
Looking northeast up the Kootenay River Valley to Goodsir Towers from Highway #93(S) near Kootenay Crossing
Goodsir Towers (South Tower)
- 3562 m (11,686ft)
- First Ascent
- Naming History
Located at the head of Goodsir Creek between Ice River and Goodsir Creek
Range: Ottertail
Province: BC
Park: Yoho
Headwater: Columbia
Visible from Highway: 93S
Ascent Party: C.E. Fay, H.C. Parker
Ascent Guide: Christian Hasler sr., Christian Kaufmann
Named by: James Hector
Named for: Goodsir, John and H.D.S.( John was Professor of Anatomy at Edinburgh University where Hector studied. H.D.S. was a surgeon with last Franklin Exp. The mountain has two towers so Hector may have felt it appropriate to name the mountain after two brothers.)
Mount Goodsir or The Goodsirs is made up of the two Goodsir Towers (Goodsir Towers (North Tower) and Goodsir Towers (South Tower) and Sentry Peak. "The giant twin towers of Mount Goodsir can be seen and easily identified throughout the southern Rockies and even from the Columbia Mountains. The northeast faces are great vertical escarpments while the south and west sides are more gentle." -courtesy Chic Scott Of the Goodsirs, James Outram wrote, "From almost every mountain top and some honoured few of the lesser and more accessible altitudes within an immense area of the Rocky Mountains and Selkirk Range, the triple mass of Mount Goodsir is a marked feature of the landscape, towering aloft a thousand feet above the tallest of its immediate neighbours, striking in form and most impressive in its stately grandeur." The distant view of The Goodsirs from Highway #93(S) is one of the most spectacular in the Canadian Rockies. From near Kootenay Crossing one can look up the Kootenay Valley some 44 km to the towers at the head of Moose Creek. The Goodsir Towers are the highest peaks in Yoho National Park. The story of the first ascents of the Goodsir Towers may be found in, "Yoho -A History and Celebration of Yoho National Park" by R.W. Sandford (Page 82). John Goodsir (1814-1867) was a Scottish anatomist and surgeon and professor of anatomy at the University of Edinburgh. He was one of the first who researched cell life. Harry Goodsir, from Anstruther in Fife, was the medical officer on the infamous Franklin expedition to find the North-West passage. The expedition, under the command of Sir John Franklin, consisted of 129 men, aboard two ships, the Erebus and the Terror, which carried enough provisions for 3 years. They set out on 19 May 1845 and were last seen just over two months later in Baffin Bay. All aboard perished.