Athabasca (also Athabaska) is an anglicized version of the Cree name for Lake Athabasca, āthap-āsk-ā-w, meaning “grass or reeds here and there.” Athabasca Pass takes its name from the lake and the Athabasca River, although the headwaters of the Athabasca River are upstream of the Whirlpool River at the Columbia Icefields.

The first European to cross Athabasca Pass was David Thompson [1770–1857] of the North West Company [established 1779] in 1811. The pass became the main fur trade route from the east to the Columbia River until 1824, when the Hudson’s Bay Company [1670] closed its operations in Oregon and moved its Pacific coast headquarters to Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island.

Gabriel Franchère [1786–1863] traveled through the pass with a fur brigade in the spring of 1814. “We were obliged to stop every moment, to take breath, so stiff was the ascend,” he wrote. “After two or three hours of incredible exertions and fatigues, we arrived at the plateau or summit. On either side were immense glaciers or icebound rocks.”