Photo: Looking north to Mount Gordon from the Iceline Trail
Mount Gordon
- 3203 m (10,510ft)
- First Ascent
- Naming History
- Hiking and Trails
Located in the Yoho River Valley at the western edge of Wapta Icefield
Province: BC
Park: Yoho
Headwater: Columbia
Visible from Highway: 93N
Ascent Party: J. Norman Collie, G. Baker, H.B. Dixon, Charles E. Fay, A. Michael, C.L. Noyes, H.C. Parker, C.S. Thompson
Ascent Guide: Peter Sarbach
Named for: Gordon, Alexander MacLennan (A Presbyterian minister, Gordon was also a "persistent" climber. He was an armed forces chaplain in both World Wars.)
Journal Reference: AJ 19-109; App 8-325
The first ascent party reached the summit of Mount Gordon from a camp on Bow Lake. They had hoped to climb the somewhat higher Mount Balfour and had mistakenly thought that Mount Gordon was it. Some members of the party had seen Mount Balfour from the summit of Mount Lefroy earlier in the summer of 1897. While on the summit of Mount Gordon, Norman Collie and party named Mount Collie, Mount Baker, Mount Thompson, as well as Mount Mummery after Collie’s friend who had been lost in the Himalaya. Shortly after leaving the summit of Mount Gordon, Charles S. Thompson fell into a crevasse and had to be rescued.
Photo: Looking west-southwest to Mount Gordon from Mount Olive (courtesy Vern De Wit)
Mount St. Nicholas (left) and Mount Gordon from Highway #93 just north of Bow Lake
Looking south across the Wapta Icefield to Mount Gordon (courtesy Marta Wojnarowska)