Storms and Snowbaths

High on the East Ridge of Logan

In the North West of Canada, close to Alaska, lies the Yukon territory. This is the home of some wild and remote Alpine country. Huge snowy peaks stretch for hundreds of miles, stranded in vast seas of ice. The largest mountain in the area, and in Canada too, is Mt Logan.

Its summit plateau stretches for several kilometers. Our objective was the East Ridge, a sinuous snowy ridge ascending some 8000 ft to the summit plateau.

	Text and photos by Andy Scrase

Andy Williams, resident pilot at Kluane Lake, flew the four of us into the Hubbard Glacier. Surrounded by huge peaks, and with the nearest road a 100 km away, we felt pretty isolated. The East Ridge of Logan lay directly in front of our Base Camp at the landing strip. We buried some supplies (including two beers per person for a whole month!) and set up a Base Camp. The next day we set off for the base of the climb on skis, dragging our huge loads behind us on sledges.

Team members L to R - Bob Koen, Andy Scrase, Graham Rowbotham. Photo by 4th member Tony Hunter.

The ascent of this mountain was going to be slow. We had to ascend slowly in order to acclimatise. 20,000 ft at this latitude was equivalent, we were told, to 24,000 ft in the Himalayas. The style of climbing was to ascend to a camp, make a food and gear cache, and then to return to the previous camp. It was a slow and laborious process, and in the end we spent 19 days on the mountain.

After three days we were on the first crux of the route, the first 'knife edge'. This was an exposed and scary traverse on a razor back of unconsolidated snow, with huge drops either side.

We established a comfortable campsite after the knife edge. This was just as well. The weather turned bad and we were tent bound for two and a half days. In the tents we occupied ourselves with paperback books that we shared by ripping in two and passing around. Despite the incessant howl of the wind, sleep came easily.

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