Chief Mountain
| Chief Mountain | ||
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 View from the north of Chief Mountain |
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| height | 2768 m | |
| location | Montana , USA | |
| Mountains | Rocky mountains | |
| Coordinates | 48 ° 55 '48 " N , 113 ° 36' 0" W | |
| Topo map | USGS Many Glacier | |
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| First ascent | 1892 by Henry Stimson | |
The Chief Mountain is a significant survey on the border of Glacier National Park in the US state of Montana .
Location and geology
The striking cliff of Chief Mountain, with its height of 2768 m, towers over the surrounding prairie by several hundred meters. Including the hill at its feet, it rises more than 1,500 meters above the surrounding landscape, the eastern flank is an almost vertical wall about 450 meters high. Its isolated location on the border between Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet - Indian Reservation just a few kilometers south of the border to Alberta made him a major landmark in the exploration of the American West.
The summit is the foremost, most easterly point of the Lewis Thrust , a thrust of older, up to 1.5 billion years old rocks from the Proterozoic over younger layers of Quaternary and Cretaceous and the last 100 million years. After it was separated from the Lewis Thrust cover by erosion , it now stands free as a cliff on the much younger bedrock. It consists of Precambrian limestone.
history
The mountain was considered sacred to the resident Blackfoot due to its location and appearance. It was shown as Kings Peak on British maps of the late 18th century. During the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific, Meriwether Lewis reached the mountain in 1805 and named it Tower Peak , this name was replaced at the end of the 19th century by the one still in use today, as it is the translation of his name from the language of the Blackfoot - 'Big Chief' (English Big Chief ) - came close. The northwest of the Blackfoot living enemy Stoney called him Huga Baha ( 'Chief Hill'). When Glacier National Park was established in 1910, the summit itself and the western wall fell under the National Park Service's administrative area , while the eastern flank remained under the care of the Black Footed Indians.
tourism
Chief Mountain is the namesake and landmark of the Chief Mountain International Highway, a road link between Waterton Lakes National Park and Glacier National Park that is only open from mid-May to mid-September . It offers great views of Chief Mountain and the mountains of both national parks.
The first ascent by white settlers took place on September 8, 1892 by Henry Stimson with the help of another white and a black-footed Indian; sacrificial sites with bison bones were found on the summit , which prove that the summit was already an indigenous cult site Had served peoples . It was not until 1951 that the second ascent took place via the route already chosen by Stimson via the eastern flank, which today - despite known alternative routes - is considered the normal route.
The mountain is regarded as a mountaineering challenge, even the simplest ascents have class 4 passages of the Glacier National Park Rock & Grading System on the summit ridge . This classifies difficult climbs, the difficulty of which is mainly due to exposure and where a fall has serious or fatal consequences. In spite of the minor technical difficulties, rope safety is therefore recommended. In addition, the sedimentary rock offers only inadequate possibilities for the use of tools.
Web links
- Chief Mountain on Peakbagger.com (English)
- Chief Mountain at summitpost.org (English)