Mount Saint Elias is situated at the head of Icy Bay on the Alaska-Canada boundary in the Saint Elias Range, about 165 miles (266 km) east-southeast of Cordova and 67 miles (108 km) northwest of Yakutat, Alaska. Its Tlingit name, Yasʼéitʼaa Shaa, means “mountain behind Icy Bay”; the Yakutat Tlingit sometimes call it Shaa Tlein, or “Big Mountain.” Mount Saint Elias is reknowned for its immense vertical relief: the summit rises 18,008 feet (5,489 m) vertically in just 10 miles (16 km) horizontal distance from the head of Taan Fjord, off of Icy Bay.

Vitus Bering, sailing aboard the Saint Peter, sighted Mount Saint Elias on July 16, 1741 which marked the “official” Russian discovery of northwestern America. Although Bering is often credited with naming the mountain, the name more likely came from Cape Saint Elias, applied by 18th-century mapmakers to the “high volcano” its discoverer had left unnamed. The first ascent was made on July 31, 1897 by Prince Luigi Amedeo di Savoia, Duke of the Abruzzi, and his party.

The Saint Elias Mountains, a subgroup of the Pacific Coast Ranges, span southeastern Alaska, southwestern Yukon and the far northwestern corner of British Columbia. The range includes Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in the United States and Kluane National Park and Reserve in Canada, and encompasses all of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in Alaska. Read more here and here. Explore more of Mount Saint Elias and Icy Bay here: