Helmcken Falls

Helmcken Falls is a 141 m (463 ft) waterfall on the Murtle River within Wells Gray Provincial Park in British Columbia, Canada.

Credit for discovering Helmcken Falls goes to Robert Henry Lee (1859–1935), a land surveyor working for the British Columbia government.

In 1911, Lee was awarded a four-year contract to survey lands in the North Thompson and Clearwater Valleys.

On July 24, 1913, he walked west along the Murtle River from his remote camp and reached the top of the waterfall.

Three weeks later, Lee received a reply from the Premier stating that the waterfall was instead to be called Helmcken Falls.

This name honoured John Sebastian Helmcken, a physician with the Hudson's Bay Company who arrived in Victoria in 1850.

This huge lava deposit in the Wells Gray-Clearwater volcanic field was erupted from nearby fissures starting 200,000 years ago and filled the wide valley of the Clearwater River.

Helmcken Falls has some of the world's highest graded ice climbs, most notably, Spray On (W10, 2010), Wolverine (W11, 2011), Interstellar Spice (W12, 2016), and Mission to Mars (W13, 2020).

Helmcken Falls with the ice cone
Angelika Rainer [ it ] on Clash of Titans (WI10+), Helmcken Falls.