Mount Fay

CountryCanadaProvincesAlberta and British ColumbiaProtected areaBanff National ParkParent rangeBow RangeTopo mapNTS 82N8 Lake Louise^[4]ClimbingFirst ascent1904 Gertrude Benham, Christian Kaufmann^[1]Easiest routeSouth-West Face

Mount Fay is a mountain located on the border of Alberta and British Columbia on the Continental Divide in the Canadian Rockies. The mountain forms part of the backdrop to Moraine Lake in the Valley of the Ten Peaks of Banff National Park. It was named in 1902 by Charles E. Fay, an early explorer of the Canadian Rockies. He was a member of the party who attempted Mount Lefroy in 1896 when the first mountaineer to be killed in the Canadian Rockies occurred.^[1]

• 1904 First ascent by Gertrude Benham ahead of the mountain's namesake alpinist Charles E. Fay.^[5]
• 1937 December 22 First winter ascent by E.R. Gibson, Doug Crosby, and Bob Hind^[6]
• 1984 East Face (V/VI 5.8 WI5) FA by Barry Blanchard, David Cheesmond and Carl Tobin.^[7] Repetition of the East Face and variation on the finish was done from 2–3 April 2019 by Brette Harrington, Luka Lindič and Ines Papert.^[8]

Like other mountains in Banff Park, Mount Fay is composed of sedimentary rock laid down during the Precambrian to Jurassic periods.^[9] Formed in shallow seas, this sedimentary rock was pushed east and over the top of younger rock during the Laramide orogeny.^[10]

Based on the Köppen climate classification, Mount Fay is located in a subarctic climate zone with cold, snowy winters, and mild summers.^[11] Winter temperatures can drop below −20 °C with wind chill factors below −30 °C.

• List of peaks on the Alberta–British Columbia border

• Birrell, Dave (2000). 50 Roadside Panoramas in the Canadian Rockies. Rocky Mountain Books Ltd. pp. 86–87. ISBN 9780921102656.
• Isserman, Maurice (2016). Continental Divide: A History of American Mountaineering. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 9780393292527.