Mount Price (British Columbia)

Stratovolcano in British Columbia, Canada

Mount Price stands within a cirque like basin cut into the plateau on the south side of the valley of Garibaldi Lake. This basin consists of a wall of granite, inclosing the volcano on its west and southwest sides. It is now almost completely filled up by Mount Price, but some small areas of its floor are exposed on the north side. The basin likely formed as a result of glacial action as its north side appears to have been almost certainly glaciated. It might otherwise have been attributed to explosive volcanism, but there are no fragmental materials around its margin which would confirm this.

At least three phases of eruptive activity have been identified at Mount Price. andesite lava and pyroclastic rocks on the floor of the cirque like basin after an Early Pleistocene glacial event. During the Middle Pleistocene about 300,000 years ago, volcanism of the second phase shifted westward and constructed the nearly symmetrical stratovolcano of Mount Price. Episodic eruptions during this phase of activity produced andesite and dacite lavas, as well as pyroclastic flows from Peléan activity. Later, the volcano was overridden by the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, which covered a large portion of western North America during glacial periods of the Quaternary. andesite lava flows. The southwest lava flow is in the upper reaches of the Culliton Creek valley and forms Clinker Ridge. Both lava flows form steep cliffs; the current face of The Barrier is a result of the mid 19th century landslide. Although Plinian eruptions have not been identified at Mount Price, Peléan eruptions can also produce large amounts of volcanic ash that could significantly affect the nearby communities of Whistler and Squamish. Peléan eruptions might cause short and long term water supply problems for the city of Vancouver and most of the Lower Mainland. The catchment area for the Greater Vancouver watershed is downwind from Mount Price. An eruption producing floods and lahars could destroy parts of Highway 99, threaten communities such as Brackendale and endanger water supplies from Pitt Lake. Fisheries on the Pitt River would also be at risk. These volcanic hazards become more serious as the Lower Mainland grows in population. An exception is the Ring Creek dacite lava flow from Opal Cone on the southeastern flank of Mount Garibaldi, a length that is normally attained by basaltic lava flows. This led to the evacuation of the small resort village of Garibaldi nearby and the relocation of residents to new recreational subdivisions away from the hazard zone. If Mount Price were to erupt, mechanisms exist to orchestrate relief efforts. The Interagency Volcanic Event Notification Plan was created to outline the notification procedure of some of the main agencies that would respond to an erupting volcano in Canada, an eruption close to the Canada–United States border or any eruption that would affect Canada.

Mount Price and its eruptive products lie within a conservation area called Garibaldi Provincial Park. To avoid confusion, the name of that mountain was changed to Fissile Peak on September 2, 1930, for its fissility. Clinker is a geological term used to describe rough lava fragments associated with 'a'a flows. The fragments are characterized by several sharp, jagged spines and are normally less than wide. The name Mount Price appeared on a topographic map of Garibaldi Provincial Park in 1928. It later appeared on National Topographic System maps 92G and 92J in 1930 after a committee of the Garibaldi Park Board was set up to deal with nomenclature. The committee requested that the Geographic Board of Canada adopt the name Mount Price for this mountain after Thomas E. Price, a former mountaineer and engineer of the Canadian Pacific Railway who was a member of the Garibaldi Park Board at the time of the park's formation in 1927. Price was born at Vancouver in 1887 and was a member of a mountaineering party that had climbed Mount Garibaldi by a new route in 1908.

The Clinker Peak lava flows were one of the first described occurrences of lava having been impounded by glacial ice. They were the subject of significant study by William Henry Mathews, a pioneer in the study of subglacial eruptions and volcano ice interactions in North America. In 1952, Mathews cited substantial evidence supporting the conclusion that the Clinker Peak lava flows ponded against glacial ice. This included the existence of glacially striated boulders in the lava flows, conformable relations with glacial till, abnormal structures indicative of extrusion into standing meltwater or against ice, and widespread breccia and pillows indicative of rapid quenching in meltwater or in water soaked pyroclastic rocks under the ice. At the end of this road is the Rubble Creek parking lot from which the Garibaldi Lake Trail extends to the Garibaldi Lake campground and ranger station. A hiking trail, known as the Mount Price Trail or the Mount Price Route, commences past the ranger station. This poorly marked path ascends to the shore of Garibaldi Lake and then returns inland where it traverses south along the lava flow forming The Barrier. The terrain of this part of the route is relatively rough, involving substantial scrambling over boulders of the lava flow. Eventually the trail reaches open terrain north of Mount Price and approaches the base of the volcano. Climbing Mount Price or Clinker Peak involves scree and snow plodding; both peaks do not require scrambling.