Stawamus Chief

The Stawamus Chief is a granite monolith rising about 700 meters above Howe Sound near Squamish, British Columbia, formed from a body of granodiorite, part of the Coast Mountains Batholith, that intruded and cooled underground roughly 100 million years ago during a long period of volcanic and tectonic activity along the region's ancient continental margin. Its exposed granite face was shaped chiefly by glacial erosion during the last ice age, when thick valley glaciers scoured away overlying and surrounding rock, plucking along natural joints in the granite to leave the steep cliff faces seen today, further refined since by rockfall and exfoliation. Known to the Squamish Nation as Siyam Smanit, the formation is one of the largest exposed granite monoliths in North America and a major destination for rock climbing.