Mount Saint Elias

A 5,489-metre peak on the border between Alaska and Yukon Territory, the second-highest peak in the United States and Canada after Denali and Logan respectively. Saint Elias has the greatest vertical relief of any mountain on Earth measured from base to summit. The mountain rises from sea level at Icy Bay to 5,489 metres at the summit in a horizontal distance of fewer than twenty kilometres. The proximity of major glaciation to the open Pacific produces weather patterns that are particular to this peak and have made every expedition to the mountain logistically demanding.

The first ascent came in 1897 by an Italian expedition led by Prince Luigi Amedeo of Savoy, the Duke of the Abruzzi — the same explorer-mountaineer who would later attempt K2 in 1909 and pioneer the Karakoram route now known as the Abruzzi Spur. The Saint Elias expedition was the duke's first major mountaineering project. The team of ten climbers and several Italian guides reached the summit on July 31, 1897, after a six-week approach from Yakutat Bay. The route they pioneered remains the standard line.

The technical difficulty of Saint Elias is moderate by modern alpine standards — the route involves sustained glacier travel and a final summit ridge with some exposure but no significant technical climbing. What makes the mountain demanding is the combination of altitude, weather, and the marine glacial environment. Storms move in from the Pacific without warning. Temperature variations between sunny and overcast conditions can exceed 30 degrees within an hour. The lower glacier — which the route ascends for over two weeks — is the most heavily crevassed section of the climb and the location of most accidents.

Saint Elias is climbed by perhaps a handful of teams per year. The mountain has not entered popular climbing consciousness in the way Denali has, partly because the summit is significantly lower and partly because the approach is more demanding. The Atlas position of Saint Elias is structural — the mountain holds a record that no other peak holds, the relief from sea to summit, and that fact alone justifies the entry.