Powder Mountain Icefield
Encyclopedia
Pacific Ranges
The Pacific Ranges are the southernmost subdivision of the Coast Mountains portion of the Pacific Cordillera. Located entirely within British Columbia, Canada, they run northwest from the lower stretches of the Fraser River to Bella Coola, north of which are the Kitimat Ranges.The Pacific Ranges...
of southwestern British Columbia, Canada, about 20 kilometres (12.4 mi) west of Whistler
Whistler, British Columbia
Whistler is a Canadian resort town in the southern Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in the province of British Columbia, Canada, approximately north of Vancouver...
and about 90 kilometres (55.9 mi) north of Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
. On the west side of the icefield is the valley of the Squamish River
Squamish River
The Squamish River is a short but very large river in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Its drainage basin is in size. The total length of the Squamish River is approximately .-Course:...
, while on its east is the Callaghan Valley
Callaghan Valley
The Callaghan Valley is a wilderness recreation area in the Sea to Sky Country of southwestern, British Columbia, located in the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains 90 km north of Vancouver...
, which is the setting for the Nordic facilities for the 2010 Winter Olympics
2010 Winter Olympics
The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially the XXI Olympic Winter Games or the 21st Winter Olympics, were a major international multi-sport event held from February 12–28, 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the suburbs of Richmond, West Vancouver and the University...
.
The icefield is studded by several volcanic formations, including the active volcano Mount Cayley
Mount Cayley
Mount Cayley is a potentially active stratovolcano in Squamish-Lillooet Regional District of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Located north of Squamish and west of Whistler in the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains, it rises above the Squamish River to the west and above the Cheakamus...
, which lies at the southernmost end of the icefield. Other summits are Powder Mountain
Powder Mountain (British Columbia)
Powder Mountain, , is a volcanic summit in the Powder Mountain Icefield in the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in southwestern British Columbia, Canada....
, Brandywine Mountain
Brandywine Mountain
Brandywine Mountain, , is a summit in the Powder Mountain Icefield of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains of southwestern British Columbia, Canada, about west of the resort town of Whistler...
and Mount Fee
Mount Fee
Mount Fee is a volcanic peak in the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. It is located south of Callaghan Lake and west of the resort town of Whistler. With a summit elevation of and a topographic prominence of , it rises above the surrounding rugged...
. Mount Callaghan
Mount Callaghan
Mount Callaghan is a volcanic peak located east of the headwaters of the Squamish River, just northeast of the Powder Mountain Icefield and just south of the Pemberton Icefield in the Sea to Sky Country of southwestern British Columbia, Canada, about 20 km directly west of the Resort...
, a dormant volcano, is just northeast of the icefield. Mount Brew
Mount Brew (Cheakamus River)
Mount Brew is a rounded mountain in southwestern British Columbia, Canada, located southwest of Whistler in the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains. A public cabin run by the Varsity Outdoor Club, Brew Hut, is located near the summit...
is just to its south.
Geology
Numerous subglacial eruptionSubglacial eruption
A subglacial eruption is a volcanic eruption that has occurred under ice, or under a glacier. Subglacial eruptions can cause dangerous floods, lahars and create hyaloclastite and pillow lava. Subglacial eruptions sometimes form a subglacial volcano called a tuya. Tuyas in Iceland are called table...
s beneath the Powder Mountain Icefield have formed many distinctive subglacial volcano
Subglacial volcano
A subglacial volcano, also known as a glaciovolcano, is a volcanic form produced by subglacial eruptions or eruptions beneath the surface of a glacier or ice sheet which is then melted into a lake by the rising lava...
es in the Mount Cayley volcanic field
Mount Cayley volcanic field
The Mount Cayley volcanic field is a remote volcanic zone on the South Coast of British Columbia, Canada, stretching from the Pemberton Icefield to the Squamish River. It forms a segment of the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt, the Canadian portion of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, which extends from Northern...
and contain abundant glass and fine-scale jointing from rapid cooling of lava
Lava
Lava refers both to molten rock expelled by a volcano during an eruption and the resulting rock after solidification and cooling. This molten rock is formed in the interior of some planets, including Earth, and some of their satellites. When first erupted from a volcanic vent, lava is a liquid at...
, such as Ember Ridge
Ember Ridge
Ember Ridge is a volcanic mountain ridge associated with the Mount Cayley volcanic field in British Columbia, Canada. Ember Ridge is made of a series of steep-sided domes of glassy, complexly jointed, hornblende-phyric basalt with the most recent eruptions during the Holocene...
and Slag Hill
Slag Hill
Slag Hill is a subglacial volcano associated with the Mount Cayley volcanic field in British Columbia, Canada. It consists of glassy, augite-phyric basaltic andesite in steep-sided, glassy, finely jointed domes and one small, flat-topped bluff. The finely jointed domes are similar to those of Ember...
. Mineralogically, the volcanics range from andesite
Andesite
Andesite is an extrusive igneous, volcanic rock, of intermediate composition, with aphanitic to porphyritic texture. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between basalt and dacite. The mineral assemblage is typically dominated by plagioclase plus pyroxene and/or hornblende. Magnetite,...
to rhyodacite
Rhyodacite
Rhyodacite is an extrusive volcanic rock intermediate in composition between dacite and rhyolite. It is the extrusive equivalent of granodiorite. Phenocrysts of sodium rich plagioclase, sanidine, quartz, and biotite or hornblende are typically set in an aphanitic to glassy light to intermediate...
, and chemically, the rocks span a range from andesite to dacite
Dacite
Dacite is an igneous, volcanic rock. It has an aphanitic to porphyritic texture and is intermediate in composition between andesite and rhyolite. The relative proportions of feldspars and quartz in dacite, and in many other volcanic rocks, are illustrated in the QAPF diagram...
. Glassy volcanic rock
Volcanic rock
Volcanic rock is a rock formed from magma erupted from a volcano. In other words, it is an igneous rock of volcanic origin...
s are abundant, with glass contents as high as 70%. Volcanoes such as the Slag Hill tuya were formed when magma
Magma
Magma is a mixture of molten rock, volatiles and solids that is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and is expected to exist on other terrestrial planets. Besides molten rock, magma may also contain suspended crystals and dissolved gas and sometimes also gas bubbles. Magma often collects in...
intruded
Intrusion
An intrusion is liquid rock that forms under Earth's surface. Magma from under the surface is slowly pushed up from deep within the earth into any cracks or spaces it can find, sometimes pushing existing country rock out of the way, a process that can take millions of years. As the rock slowly...
into and melted a vertical pipe in the overlying Powder Mountain Icefield. The partially molten mass cooled as a large block, with gravity flattening its upper surface, forming its flat-topped, steep-sided subglacial volcanic edifice. The latest volcanic activity in the Powder Mountain Icefield has occurred in the past 10,000 years.
Development proposal
The icefield was one of several locations in the southern Coast Mountains that attracted ski resort development interest as a result of the success of the nearby ski resort town at Whistler, British ColumbiaWhistler, British Columbia
Whistler is a Canadian resort town in the southern Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in the province of British Columbia, Canada, approximately north of Vancouver...
. A proposal call in 1985 was won by Powder Mountain Resorts, who won approval in principle from the provincial government for its project design, which included a small basetown at Callaghan Lake. In 1987, Forests and Lands Minister Jack Kempf was instructed by then-Premier Bill Vander Zalm
Bill Vander Zalm
Wilhelmus Nicholaas Theodore Marie "Bill" Vander Zalm is a politician and entrepreneur in British Columbia, Canada. He was the 28th Premier of British Columbia from 1986 to 1991.-Early life:...
to "cease and desist" in favour of Callaghan Resorts Inc., which was backed by then-Attorney-General Les Peterson
Les Peterson
Les Peterson is a retired American soccer midfielder who professionally in the North American Soccer League, Major Indoor Soccer League and American Soccer League...
. Court action for breach of contract and abuse of office taken by Powder Mountain Resort promoters Nan and Dianne Hartwick was dismissed by the Supreme Court of British Columbia
Supreme Court of British Columbia
The Supreme Court of British Columbia is the superior trial court for the province of British Columbia. The BCSC hears civil and criminal law cases as well as appeals from the Provincial Court of British Columbia. Including supernumerary judges, there are presently 108 judges...
in 1999, though in 2000 the British Columbia Court of Appeal
British Columbia Court of Appeal
The British Columbia Court of Appeal is the highest appellate court in the province of British Columbia, Canada. The BCCA hears appeals from the Supreme Court of British Columbia and a number of boards and tribunals. The BCCA also hears criminal appeals from the Provincial Court of British...
refused to overturn the lower court's ruling. An appeal at the Supreme Court of Canada
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...
is still pending.
A special prosecutor was appointed but the investigation was halted for lack of evidence in 2003, three weeks before Vancouver and Whistler won the bid to host the 2010 Winter Olympics
2010 Winter Olympics
The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially the XXI Olympic Winter Games or the 21st Winter Olympics, were a major international multi-sport event held from February 12–28, 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the suburbs of Richmond, West Vancouver and the University...
. In the meantime, a Nordic lodge was founded in the Callaghan Valley in 1998, just prior to the Canadian Olympic Committee's selection of Vancouver over Calgary and Quebec City as the site of the 2010 Olympics bid. The owner of the Nordic lodge was a promoter of using the Callaghan Valley for Olympic ski-jumping, cross-country, biathlon and other Nordic events. Powder Mountain promoters Nan and Dianne Hartwick continue to press for investigation of backroom dealing that led to the shunting-aside of their project and claim connections between members of VANOC, the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games was the non-profit organization responsible for planning, organizing, financing and staging the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2010 Winter Paralympics...
, and those in the provincial administration who helped quash their project. The province has also issued permits for other operations in the valley, such as cat-skiing and snowmobile tour operations, as well as pushed through permits for construction of the Whistler Olympic Park
Whistler Olympic Park
The Whistler Olympic Park is the location of the Nordic events facilities for the 2010 Winter Olympics and is located in the Madeley Creek basin in the Callaghan Valley, west of Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. The facility hosted the biathlon, cross-country skiing, nordic combined, and ski...
, which is the site of the games' Nordic events. The Hartwicks' position is that these developments violate the agreement-in-principle they had with the province, which the provincial government had claimed was without sufficient backing.
In 2007, RCMP Commercial Crimes Unit head Kevin deBruyckere confirmed that a review is underway, and which the Hartwicks say is based on new evidence of conflict of interest. The Hartwicks emphasize that they are not anti-Olympics, but that their ultimate goal is only to re-establish their right to complete their resort proposal.
See also
- Mount CayleyMount CayleyMount Cayley is a potentially active stratovolcano in Squamish-Lillooet Regional District of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Located north of Squamish and west of Whistler in the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains, it rises above the Squamish River to the west and above the Cheakamus...
- Volcanism in CanadaVolcanism in CanadaVolcanism of Canada has produced lava flows, lava plateaus, lava domes, cinder cones, stratovolcanoes, shield volcanoes, submarine volcanoes, calderas, diatremes, and maars, along with examples of more less common volcanic forms such as tuyas and subglacial mounds...
- Volcanism in Western Canada
- Garibaldi Volcanic BeltGaribaldi Volcanic BeltThe Garibaldi Volcanic Belt, also called the Canadian Cascade Arc, is a northwest-southeast trending volcanic chain in the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains that extends from Watts Point in the south to the Ha-Iltzuk Icefield in the north. This chain of volcanoes is located in southwestern...