What are the Coast Mountains?

The Coast Mountains are the major mountain range along the Pacific coast of British Columbia, extending about 1,600 kilometres from the Fraser River near Vancouver northwest to the Kelsall River near the Alaska-Yukon border. The range continues in Alaska and Yukon as the Saint Elias Mountains. The Coast Mountains rise from sea level to peaks above 4,000 metres, with Mount Waddington (4,019 metres) the highest summit entirely within British Columbia.

The Coast Mountains are part of the larger Cordillera physiographic region of western Canada, distinguished from the Rocky Mountains (which lie further inland along the BC-Alberta border) by their younger geological age, more recent volcanic activity, and different rock composition. The Coast Mountains were formed between about 175 and 50 million years ago by the collision of island-arc terranes with the North American Plate. The range includes the Coast Mountains Icefield (more than 100 small glaciers totalling about 11,000 square kilometres) and many fjords carved by Pleistocene glaciation.

The Coast Mountains drop steeply to the Pacific, leaving narrow coastal plains (in some places no plain at all) and producing the fjord-laced coastline of British Columbia. Major fjords include Howe Sound (north of Vancouver), Jervis Inlet, Bute Inlet, Knight Inlet (the second-longest fjord in mainland British Columbia), and Dean Channel. The Inside Passage between the mainland and Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii (used by ferries from Vancouver to Prince Rupert and beyond to Alaska) cuts through the western edge of the range.

The Coast Mountains support significant infrastructure and industry. Whistler Blackcomb (one of North America's largest ski resorts) is in the southern Coast Mountains and was a venue for the 2010 Winter Olympics. The Sea-to-Sky Highway (BC Highway 99) connects Vancouver to Whistler. The Bute Inlet hydroelectric complex and many run-of-river hydroelectric stations operate in the range. The Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park (designated 1993) and Kluane National Park Reserve in Yukon protect significant northern Coast Mountains wilderness. The First Nations of the range include the Squamish, Lil'wat, Heiltsuk, Wuikinuxv, Nuxalk, Tsimshian, Haisla, Kitselas, Kitsumkalum, Nisga'a, and several Tlingit nations. The Nisga'a Final Agreement of May 11, 2000 was the first modern treaty in British Columbia and covers the lower Nass River valley in the northern Coast Mountains.