looking west to Mount Fifi from Tunnel Mountain Drive near Banff Townsite

Looking south east to Mount Fifi (left) and Mount Louis with Mount Rundle beyond (courtesy Sonny Bou)

Looking west to Mount Louis (left) and Mount Fifi