Today is International Mountain Day so we thought we’d take a look at the highest mountain in Canada, Mount Logan! This mountain was named after RCIScience’s third President, Sir William Edmond Logan, who held office in 1851 when the Canadian Institute received its Royal Charter from Queen Victoria. A renowned geologist and surveyor, Sir Logan also founded the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC), one of the few Canadian scientific organizations older than RCIScience.

Mount Logan is located within Kluane National Park Reserve in southwestern Yukon, less than 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of the Yukon–Alaska border. It is believed to have the largest base circumference of any non-volcanic mountain on Earth, including a massif with eleven peaks over 5,000 metres (16,400 ft). The mountain is largely composed of granodiorite, a granitic rock of intrusive origin.

Flight over Mount Logan. Video from @_saren on Instagram.

Due to active tectonic uplifting, Mount Logan is still rising in height! Before 1992, the exact elevation of Mount Logan was unknown, with measurements ranging from 5,959 to 6,050 metres (19,551-19,849 ft). In May 1992, a GSC expedition climbed Mount Logan and fixed the current height of 5,959 metres (19,551 ft) using GPS.

Temperatures are extremely low on and around Mount Logan. On the 5,000-metre-high (16,000 ft) plateau, the air temperature hovers around −45°C (−49°F) in the winter and reaches near freezing in summer with the median temperature for the year around −27°C (−17°F). Minimal snow melt leads to a significant ice cap, reaching almost 300 metres (980 ft) in certain places.