Athabasca Pass (el. 1,753 m or 5,751 ft) is a high mountain pass in the Canadian Rockies. It is the headwaters of the Whirlpool River, a tributary of the Athabasca River. In fur-trade days it connected Jasper House on the Athabasca River with Boat Encampment on the Columbia River.
The pass lies between Mount Brown and McGillivray Ridge. It is south of Yellowhead Pass and north of Howse Pass.
Since the first documented crossing by David Thompson and his Native American guide in 1811, the pass became a major point on the fur trade route between Rupert's Land and the Columbia District, used by the York Factory Express. The pass was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1971.
Famous quotes containing the word pass:
“I learned from my two years’ experience that it would cost incredibly little trouble to obtain one’s necessary food, even in this latitude; that a man may use as simple a diet as the animals, and yet retain health and strength.... Yet men have come to such a pass that they frequently starve, not for want of necessaries, but for want of luxuries.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)