 Location: The boundaries of the Canadian Rockies are the "Interior Plains" on the east, the Rocky Mountain Trench on the west, the Liard River on the north and Marias Pass on the south. Note that Marias Pass is actually a bit south of the US border, but still geologically the Canadian Rockies. The main mass of the Rocky Mountains in the United States are a completely different geological formation, and are not considered part of the Canadian Rockies.
Terrain: The southern Rockies form the continental divide between Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and the border between Alberta and British Columbia. North of the Columbia Icefields, they form the divide between the Arctic and Pacific oceans. The "triple point" is the summit of Snow Dome (11340 ft) on the Columbia Icefields. That point is drained by three great river systems: North of there, everything flows into the the Athabasca river to the Arctic Ocean, to the southwest is the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean, and southeast is the North Saskatchewan River to Hudson's Bay, which is considered to be the Atlantic Ocean. West of the continental divide there is generally thick bush and steep slopes. The eastern side is considerably drier, and there are large meadows leading up to the peaks. From a climber's viewpoint, in comparing the Rockies with the limestone of the Alps, one would notice that the rock in the Rockies is not as worn and weathered as in the European Alps. In the Alps, it is common to encounter polished and slippery knobs of rock on popular trails, whereas in the Rockies, the rock remains rough to both the touch and to boots. The soles of climbing boots wear quite quickly in the Rockies as compared with the Alps. Also one would notice that the limestone of the Alps is much more eaten away by acid rains than in Canada. To geologists, the Canadian Rockies are the easternmost chain of mountains of the Canadian Cordillera, which is the physiograpic name covering all...more
History: In 1754, Anthony Henday, of the Hudson's Bay company saw the Canadian Rockies for the first time. In 1793 Alexander Mackenzie was the first European to reach the Pacific Coast going overland around the north end of the Rockies. By 1800 the Northwest company had established Rocky Mountain House, near Red Deer, Alberta, and from here David Thompson first found Howse Pass, through to the Columbia River. However, this pass was later blocked by hostile Peigan Indians, and so in 1810 Thompson, after an epic journey, discovered Athabasca Pass, which divides the Athabasca River from the Columbia River. Athabasca Pass is between the Arctic Ocean drainages and the Pacific, whereas Howse Pass is between the Atlantic and the Pacific. Once established, Athabasca Pass was used by numerous fur trade parties to reach the Columbia River. In 1827 David Douglas made an ascent of Mount Brown overlooking the pass, and mistakenly calculated its height to be 17,000 feet, which later caused numerous expeditions to search for these mythical giants. In 1857 the Royal Geographical Society sent the Palliser Expedition west to look for a possible railroad route. About the same time James Hector explored up the Bow Valley, over Bow Pass, and to the Lyell Icefield. There were several other significant explorations of this type. The real change in accessability of the Rockies occurred when the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was completed in 1885. This lead to the establishment of Glacier House at Rogers...more
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