Majestic Mount Currie
Mount Currie
When you arrive in Pemberton from any direction, you enter a microclimate and immediately become aware that you are in a different space. The valley opens up before you, expansive and promising.
And you notice Mount Currie, majestic, gorgeous, regal. She stands over the valley and seems to hold it. Her height could be oppressive, but it isn't. It's more comforting, encouraging, reassuring.
Mount Currie has a presence in Pemberton. No view is complete without a view of Mount Currie. She's on our minds recently because golf season is just around the corner and the restaurant at Big Sky golf course has what is perhaps the best view of Mount Currie in the valley.
We thought it might be nice to learn a bit more about this iconic presence in our valley, and so without further ado:
- Mount Currie is known as Ts'zil in the St'at'imcets (Lillooet) language. The Lillooet people were the first to settle the area, and still reside here, many living in the community called Mount Currie.
- Mount Currie is the namesake of Mount Currie, British Columbia and the adjoining Mount Currie community, home of the Lil'wat First Nation.
- It is the northernmost summit of the Garibaldi Ranges in southwestern British Columbia, Canada.
- It is hard to miss that the north face of Mount Currie dominates the view in the Pemberton Valley, but you may not have know that it is one of the peaks visible from the Whistler-Blackcomb Ski Area. next time you are skiing, look for it.
- John Currie was the first permanent non-indigenous settler in the Pemberton Valley. Mount Currie is named after him.
- John Currie homesteaded the Currie Ranch (aka "Currie's", later the name of a Pacific Great Eastern Railway stop) This is now the area of the Mount Currie community/reserve in the 1870s and was the re-builder of the Pemberton Trail.
- The first ascent of Mount Currie happened in a 1922 survey party led by A. Campbell.
- The north face is about 2300 m high and offers good extreme skiing when conditions are right.
So there you go. A few things about Mount Currie that you may not have known about.
We hope you love Mount Currie as much as we do, and that you take a moment out of your week this week to enjoy her presence.
Photo Credit: David Steers
Posted: Tuesday, March 25, 2014
