The Chief

Description

This image is 72 x 31.5-inches (183 x 80cm) in size. Canvas prints are sold stretched or unstretched. Stretched prints are available for pick up only in Vancouver. Addresses further afield will get unstretched canvases and paper prints rolled up in a tube for shipping. Instructions for stretching/framing will be included in the shipping tube.

The Chief. This is perhaps my favorite image. The Stawamus Chief towers over the town of Squamish, BC and the head of Howe Sound. You will pass this impressive rock face as you travel from Vancouver to Whistler up the Sea To Sky Highway.

In the legends of the Squamish people this massive granite monolith is actually a chief’s longhouse turned to stone.

I’ve always been taken by the thick black vein that runs up through this rock face. They call it The Black Dyke. The light grey rock of The Chief’s face is granite that was formed in the Cretaceous period about 100 million years ago deep in the earth by slow cooling magma. Since then the rock above it has been eroded away exposing this massive granite dome. The granite split at some point and a more recent fissure of lava seeped up through the crack. That lava was made of basalt and andesite which cooled quickly to form the distinctive black vein.

The sheer vertical face of The Chief –and its rounded top was created by the glaciers that flowed over this area during the ice ages. I actually went out and bought a new camera just to take this image.  This is pretty much the first image I took with that camera. I think the end result is like some sort of abstract painting in shades of grey. This image really needs to be seen on a big canvas. That’s why I prefer to print it at about 6-feet wide. The little images on a website do not do it justice.

The sheer size of this rock face and the overhanging rock that runs from the lower left to the upper right are my favourite features. If you look closely at this image you can see six rock climbers standing and working their way up the face. There are also a few climbing ropes and some blue barrels stashed among the trees. I was told that those barrels were part of an effort to clean up the old rock climbing routes on the face. They were trying to remove some of the old pitons and other climbing gear left up there over the years.