When I started my blog I said that I would be sharing stories of my past adventures. Well, here is a story I wrote on a mountaineering expedition I was on a few years a go. It was one of the greatest adventures I have been a part of. Enjoy the read and as always I love hearing your feedback.
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My expedition to Canada’s Mt. Logan with fellow NOLS Instructors Andrea Blaikie and Nicole Blaser in May 2003 started with an incredible hour-long bush plane flight to a glaciated base camp at 9,000 ft. (10,500 ft. below the summit of Mt. Logan). Over the first five days we ferried loads of food and gear up the mountain to King Col, an area half way up at 14,000 feet, where most people rest for a couple days to acclimatize.
At 19, 850 feet, Mt. Logan reigns as Canada’s highest peak and the second highest peak in North America. Measured by its base circumference, it is the most massive mountain in the world. It is 25 miles long and rises more than two miles above its surroundings. The mountain was named after Sir William Logan, founder of the Geological Survey of Canada.
Mount Logan is big, remote and beautiful beyond words. It is everything Denali is, but at the same time it remains a real and pristine climbing adventure. It is located six miles from the Alaska border in the southwest corner of the Yukon in the St. Elias Mountain Range. We climbed the King Trench Route. Last year, of about 25 teams on the mountain, only one made the summit.
There were four teams ahead of us when we arrived at the mountain. We passed two quickly and met two at King Col. One of teams at the Col was heading down (bailing on the climb) when we got there and the other one was thinking about it. The teams at King Col had been there over a week trying to find a safe route though a major icefall that had opened up because of the lack of snow this year.
We were warned about the icefall by the park wardens and knew getting through this 1,000-ft. icefall would be the technical crux of the climb. We were kind of hoping that the teams ahead of us would have already put a route through that we could follow. But the day after we got to the Col, the last team up there decided to call it quits.
To be continued.
Till next time LiveMore.
Shawn
