Canada is the second largest country on the planet. It famously stretches “Mari Usque ad Mare” or “from sea to sea”, this actually encompassing three seas, the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic. And within the borders of this huge nation, some 873,000 square miles is mountainous.
The mountains of Canada are spread over an astonishing variety of mountain ranges. Some of the most prominent are the Canadian Rockies, the Mackenzie Mountains and the Coast Mountains. As for the highest mountains in Canada, the top 18 are all part of the Yukon’s Saint Elias Mountains. In fact, the first outside this range is Mount Waddington of the Coastal Range at 13,045 feet.
In this article, we will introduce to you the top 5 highest mountains in Canada for your reference.
1. Mount Logan
Mount Logan is the highest mountain in Canada and the second-highest peak in North America after Denali. It was named after Sir William Edmond Logan, a Canadian geologist and founder of the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC). Mount Logan is located within Kluane National Park Reserve[6] in southwestern Yukon, less than 40 kilometers (25 mi) north of the Yukon–Alaska border. Mount Logan is the source of the Hubbard and Logan glaciers. Although many shield volcanoes are much larger in size and mass, Mount Logan is believed to have the largest base circumference of any non-volcanic mountain on Earth,[7] including a massif with eleven peaks over 5,000 meters (16,400 ft).
Temperatures are extremely low on and near Mount Logan. On the 5,000-meter-high (16,000 ft) plateau, air temperature hovers around −45 °C (−49 °F) in the winter and reaches near freezing in summer with the median temperature for the year around −27 °C (−17 °F). Minimal snow melt leads to a significant ice cap, almost 300 meters (980 ft) thick in certain spots.
Canada’s highest peak is one of the coldest and most remote places on the planet, but Mount Logan is also considered one of its grandest mountains. This is thanks in large part to its enormous base circumference, possibly the largest of any non-volcanic mountain on Earth.
The home of this majestic mountain is in the heart of the Kluane National Park and Reserve, on the southwest edge of the Yukon. The weather here is extreme, with low temperatures creating vast glaciers. As for the temperature at the highest point in Canada, even in the summer, the average remains below zero.
2. Mount Saint Elias
Mount Saint Elias is the second-highest mountain in both Canada and the United States, stands on the Yukon and Alaska border about 26 miles (42 km) southwest of Mount Logan, the highest mountain in Canada. The Canadian side of Mount Saint Elias forms part of Kluane National Park and Reserve, while the U.S. side of the mountain is located within Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve.
European explorers first sighted the mountain on July 16, 1741, with the arrival of the expedition commanded by Vitus Bering, a Danish explorer in service of Russia. While some historians contend that Bering named the mountain, others believe that eighteenth-century mapmakers named it after Cape Saint Elias when Bering left the peak unnamed.
Mount Saint Elias is notable for its immense vertical relief. Its summit rises 18,008 feet (5,489 m) vertically in just 10 miles (16 km) horizontal distance from the head of Taan Fjord, off of Icy Bay.
Giving its name to the mountain range it shares with Mount Logan, Mount Saint Elias is the second tallest mountain in Canada at 18,008 feet. It’s also the second tallest in the US, straddling as it does the border between Yukon and Alaska.
In 1897, an expedition led by Prince Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi was recorded as the first ascent of the mountain. However, the “Big Mountain”, as it is sometimes known by the indigenous Tlingit people, does not present a welcoming climb. Not only is it renowned to be extremely steep, but also unpredictable.
In 2007 Gerald Salmina directed an Austrian documentary film, Mount St. Elias, about a team of skier/mountaineers determined to make "the planet's longest skiing descent" by ascending the mountain and then skiing nearly all 18,000 feet down to the Gulf of Alaska; the movie finished editing and underwent limited release in 2009. The climbers ended up summiting on the second attempt and skiing down to 13,000 ft (3,960 m).
3. Mount Lucania
Mount Lucania in Yukon is the third-highest mountain in Canada (5240 meters), and the second-highest mountain located entirely within the country (the summit of Mount Saint Elias, Canada's second highest peak, is shared with the US state of Alaska). A long ridge connects Mount Lucania with Mount Steele (5,073 meters [16,644 feet]), the fifth-highest in Canada. Lucania was named by the Duke of Abruzzi, as he stood on the summit of Mount Saint Elias on July 31, 1897, having just completed the first ascent. Seeing Lucania in the far distance, beyond Mount Logan, he immediately named it "after the ship on which the expedition had sailed from Liverpool to New York," the RMS Lucania.
It was the Duke of the Abruzzi who named the third tallest mountain in Canada. He did so on 31 July 1897, while standing atop Mount Saint Elias. Spotting the peak, he called it after the ship that had brought him part way there, the RMS Lucania.
It would not be until 1937 that Bradford Washburn and Robert Hicks Bates would complete the first recorded successful ascent to the 17,145-foot high summit. Washburn described the undertaking as having “loomed as one of the most difficult and involved mountaineering problems in North America”.
In 2022, an expedition led by U.S. professional skier Griffin Post located Washburn's lost equipment, which had been carried 14 miles from its original location by the glacier. Assisted by officials from Canada’s National Parks service and a team of archaeologists, much of the gear was collected and cleaned.
4. King Peak (Yukon)
King Peak is the fourth-highest mountain in Canada and the ninth-highest peak in North America. Situated just west of Mount Logan (highest in Canada), in Yukon, it is considered a satellite peak of the massive mountain.
The first ascent of King Peak was made in 1952 by some students from the University of Alaska. Russell Alston Paige, Keith Hart, Elton Thayer and Bill Atwood walked to the Ogilvie Glacier at the foot of Quartz Ridge where the majority of their supplies had been air dropped. They reached Camp 2 on the west ridge on June 3. After waiting two days for a storm to subside, Hart and Thayer set out for the summit while Atwood remained in camp due to a knee injury. After struggling with rock towers and icy crests, they reached the top on June 6, 1952.
The second and third ascents were also completed in 1952 by an American team who had also just made the first ascent of Mount Augusta. From the south side of King Peak, they made their way up to the east ridge occasionally traversing to the north side to avoid steep slopes. After two failed summit attempts on July 20 and 21, Pete Schoening and Gibson Reynolds succeeded in negotiating the gendarme that had rebuffed the failed attempts and reached the top on July 23. Schoening returned the next day with Dick McGowan and Bill Niendorff to complete the third ascent.[3]
Just ten miles away from Mount Logan is a majestic mountain with a name to match. King Peak is considered a satellite of Logan and, despite being over 2500 feet shorter than the biggest mountain in Canada, is said to be the harder climb. Sometimes known as Mount King, at 16,972 feet it is the fourth highest point in Canada.
5. Mount Steele
Mount Steele is the fifth-highest mountain in Canada and either the tenth- or eleventh-highest peak in North America. Its exact elevation is uncertain. Commonly-quoted figures are 5,073 meters (16,644 ft) and 5,020 meters (16,470 ft). A lower southeast peak of Mt. Steele stands at 4,300 m (14,100 ft).
It was named after Sir Sam Steele, the North-West Mounted Police officer in charge of the force in the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush.
Mount Steele's exact elevation is uncertain. Until the 1960s, Canadian topographical maps showed an elevation of 5,073 meters (16,644 ft), which was determined in 1913 by International Boundary Commission surveyors. However, this height was never tied to the sea-level datum established by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. More recent Canadian topographical maps no longer show a spot height, and their contour lines indicate a summit elevation of 5,020±20 meters (about 16,470±60 ft). The older figure continues to be quoted by other sources.
Connected to Mount Luciana by a long ridge is Mount Steele. Some sources list the height of this peak as 16,644 feet, in accordance with a measurement taken in 1913. If correct, this would make it North America’s tenth highest mountain. However, this is now considered unconfirmed and an exact height is yet to be established.
As a result, the height is usually listed as within 60 feet of 16,470. The lower end of this scale would drop Mount Steele to number 11 on the continental list, but whatever the case, it is the fifth tallest mountain in Canada. It takes its name from the head of the Yukon police detachment during the Klondike Gold Rush, Sir Sam Steele.
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