Mount Waddington

Mount Waddington, once known as Mystery Mountain, is the highest peak in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia, Canada. Although it is lower than Mount Fairweather and Mount Quincy Adams, which straddle the United States border between Alaska and British Columbia, Mount Waddington is the highest peak that lies entirely within British Columbia. It and the subrange which surround it, known as the Waddington Range, stand at the heart of the Pacific Ranges, a remote and extremely rugged set of mountains and river valleys. Although Mount Waddington is not located in the High Arctic, its elevation and maritime climate produce severe alpine conditions. The massif is known for steep relief, extensive glaciation and technically demanding mountaineering routes. Mount Waddington and its attendant peaks are known for some of the most serious expedition mountaineering challenges in North America. From Waddington's 4,019 m (13,186 ft) fang to sea level at the heads of Bute and Knight Inlets is only about 32 kilometres (20 mi); across the 3,000-metre-deep (9,800 ft) gorges of the Homathko and the Klinaklini Rivers stand mountains almost as high, and icefields even vaster and whiter, only a few aerial miles away, with a maw deeper than the Grand Canyon, comparable in relief to the Himalayas (to which the terrain of British Columbia was compared by colonial-era travellers). Mount Waddington is the namesake of the Mount Waddington Regional District, which takes in the seaward slope of the Waddington Range and the adjoining coastline and parts of northern Vancouver Island adjacent to Queen Charlotte Strait.