Phyllis Munday - Exploration of The Waddington Range

Exploration of The Waddington Range

In 1925, while on a trip to Mount Arrowsmith, Vancouver Island, Don and Phyllis Munday spotted what they believed to be a peak taller than Mount Robson, the then accepted tallest peak entirely within British Columbia. In the words of Don Munday "The compass showed the alluring peak stood along a line passing a little east of Bute Inlet and perhaps 150 miles away, where blank spaces on the map left ample room for many nameless mountains." While there is some debate as to whether the peak they saw was indeed Mount Waddington (in fact, Don Munday himself observed that the feat is impossible), they almost certainly saw a peak in the Waddington Range, and this led the Mundays to explore that area, and discover the mountain in fact.

Over the next decade, the Munday's mounted several expeditions into the area in an attempt to climb it. Known to them as "The Mystery Mountain", in 1927 the height was measured at 13,260 feet (by triangulation), and the Canadian Geographic Board gave it the name Mount Waddington after Alfred Waddington who was a proponent of a railway through the Homathko River valley. They reached the lower summit in 1928, deeming the main summit too risky.