- Waddington Range
The Waddington Range is a subrange of the
Pacific Ranges of theCoast Mountains ofBritish Columbia . It is only about 4000 km² (1545 sq mi) in area, relatively small in area within the expanse of the range, but it is the highest area of thePacific Ranges and of theCoast Mountains , being crowned by its namesakeMount Waddington 4019 m (13186 ft). The Waddington Range is also extremely rugged and more a complex of peaks than a single icefield, in contrast to the other huge icefield-massifs of the southernCoast Mountains , which are not so peak-studded and tend to have more contiguous icemasses.History
The difficulty of access to the core of the massif delayed actual sighting, measurement and climbing of
Mount Waddington until 1936; it had only been espied fromVancouver Island by climbers in the 1930s and was at first referred to as Mystery Mountain - because its existence until then had been unknown. Apparently even inFirst Nations lore its existence was spoken of only vaguely, as a possibility, and it seems unlikely the core of the massif was penetrated by anyFirst Nations adventurer given the tremendous difficulty posed even for mountaineers equipped with modern outdoor gear.At its eastern edge, deep in the Grand Canyon of the
Homathko River , occurred the first gruesome event in the guerilla war known to history as theChilcotin War of1864 . This resulted from the attempt byAlfred Waddington to build a road fromBute Inlet to Barkerville.Port Waddington , a land-survey left over from those days, remains on the map on the south bank of the Homathko where it empties intoBute Inlet .Waddington's Road was never completed because of the war, but was examined in later years as one of the main possible routings for the mainline of theCanadian Pacific Railway . Choice of the route would see the terminus of the railway at Victoria but despite strong favour from that city and the province the railway choseBurrard Inlet , which as a result became today's Vancouver.Neighbouring Ranges and Icefields
Immediately north of the Waddington Range is the
Pantheon Range , while to its south is theWhitemantle Range . Northeast across Mosley Creek, the main west fork of theHomathko River , is theNiut Range , while east across theHomathko River is theHomathko Icefield and its attendant ranges. Northwest across theKlinaklini River is theHa-Iltzuk Icefield , which is the largest of the coastal icecaps of the southern Coast Mountains, larger than the Waddington Range's complex of glaciers and peaks or theHomathko Icefield .External links
* [http://bivouac.com/ArxPg.asp?ArxId=179 Waddington Range entry in the Canadian Mountain Encyclopedia]
*BCGNIS|34945|Waddington Range
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