Portal Peak

Portal Peak is a prominent mountain above Bow Lake in Banff National Park, standing beside the Bow Glacier in the Waputik Mountains near the Wapta Icefield. Its name reflects how the peak marked one side of the apparent gateway to the icefield when early climbers crossed the area in 1897 on their way to Mount Gordon. Charles Sproull Thompson named it in 1916, and the name was officially adopted in 1924. First climbed in 1926, the mountain is an overthrust mass of ancient sedimentary rock shaped during the Laramide orogeny, and its waters drain into the Bow River within the Saskatchewan River system.

Alberta · Canada