Mount Logan

Where is Mount Logan?

Mount Logan is part of the Saint Elias Mountains.

You will find it in: Canada.

Summit: 60.567° N, 140.405° W

The story behind it

Mount Logan stands in Kluane National Park and Reserve in the Yukon, less than 40 kilometres from the border with Alaska. It is named after William Edmond Logan, the geologist who founded the Geological Survey of Canada. What makes it strange is not only its height but its width: it is believed to have the largest base circumference of any non-volcanic mountain on Earth. Up on its summit plateau the air stays near −45 °C in winter, and the yearly middle value is around −27 °C, which is colder than most places outside the poles. A team of six led by Albert MacCarthy reached the top on 23 June 1925, after an expedition that kept them 65 days away from the nearest town. For a long time the height was disputed, with figures between 5 959 and 6 050 metres in print, until GPS measurements in 1992 settled on 5 959 metres. The mountain is still growing, pushed up by moving plates about 0.35 millimetres each year.

Find it on the globe

Mount Logan is there as a small peak with its own shape — a horn, a ridge, a volcano — standing on the surface. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.