Looking upon the Robson Glacier in 1911, Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945] wrote, “Midway between the Helmet Ridge and the head of the amphitheater is a great rounded shoulder, jutting out from the east wall of Mount Robson. It is completely covered by snow, and presents great yawning crevasses, ice cliffs, and steep slopes leading up to the bergschrund at the base of the south-east precipices. This snow-covered mount has been named ‘The Dome’ by Arthur Coleman.”

Arthur Philomen Coleman [1852–1939] explored around Mount Robson in 1907 and 1908. Writing in The Canadian Rockies: New and Old Trails of his 1908 trip:

By walking a hundred yards from our camp into the valley Mount Robson came into view during the rare intervals when the clouds drifted away, disclosing an imposing dome of white rising eight thousand feet above our valley, the lower part banded with courses of rock. Immediately behind our little grove a half-mile of glacier flowed, separating us from the cliffs of the Rearguard, one of the subordinate peaks, which reached a height of about nine thousand feet. [p. 314]

Robson itself, seen from the new angle, had completely changed in shape. Instead of a some-what irregular, flat-sided dome, it was a daring pyramid in the sky, with filmy clouds sweeping across, casting blue shadows on the pure white of the snow. [p. 318]

Soon a fire was blazing, giving light to finish making the bed ; and not long after we were wrapped in our blankets, looking across toward the pallid face of Mount Robson, on which the moon was shining. About us everything was submerged in darkness by the shadow of the Lynx behind us, so that the moonlit hanging glaciers and the snow dome rose above the dark glacier at our feet like a lovely vision outlined against a nearly black sky sprinkled with stars. [p. 327]

The névé dome on the south-east buttress rose gently, giving a welcome chance to catch one’s breath, and soon we were on its summit, where a halt was made for a second lunch. We could look down over the gently curving surface toward the main glacier and our far-away camp ground among the last bushes at the foot of the Lynx, and we were higher than the Lynx itself and could see a great snowfield stretching beyond it to the east toward the valley of Moose River. [p. 337]