Origin of the name unknown.
Adopted 23 May 1962 on 83D, as labelled on BC map 3J, 1932, in association with the North Thompson River.
Possibly based on the 1925 map of the Cariboos by explorer Walter Alfred Don Munday [1890–1950].
Named by Hugh Edward Millington Stutfield [1858–1929] and John Norman Collie [1859–1942] in 1898. It comprises the North Twin and South Twin peaks.
The Ramparts from Amethyst Lakes. Thorington 1924
Internet Archive
James Monroe Thorington [1895–1989] visited the area in 1923, and his book The Glittering Mountains of Canada includes a chapter on The Ramparts.
The peaks of the Ramparts are Geikie, Turret, Bastion, Drawbridge, Redoubt , Dungeon, and Paragon. Max M. Strumia named the peak between Dungeon and Paragon “Mount Oubliette,” not an official name.
After an expedition in the area in 1933 that included several first ascents, mountaineer Cyril G. Wates [1883–1946] wrote, “I know of no compact and continuous range in the Canadian Rockies which can show such an array of difficult peaks.” Wates called the pass between Paragon and Parapet Peaks “Para Pass,” also an unofficial name.
![East face of Mount Robson and The Helmet (background right). Photo: Byron Harmon [1918]](/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/wmcr-harmonb-v263-na-0955.jpg)
East face of Mount Robson and The Helmet (background right). Photo: Byron Harmon [1918] Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies
Kinney had accompanied Arthur Philemon Coleman [1852–1939] and Coleman’s brother Lucius on the first mountaineering expedition to Mount Robson in 1907, when they approached from the Fraser River side and got little further than Kinney Lake. They returned in 1908, guided by Adolphus Moberly [1887– ?] and John Yates [1880– ?], who took them up the Moose River valley and approached Robson from the north. They became the first people to report on Berg Lake, Tumbling Glacier, Robson Glacier, Rearguard Mountain, The Helmet, and Extinguisher Tower, features Kinney named after their appearances.
During the 1911 Alpine Club of Canada–Smithsonian Robson Expedition, director Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945] said he “looked at the north-east face of the Mount Robson massif. On the north shoulder rests a mighty ice-field, crevassed and broken in every direction. From its centre a rugged ridge protrudes, of which the culminating apex has been named by Coleman ‘The Helmet,’ from the resemblance to the old Roman headpiece when seen from the valley below.” [2] In his writings Coleman mentions The Helmet but does not claim to have named it. [3] [4]
Arthur Philemon Coleman [1852–1939] explored around Mount Robson in 1907 and 1908. Writing in The Canadian Rockies: New and Old Trails of his 1908 trip:
By walking a hundred yards from our camp into the valley Mount Robson came into view during the rare intervals when the clouds drifted away, disclosing an imposing dome of white rising eight thousand feet above our valley, the lower part banded with courses of rock. Immediately behind our little grove a half-mile of glacier flowed, separating us from the cliffs of the Rearguard, one of the subordinate peaks, which reached a height of about nine thousand feet. [p. 314]
Robson itself, seen from the new angle, had completely changed in shape. Instead of a some-what irregular, flat-sided dome, it was a daring pyramid in the sky, with filmy clouds sweeping across, casting blue shadows on the pure white of the snow. [p. 318]
Soon a fire was blazing, giving light to finish making the bed ; and not long after we were wrapped in our blankets, looking across toward the pallid face of Mount Robson, on which the moon was shining. About us everything was submerged in darkness by the shadow of the Lynx behind us, so that the moonlit hanging glaciers and the snow dome rose above the dark glacier at our feet like a lovely vision outlined against a nearly black sky sprinkled with stars. [p. 327]
The névé dome on the south-east buttress rose gently, giving a welcome chance to catch one’s breath, and soon we were on its summit, where a halt was made for a second lunch. We could look down over the gently curving surface toward the main glacier and our far-away camp ground among the last bushes at the foot of the Lynx, and we were higher than the Lynx itself and could see a great snowfield stretching beyond it to the east toward the valley of Moose River. [p. 337]
“The Rooster Comb” or “The Comb” refers to the shape of the peak ridge and its reddish colour.
— 1972 memo from BC Parks, with map, file C.1.62
Colonel Aimé Laussedat
Wikipédia
Colonel Aimé Laussedat (1819-1907) was a French scientist who, because of his contributions to the field of aerial photography, is called the “father of photogrammetry.”
Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945] named the peak in 1911, during the 1911 Alpine Club of Canada–Smithsonian Robson Expedition:
“Across the valley from our camp a fine-looking peak stood out conspicuously. On a small scale the peak resembles one on the Blaeberry River, near its junction with the Columbia, named Mt. Laussedat, after Colonel Aimé Laussedat, a French scientist who first brought to notice the uses of photography in mountain surveying. The station is here referred to as ‘The Colonel.’ It is a very commanding peak and the view from its summit will repay the climb, which is nowhere difficult. It was a wondrous sight—seas of peaks does not express it—oceans of peaks rising high in every direction. The immensity of the view is astonishing—the immeasurable chaos of it all!”
The name “The Blackwater Tusk” was adopted in 1994 on Map 93H/8, as submitted by BC Forest Service in McBride. Some mountaineers have called this “The Needle.”
This spire is a notable landmark visible from the McBride Peak area, and an official name was required for communication purposes. “Blackwater” is the historic name for the nearby McKale River.