Alaska Highway

Km 1816 - Icefield Ranges

Icefield Ranges

The Icefield Ranges include the highest and youngest mountains in Canada. They form the main group of peaks in the St. Elias Mountains and include Canada’s highest mountain, Mount Logan, at 5959 metres (19,545 feet) plus six other peaks over 5,000 metres (16,000 feet).

The largest non-polar icefield in North America extends over most of Kluane National Park and Reserve, sending long glacial fingers into the valleys between the peaks. The ice is more than 700 metres (2200 ft.) thick in the heart of the icefield ranges.

This icefield is the remnant of previous glaciations. The latest was the Kluane Glaciation between 29,500 and 12,500 years ago. As the glaciers melted and retreated, wind-blown silt (called loess) blanketed the newly exposed rock. The new soil supported grasses that fed bison, moose and caribou. Stone suitable for tool making was exposed for the interior First Nation hunters.

Mountaineering and scientific exploration in the interior mountains began more than a century ago. In 1896, the Duke of Abruzzi, an Italian nobleman, made the first successful ascent of Mount St. Elias – the second highest mountain in Canada at 5489 metres. Between 1911 and 1913, the international boundary was surveyed through the Icefield Ranges. The Arctic Institute established the Icefield Ranges Research Station in 1961 to study the high mountains and associated ranges, and this work continues today.

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