The Plan

At the time when the initial plan for this expedition took shape, I’d been mountaineering in assorted locations around the world for quite a few years. I’d also been living in Vancouver, British Columbia for several years and had been taking advantage of the amazing local mountains for weekend climbing trips. Like most weekend outdoors people, I had dreams of heading off on other bigger trips to climb any number of the more significant peaks in the world.
One of these “objects of my desire” was to climb Canada’s highest mountain – Mt Logan. Mt Logan is pretty much 6000m high (technically just a couple of meters less I think) and is located in a very inaccessible region of North America. Specifically it is very close to the US boarder with Alaska, and very near the Pacific coast. There are absolutely no roads in the area and the mountains and glaciers are the largest and most formidable in North America (there are several other very large mountains of “ill repute” in the immediate area).

Now, the problem with these kinds of mountaineering trips are that they are not for “the faint of heart”, and they are not accomplished in a weekend or without spending quite a bit of money and a good amount of effort on planning and preparing. The usual problem for me though is finding people that I would be willing to undertake the trip with. People with the time, money, and skills for such an expedition are few and far between. Even with those basic issues sorted out, there are few people I am prepared to tie myself to a rope with and trust them with my life “when the chips are down” or alternately, spend a week stuck in an Arctic storm in a tiny tent on an extreme mountain ridge for a week with! – Personality and character are also critical issues!

Mt Logan has at least a half a dozen different routes of ascent and by far the most popular route is “The Kings Trench” which is long and not very technical (3000m vertical rise, 25km in length). Its basically a very long trudge to high altitude on skis. Then there are a couple of more technical routes that get climbed regularly including “The East Ridge” (3600m vertical rise, 10km in length?), and "Hubsew Ridge”. Other routes are far more difficult and infrequently climbed including the infamous “Humming Bird Ridge” (4000m vertical rise, 15km in length?), that was only ever climbed once and people have disappeared trying to repeat the route!
The thing about a 6000m high mountain located in sub-Arctic latitudes is that no matter what route you choose, even if you take the easiest option and manage to get to the summit, you’ve managed a very significant achievement. That said, I was not happy just doing the Kings Trench route and I wanted to do something more technical – The most probable route in my mind was the East Ridge but I was prepared to be flexible for others on any possible team. However this intent to climb a technical route of course meant that it was even harder for me to find suitable people to attempt the climb with.

The Preparation

So, a team was formed with the objective of climbing Mt Logan. After that, it didn’t take long for us to decide that we were all capable of, and interested in, climbing the East Ridge route. This was good too – we had without fuss achieved a significant group decision – The route was chosen :)

Now Mt Logan is in a Canadian national park (Kluane National Park to be specific) and to climb it you need to have a permit – Particularly since any trip is going to take several weeks and it’s a dangerous undertaking and the National Parks people want to know who is doing what and where and when – since they are the people who have to come get the bodies and inform the families when it all goes wrong!
For Mt Logan in particular, this “Permit” process takes at least three months and you have to provide personal details such as “climbing resume” and “next of kin” contact information etc. Fortunately we were aware of this stuff and we had the time to get it all done since we were about six months away from the climbing season. Mt Logan is in such an “unpleasant” location weather wise that there is only a month or two of the year when people attempt to climb it (for the most part anyway). Our plan was to climb in the first weeks of June, which is more or less the common wisdom of when the weather is most reliable and the route conditions are best.
As I recall it, a couple of team meetings were held early on and some tasks were allocated amongst the team and then we all went off and got things done. Other decisions that were made without too much fuss were:

1) Each rope team should be fully independent of the other for versatility and safety reasons (tent, equipment, etc not shared between groups).

2) Each rope team would do meal preparations as a group (not individual) since this reduced equipment.

3) The two rope teams would climb together if at all possible to maximize safety and minimize trail breaking (deep snow) etc.

4) This was a single expedition and each rope team was of course there to help and support the other team in an emergency – including the possibility of abandoning their own climbing efforts to help the other team if needed.

It turned out that my “group tasks” were to organize a team first aid kit and a satellite phone (for emergency use) as well as to organize the flight arrangements for the ski plane to get us into base camp. This was not too much trouble as I already had most of the information I needed and we had a few months of time to get it done.

Marcus and I decided that as far as meals went we were more or less compatible and we would take it in turns to do an evening meal for two people on alternating days. We also decided that breakfast would be independent (we each do what we want) and lunches would not really exist (during the day you climb! – no sitting around or cooking…) but munchies etc to be eaten while on the move would also be up to the individual to prepare. Our initial estimates were that we would want about one week of food for the “approach” (getting into base camp and on to the start of the climb); two weeks of food for the climb its self: and finally, one more week of food in case we got pinned down by bad weather at some point (from fly in to fly out).
That meant about a month of light weight food for arctic conditions – My guess was that I would need about one and a half kilograms of high energy and dehydrated foods per day to make this work – That’s about fourty kilograms of food for the trip and the total cost would be about $600.
So, after the initial meetings we all went our own ways and started organizing and acquiring all the special clothing and equipment that we would b needing. When we wanted to share info or had questions we just fired off emails to the group to get advice etc.

Special Equipment:
As mentioned, Mt. Logan is very high altitude and in the far North and in a notoriously bad weather location. We were going to need the equipment that climbers on the high Himalayan peaks use – minus the oxygen equipment that Everest climbers tend to use.
I looked at my gear and I had most of the technical stuff that I needed but some special extras for the extreme cold were:
Vapour Barrier Sleeping Bag liner – Stops frost build-up in the down of the sleeping bag in very cold sustained camping conditions.
Insulated Boot Liners and OverBoots – To protect the climbers feet from frostbite in the extreme cold.
Heavily Insulated Jacket, Pants and Gloves – Just for general living in the extreme cold.
Extra sleeping mat – Again for general camping in the extreme cold.
It took a little effort to get the over-boots since they are made by very few companies, but the rest was not hard to get through the MEC – The Canadian equivalent of Americas “big box” outdoors store REI.
The other stuff that we used was the standard fare for serious outdoors activities in the Vancouver region. From thermal underwear to extreme cold sleeping bags and glacier glasses, to “Whisperlight” stoves and crampons, ice axes, ice screws and climbing ropes.

I already had it :)

The Sacred Rope Team

After spending a few years in the outdoors community in Vancouver I had managed to meet some people with the skills, and a few of them were even the sorts that met my “personality and character” requirements. I don’t actually recall any longer what brought the subject up, but it turned out that there were a few of us who were willing to commit to the cost, planning effort and timing of a trip to Mt Logan. My rough idea of a team for the trip would be no fewer than three people and no more than six people. From my perspective (and there are definitely alternate views), the optimum arrangement would be four people climbing together as two pairs on two ropes. For me this gives the maximum in versatility and safety with acceptable load divisions of equipment, and minimal difficulties with group and individual plans and desires.
It turned out that I got my desires on this front and we were a group of four: The characters were Myself, Marcus Dell, Ian Hopper and Russell March – all well experienced outdoors and mountaineering people.

There is something very hallowed about a mountaineering rope team. On an expedition like this, each climber thinks very carefully about who they would be willing to climb with. As I mentioned above, a climbers life is absolutely dependent on the skills of the person on the other end of their rope. It is also critical that the members of a rope team can communicate easily and clearly – even when there is minimal or no “communication” as most people think of it. – It is often the case in mountaineering that high winds, low visibility, and difficult terrain conspire such that one climber is completely out of touch with the guy on the other end of the rope and communication by sight and sound are all but impossible. In these cases the climbing still goes on, and it often comes down to interpreting a vague tug on the rope or a slack line, or an almost inaudible shout as a significant message from the other climber. Misinterpreting these subtle hints can be very dangerous and you need to feel a “gestalt” with your rope team if you are to be able to climb and survive in these conditions. Likewise, as mentioned above, you are just as likely to have to spend many days and nights in very close quarters and terrible conditions with these same people and you had better be comfortable dealing with their personalities (not to mention their habits and bodily functions) at close quarters for long periods without relent!

My preferred rope partner was Marcus Dell. I had known him for years and done numerous trips in the back country around Vancouver with him (skiing, climbing, mountaineering, hiking etc.) There was no question in my mind that he was the right sort of person for this trip. Ian and Rus, I had met before and done one or two trips with in the past. They were both clearly strong and capable climbers I had no doubt, but I just didn’t know much about their personalities. It turned out though that this was not an issue since the two climbing pairs seemed to automatically sort themselves out the way I would have chosen it :)

The Approach

So, over a few months, the trip got organized and then came the fateful day when each of us showed up at the Vancouver airport with about 70Kg of luggage for a flight to Whitehorse in Canada’s Yukon territory.

25th May
After checking in and paying for a huge amount of excess baggage, we were on the flight, and a couple of hours later we were landing in Whitehorse – The provincial capital of Canada’s Yukon. It’s a small city perched up on a flat area somewhat above the Yukon River.
We were met at the airport by our transport to get to Kluane Lake where we would get a flight on a small ski plane into the glacier at the foot of the mountain. – A Limo!
Yes, it was a full on stretched limo. It turns out that this was the cheapest option to get the four of us and our gear across the several hundred Km to our next stop on the journey. Id done the phoning around and set this up. It was going to cost us $350 for the four hour drive and that’s only $80 each for us and our gear. The limo was rather beat up on the inside and had clearly seen better days but the driver was a very lively character and was happy to give us the low-down on this and that as we drove around town – I think he had some close ties with the local “Hells Angels” chapter... We had to buy the last of our supplies here since certain things are not allowed to fly and other things were just too heavy. So, we drove around for an hour or so and got many liters of light fuel for the stoves and some heavy and perishable food (Alcahol etc :) ) for the first week of the trip. Then it was off down the highway towards Haines Junction and the four of us nodded off quite happily in the back of the limo.
About half way to our destination, we had a stop at the local ranger station to fill in several forms and let them know that we were in the area, that we had the right permit, and the trip was on. I also noticed that the trees up here were getting very small and short. They were some sort of Pine tree, but they were only about 3-5m tall – It’s a reflection of the climate up here. The trees are likely a hundred years old or so (there has been a good deal of logging here!) but the growing season is very short in the sub-arctic.
Back in the car and off we go again till we get to Kluane Lake where there is an airport. It turns out that that’s about all there is! – Not quite true, there is a lodge/motel with some little cabins on the side of the lake that we have booked into for the night … or two… or three, till we fly into the glacier. We unload and bid farewell to our talkative limo driver and then stand around and start to settle into the awesome silence of the North.
Our first night up here is a short one. The sun sets at half an hour past midnight and then rises again at 4:30 am!

26th May
Well, the weather looked OK today but there are some people already in the queue for flights so we have to wait till they are gone before we get our turn. Not to worry, we have a relaxing (but cool) day of doing a bit of gear organizing (pouring fuel into packable volumes), strolling along the lake front, and generally relaxing into the local “style” - We all just came from full-on work life in the “big” city of Vancouver.
The ski plane manages two flights into the Kings Trench route with the other people today but no more for us – we have to wait till tomorrow.

27th May
Again the weather looks OK but that’s not enough for the pilot. We are a couple of hundred kilometers from the mountain and a couple of kilometers lower in altitude too. The weather here can be very different to the weather there and no one knows it better than the bush pilot we are flying in with. We are quite happy to trust his judgment and wait till he says its OK to fly.
It turns out that his say so is not given till about mid-day. Then its all go go go! We rapidly load our gear into a pickup and get dressed for the glacier with our ice axes, ropes and crampons at the top of the gear pile so we can use it as soon as we land. We drive over to the airport a couple of Km and wait near the plane. The pilot ambles casually over and tinkers about his machine. We must be just the usual over anxious climbing party to him, and Im sure he enjoys taking his time :)

He eventually gets around to loading the plane, and he does it all himself so that he can feel the weight of all the luggage and pack it where he wants in the plane – These things make all the difference for the light aircraft and we have no choice but to sit back and watch while the work is done. Its going to take two flights to get us and our gear in. Straws are drawn and Marcus and I get the first flight with the other two to follow later that day…. Or the next if the weather shuts down…. And there is no guarantee that we will get in for that matter. If the visibility is poor when we get in there then we may not be able to land and may have to simply turn around and fly back out!

Base Camp

It turns out that the visibility in at the mountain was not great but the pilot could manage to land us a few kilometers further down the glacier than is normal. Marcus and I have a quick discussion and decide that this is OK and that we can sled the gear forward to the base of the ridge with out too much difficulty.

The views of the mountains and glaciers that we have been flying through are magnificent. The view of Mt Logan is impressive too. Its huge! And we are flying directly in towards the ridge that we are going to climb – awesome! But no time for that... The little plane sinks down through some quite bumpy air toward the glacier and very soon we are skidding along the undulating snowy surface to a halt. Out we get and quickly unload our pile of gear into a heap beside the plane. Then the pilot applies power and the little plane turns around and flies back into the sky leaving Marcus and I covered in snow and crouching over our gear in a mini-blizzard.
What’s all the rush for? – well, the visibility is minimal and it could easily deteriorate in the next hour or even minutes. The pilot is hurrying off to get the other half of our climbing team to try to keep us together.

Marcus and I set about digging a hole to cache our back-up food and gear – This is now “Base Camp”. And then we dug out the old bivy site we had landed at and set up our tent. The weather held good, and a couple of hours later we here the plane again and the others arrive in the same manner we did. The action repeats and then as the snow settles and the four of us stand up and dust our selves off, we are all looking at each other with huge grins on our faces – The route looks great

Its too late in the day for us to reach the base of the ridge (about 10Km away) but we set out in that direction anyway. The plastic sleds are loaded up and we put on our ropes and skis and hauling harnesses and trudge slowly toward the massive mountainrough the snow for several hours but the mountain doesnt seem to be getting much closer. We look back and there is nothing to show us that we are making any progress at all - its like being on a treadmill!
Eventually the sun is setting behind the mountain ridges (at about 10pm) so we just stop where we are and set up the tents on the glacier and camp.


The next morning, we got up latish in beautiful sunshine and had breakfast.
We are camped on the glacier out in the middle of nowhere with nothing but snow ice and rock making up the views of these huge mountains – not a scrap of green or another living thing to be seen :)
Breakfast completed, we set about packing camp and loading our gear onto the sleds again and we start trudging toward the mountain again.
We set off at about 10am and the snow slowly became softer as the morning passed and the warmth built up. After a few more Km (we were definitely closer to the mountain now) of pretty flat ground, the glacier got steeper and we headed up toward the base of the ridge we were going to climb. Dragging our big sleds up hill through the soft snow was very hard work. As we got closer to the ridge we could make out some dark specks moving around on the glacier. It turned out that these were some other people at the base camp for the same route. As we got closer still, the ground got steeper and that meant that there were crevasses to be negotiated. It was a very big glacier and some of the crevasses were on a matching scale. They were mostly visible though so while we had to zigzag our way through the maze, we had no problems with falling in. The other people at the base of the ridge were not so lucky though! It turned out that as we got closer we could figure out what was going on. One of them had managed to fall a long way into a crevasse and the other three were working a Z-pulley rope setup to extract him. He was unhurt and roped up so there was no real problem but our party were too far away to be able to offer them help. We were moving as fast as we safely could through the same crevasse field!

Advance Base Camp

We dragged our loads to a halt next to the other climbers camp at about 1pm and decided we should make use of the sunny weather and do a fuel and food run up on to the ridge crest. This was going to be a theme for the rest of the trip. We would first do a gear run for half a day up along the ridge. We’d drop the load and then return back down to our previous camp for the night. Then the next day we’d pack up the camp and move up the ridge again with the rest of the gear and establish a new camp either where we had left the load the previous day or up to half a day further on up the ridge.

We had moderate loads and headed up the slope to get onto the ridge. The slope was in fact quite steep at about 50 degrees. That was no real issue, but the snow conditions were not great. The slope was facing south and thus got the full force of the sun – and the days were very long at this time of year. The result was that the snow on the slope had become “isothermal” to about 75cm deep. This means that it was like moving through a stiff ice slushy drink! Not only that but it was with a load and up a steep hill! This is also quite dangerous from the perspective of avalanche!
We struggled away at it for an hour or so and decided that it was too dangerous. We turned around and headed down. We figured that we would have to do it very early in the day with the hope that the overnight freeze would set the surface of the snow so we could climb it more easily and more safely.

29th May
Up and on our way by 7:30am. We worked our way up the slope and indeed it was better but still pretty bad. It took us two and a half hours and we made it up onto the crest of the ridge.
At this point, the climbing changed abruptly. The snow became firm and easy to move over but that didn’t help. The ridge immediately got steep and changed to mixed rock and ice. There was a steep little step that I lead through with some effort. When I got to the top, I found a fixed line anchored there but buried in the snow. We dug this out and it took a slightly different line through the step, but this made it far easier and quicker for the others in the group. Then we wandered along the mixed snow and rock ridge – being careful to stay away from the edge with probable cornices! - for an hour or two more before we got to a suitable Camp 1. This was an obvious widening of the ridge (It had been quite narrow and had a very steep drop off on the North side… and the South side for that matter too!) and had much more snow than rock.
We dumped the gear at our new Camp1, had a break, enjoyed the view and speculated on what the route was going to be like further ahead (given the sad state of the snow on that lower slope and the tricky nature of the mixed rock and snow). Then we headed down the mixed section of ridge, rappelled over the rock step and carefully slipped and slithered our way back down the now very soft slope to camp by 6pm.

Camp 1

30th May
Up and on our way by 8:30am after packing up camp. We repeated the same route as the previous day. When we got to our gear stash, we had a snooze in the sun for a couple of hours but then decided that there was a better Camp site further along the ridge so we pushed on further up the ridge with the fuel and food load. The sun had disappeared in the afternoon and the temperature rapidly settled at around -5degC for the rest of the day. We went two hours further along, and dumped 14 days of food and fuel there before returning to our new camp (C2) lower down the ridge… But we were now established on the climbing route! – a good day

31st May
Up and on our way by 9:30am after packing up camp. We headed back up the ridge with the full loads in windy and fogy conditions. It was easy enough and we got to the Camp2 site in about an hour and a half. At this point we had caught up with a Ukrainian climbing team who were about a day ahead of us going up the same route. The weather had been deteriorating and the wind was stronger and the visibility lower – In fact we were now in a low-grade blizzard by my estimation. The Ukrainians had decided to stay put for the day at Camp1. This meant that we would have to dig our own camp platform, which we set about doing. I have to say that Marcus just LOVES to dig the deepest snow camp sites I have ever seen. It took a couple of hours to dig a platform that he liked and it was a meter or more deep with cooking shelves and access trenches etc… quite the effort, but to be sure, no wind was ever going to blow us off the ridge! Anyway, after we had done that, the weather was rather unpleasant and we decided to just sit out the rest of the day and read and eat. Marcus had the evening cooking detail that day.
The wind and snow continued all night and the temperature got down to -15deg.