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New Alpine Climbs on Yukon’s McArthur, Hubsew and Logbard

The team also climbed the East Ridge of Mount Logan, the highest mountain in Canada. The trip was supported by the John Lauchlan Award

Four Canadian climbers have returned from a months-long trip to Yukon, where they established four new alpine climbs and climbed the East Ridge of Mount Logan to the summit.

Maarten Van Haeren, Ethan Berman, Peter Hoang and Alik Berg spent six weeks on the glacier below some of Canada’s most famous big alpine walls. At the end of a two-week quarantine, they flew from Silver City via Icefield Discovery and landed on the Hubbard Glacier, seven kilometres from the base of the East Ridge of Logan.

Van Haeren noted: “Despite the useful photographs included in A Climber’s Guide to the St. Elias Mountains: Volume 1 (Holmes, 2005), several route descriptions are erroneous. Almost as confusing, this book describes both climbed and unclimbed routes, making it at times hard to gauge if a route has actually been climbed. Most relevant to this article, the descriptions of Astrofloyd on McArthur peak are not correct, also placing the route in the wrong location.”

A detailed trip report can be found on the John Lauchlan Award website here, below is a summary of their new routes.

Mount Logbard via Bogdar (1,000 m, AI4 5.3 50°): Alik Berg, Maarten van Haeren, May 2
McArthur Peak via Basecamp Buttress (1,000 m, AI3 5.8 60°), not to summit: FA: Peter Hoang, Maarten van Haeren, May 5
McArthur Peak via “Big in Japan” (1,500 m, AI6 50°), not to summit: FA: Alik Berg, Ethan Berman, May 5
Hubsew Peak via Southeast Face (1,000 m, AI3 60°): FA: Alik Berg, Maarten van Haeren, May 26

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