So here’s a pretty interesting mountain. As far as I know there is no known indigenous name for the peak so we will stick to calling it Logan, named in 1890 after… Sir William Edmund Logan, founder of the Geological Survey of Canada. Surprising enough his name was put forth by the USGS. Fast forward to the year 2000. There was a move afoot initiated by Jean Chrétien to have it renamed after his recently departed friend Pierre Elliot Trudeau. It didn’t happen due to outcries from across the land. But, can you imagine?
Mt. Logan is another one that got away. But to be honest we never even really got the boat in the water. Four of us started with some loose planning in the way back when. Suffice to say that for reasons lost in the mists of history we never ended up going.
But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!
– Robert Burns
Most people, well most climbers I guess, know that Logan is a big mountain, but I’m not sure how many know exactly just how big. So pardon the pun, and try this on for size… Logan is massive. It has 13 distinct summits. It is the worlds 6th most prominent peak. Elevation is 5,959m, and rising by about .35m per year due to tectonic forces. It likely has the largest base circumference of any non-volcanic mountain on the planet. It would take almost two full weeks to ski around the base. Although these things are hard to measure, some folks speculate Logan could also be the largest mountain in mass on the planet, again, not counting shield volcanoes. If the mountain were truncated at the 4,900m level it would leave a plateau of 17 kilometers in length comprising almost 78 square kilometers. Big. Really big.
First ascent was in 1925, and occurred after an over 200km, 65 day approach on foot.
37 Routes exist on the Logan Massif by my count. This includes the sub-peaks. One of them is ‘easy’.
For the sake of brevity, I am only going to list those on Mt. Logan proper, and King Peak. That being said, the other sub-peaks are serious mountains in their own rights, one’s that hold some very serious routes as well.
| Route | First Ascent Party | Year |
| King Trench | Carpé, Foster, Lambart, MacCarthy, Read, Taylor | 1925 |
| North Face / West Ridge (King Peak) | Hart, Paige, Thayer | 1952 |
| Schoening Ridge | McGowan, Niendorff, Reynolds, Schoening | 1952 |
| East Ridge (King Peak) | McGowan, Niendorff, Reynolds, Schoening | 1952 |
| East Ridge | Collins, Monk, Ouellette, Roberts, Ross | 1957 |
| Independence Ridge | Amstutz, Baker, Bassett, Bloomberg, Coleman, Magary, Springgate, Stelling, Stewart | 1964 |
| Hummingbird Ridge | Bacon, Coale, Evans, Long, Steck, Willson | 1965 |
| West Ridge (King Peak) | Birney, Davidson, Davidson, Ebrel, Everett, Hall,Hall, Nava, Nester, Thompson | 1966 |
| HubSew Ridge | Harrison, Hoeman | 1967 |
| Catenary Ridge | Bleser, Connary, Given, Ingalls, Plummer, Schmechel | 1967 |
| Southwest Spur (King Peak) | Oda, Okubo, Okumura | 1969 |
| North Ridge | Balderston, Matthews, Schuttenberg, Sweet | 1974 |
| Centennial Ridge | Holdsworth,Jones, Wyss | 1976 |
| Warbler Ridge | Baumann, Burcher, Jones, Page, Thiessen | 1977 |
| West Ridge | Davis, Hirt, Sievewright, Waterman | 1978 |
| South – Southwest Buttress | Burgess, Elzinga, Jotterand, Lauchlan | 1979 |
| Amenity Ridge | Carter, Down, Wittmayer | 1979 |
| The Thunderbird Variation | Creighton, Nettle | 1990 |
| Call of the Wild (King Peak) | House, Josephson | 1998 |
| Orion Spur | Burbee, Frimer | 2002 |
| I-TO | Okada, Yokoyama | 2010 |
If one didn’t know the scale of the mountain, along with the climate, and altitude, one might think there would be far more routes than this. As far as I can tell there have been no new routes on Mt. Logan proper since 2010, although there have been several excellent new routes put up on the subsidiary peaks in recent years. But think on this… after the first ascent, there weren’t even any other attempts on the mountain for 25 years.
Some notes on selected routes:
King Trench: Class 2 – 3. The first ascent route. Not much more than a very long ski-slog, and the route of choice for many generations of mountaineers intent on bagging the highest point in Canada. But still not one to be taken lightly. Most people require two to three, or even more camps, which in turn means carrying heavy packs. There is a lot of time spent at altitude, cold temperatures, and potential for very bad weather. On May 26, 1991 a record -77.5 °C (-106.6 °F) was observed, making it the coldest recorded temperature outside of Antarctica. All in all there are no technical sections on this climb, but stamina is most definitely required as it is 26km to the summit. However, in recent years the upper area of the route known as the Football Field, has become very crevassed making travel problematic.
East Ridge: Grade VI, 5.7, AI2-3 Steep snow. This is ‘the’ climbers route to the top. If any climb on Logan deserves the moniker classic, then this is it. It’s an elegant route. Hard, but not too hard. Dangerous, but not too dangerous. There are some sustained sections of 50° ice, along with some steeper and exposed sections of up to 65°. Well within the reach of many fit, and competent alpine climbers with enough snow and ice experience in their CV. I met a young lady last summer who was just such a climber who had recently completed the route.
Hummingbird Ridge: (South Ridge) Grade VII, 75°, AI3, M4. Although who can really say, considering these grades didn’t exist in 1965. The first ascensionists never really graded it. It took them 32 days of climbing with 8 camps to ascend. It has also been said that there came a point on the route where the team was basically escaping upwards. If you need another reminder of the immensity of Logan, consider that this full ridge is about 9km long! Persistence and Determination won through. This notorious route has achieved almost mythical status. Almost 57 years with no second ascent. And there have been some serious suitors. World class climbers turned back. And there have been some tragedies; world class climbers as well. Some would say that it’s going to take a convergence of perfect weather and snow conditions along with a team of highly skilled and motivated climbers to make the next ascent. Others would say that whilst a breathtakingly difficult climb, it really is one of a kind; and that audaciously difficult climbing and high danger do not make a ‘Classic’.
Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and Determination are omnipotent. – Calvin Coolidge
I-TO: The massive south / southeast face of Logan. Grade: ED+ M6 WI5 2,500m. In April 2010 this was the largest unclimbed face in North America. That is until two very tough Japanese lads made the first ascent. They spent 4 days on the wall doing difficult climbing on steep thin ice, and unstable snow and rock including some very delicate traversing, that eventually became irreversible so that only real way out was up. Shades of Hummingbird ridge eh? Upon topping out on the wall they had a 4km walk to the actual summit. They descended the East ridge, and hiked the 30km back to their base camp.
No one can appreciate what that means if you haven’t been there. – Jack Tackle
New regulations were enacted in 2020 in response to the high taxpayer costs and danger associated with rescues on the mountain. Typically rescues are in the $60,000.00 to $100,000.00 range. Some of the new regulations are: No solo climbs allowed, no winter climbs, and all climbers must carry rescue insurance. So factor that into your planning. If you do an air approach, which is probably the only sane thing to do, you are responsible for obtaining an Air Permit. If you choose as some souls do, to hike in to the start, be prepared for about 100km or thereabouts. Surprising that the backcountry use fee is only $12.75 per person per night. And in the event you wanted a quick descent you are out of luck because there is no paragliding or wingsuit jumping allowed in the park. I seem to recall that the application when we were considering going included some medical clearance from a doctor.
Guided climbs exist both on the King Trench, and East Ridge routes. So if that’s your bag be prepared to shell out close to $8,000.00 per person for the pleasure. You can get a really good bicycle frame for that amount…