The first ascent of the mountain was made in 1893 by Herbert Lambert, Miss MacLeod, Harold A. Perley, William H. Rau, and William Stables via the east buttress.[1]
The mountain was climbed in 1895 via the south ridge by Philip Stanley Abbot, Charles Ernest Fay, and Charles S. Thompson who named the mountain after themselves using an amalgamation of letters from their surnames, ("A"bbot "F"ay "T"homps"on").[4]
Based on the Köppen climate classification, Mount Afton is located in a subarctic climate zone with cold, snowy winters, and mild summers.[5] Temperatures can drop below −20 °C with wind chill factors below −30 °C. Precipitation runoff from the mountain drains north into the Illecillewaet River.
^Peel, M. C.; Finlayson, B. L.; McMahon, T. A. (2007). "Updated world map of the Köppen−Geiger climate classification". Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 11: 1633–1644. ISSN1027-5606.