Mount Saint Elias

Mount Saint Elias (Was'eitushaa also designated Boundary Peak 186) is an 18,008 foot (5,489 m) mountain located approximately 11 miles (18 km) northeast of the Pacific Ocean on the Yukon-Alaska border. It is the second-highest mountain in both Canada and the United States, as well as in the Yukon and Alaska. The Canadian side of Mount Saint Elias forms part of Kluane National Park and Reserve, while the U.S. side of the mountain is located within Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve.

Although it is only 26 miles (42 km) southwest of Mount Logan, the highest mountain in Canada, it nonetheless retains a high prominence due to the low Columbus-Seward Glacier separating them. Due to notoriously bad weather and difficult climbing routes, Mount Saint Elias is infrequently climbed.

The name of the mountain in Tlingit, Yasʼéitʼaa Shaa or Was'eitushaa, means "mountain behind Icy Bay"; the Yakutat Tlingit occasionally call it Shaa Tlein "Big Mountain". It is one of the most important crests of the Kwaashkʼiḵwáan clan, who used it as a guide during their journey down the Copper River. Mount Fairweather at the apex of the British Columbia and Alaska borders at the head of the Alaska Panhandle is known as Tsalx̱aan; legend states that this mountain and Yasʼéitʼaa Shaa (Mt. St. Elias) originally stood next to each other, but had an argument and separated. Their children, the mountains in between the two peaks, are called Tsalx̱aan Yátxʼi ("Children of Tsalxaan").

European explorers first sighted the mountain on July 16, 1741, with the arrival of the expedition commanded by Vitus Bering, a Danish-born Russian explorer to what is now called Cape Saint Elias. While some historians contend that Bering named the mountain, others believe that eighteenth-century mapmakers named it after Cape Saint Elias when Bering left the peak unnamed.

Mount Saint Elias is notable for its immense vertical relief. Its summit rises 18,008 ft (5,489 m) vertically in just 10 miles (16 km) horizontal distance from the head of Taan Fjord, off of Icy Bay.

In 2007, Gerald Salmina directed an Austrian documentary film, Mount St. Elias, about a team of skier/mountaineers determined to make "the planet's longest skiing descent" by ascending the mountain and then skiing nearly all 18,000 ft (5,500 m) down to the Gulf of Alaska; the movie finished editing and underwent limited release in 2009. The climbers ended up summiting on the second attempt and skiing down to 13,000 ft (3,960 m).

Mount Saint Elias experiences some of the most severe weather conditions of any major peak in North America, characterized by prolonged storms, extreme precipitation, and hurricane-force winds. The mountain's proximity to the Pacific Ocean—rising 18,008 ft (5,489 m) in just 10 miles (16 km) from sea level at Icy Bay—places it directly in the path of intense Aleutian Low pressure systems that track northeast from the Gulf of Alaska.

The Saint Elias Mountains region receives between 79 inches (200 cm) to more than 280 inches (710 cm) of precipitation annually, predominantly as snow. The mountain's extreme vertical relief creates powerful orographic lift, forcing moisture-laden Pacific air masses upward and producing intense snowfall. Storm systems can arrive with minimal warning, and conditions can deteriorate from clear visibility to sub-zero temperatures, hurricane-force winds, and complete whiteout in minutes.