Mount Lyell

Mount Lyell is the highest summit in the Lyell Group of the Canadian Rockies, rising on the Alberta-British Columbia border along the Great Divide in Banff National Park. Named in 1858 for geologist Sir Charles Lyell, it is associated with five closely spaced summits later named for Swiss mountain guides who settled in Golden, British Columbia. Beyond its height, the massif is important as a watershed divide between the South Saskatchewan and Columbia systems. Its sedimentary rock records deposition from the Precambrian to the Jurassic and later eastward thrusting during the Laramide orogeny, and its severe subarctic climate underscores its prominence as a harsh continental-divide landmark.

Alberta · Canada