Mount Fairweather

A 4,671-metre peak on the border between Alaska and British Columbia, at the southern end of the Saint Elias range. Mount Fairweather is the highest peak in British Columbia and one of the most prominent coastal mountains on Earth — the summit rises from tidewater at Glacier Bay in approximately fifteen kilometres of horizontal distance, producing a base-to-summit relief that places Fairweather among the steepest mountains on the planet. The peak was named by Captain James Cook in 1778, who sighted the mountain on a rare clear day off the coast and noted that fair weather at this latitude was uncommon enough to deserve commemoration.

The first ascent came in 1931 by an American expedition led by Allen Carpé and Terris Moore. The pair reached the summit on June 8 after a multi-week approach from Lituya Bay on the Pacific coast. The route they took up the southeastern face has remained, with minor variations, the established route. The technical difficulty involves sustained glacier travel through heavily crevassed terrain and a steep upper ridge that holds avalanche risk through most of the climbing season. The fatality rate has been moderate; several accidents have involved crevasse falls on the lower glacier.

What distinguishes Fairweather from peaks of comparable altitude is the marine environment. The mountain rises directly from the Pacific, and the climate at altitude reflects that proximity — humid, storm-prone, with rapid weather changes that can produce whiteout conditions on the upper mountain within hours of clear morning skies. The climbing season is brief, typically May and June, before the spring storm cycle gives way to summer marine fog that can obscure the mountain for weeks at a time.

Fairweather is climbed by perhaps a handful of teams per year. The peak does not have the infrastructure of Denali or the fame of Saint Elias, and the approach by sea or by long bush flight from Yakutat keeps the volume low. For climbers seeking a major North American peak that has not been commercialized, Fairweather has held its character. The summit views, on a clear day, extend across Glacier Bay to the open Pacific in one direction and across the Saint Elias range to Canada in the other.