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Mount Lucania
Mount Lucania
	Mount Steele (centre), with Mount Lucania just left of it and behind it
Highest point
Elevation	5,240 m (17,190 ft)
Prominence	3,046 m (9,993 ft)
Parent peak	Mount Logan (5959 m)
Listing	World most prominent peaks 86th; North America highest peaks 7th; North America prominent peaks 15th; Canada highest major peaks 3rd;
Coordinates	61°01′24″N 140°27′56″W / 61.0233333°N 140.4655556°W
Geography
	Mount Lucania Location in Canada
Country	Canada
Territory	Yukon
Parent range	Saint Elias Mountains
Topo map	NTS 115F1 Mount Steele
Climbing
First ascent	1937 by Bradford Washburn and Robert Hicks Bates
Easiest route	Glacier, snow and ice climb

Mount Lucania in Yukon is the third-highest mountain in Canada (5240 metres), and the second-highest mountain located entirely within the country (the summit of Mount Saint Elias, Canada's second highest peak, is shared with the US state of Alaska). A long ridge connects Mount Lucania with Mount Steele (5,073 metres [16,644 feet]), the fifth-highest in Canada. Lucania was named by the Duke of Abruzzi, as he stood on the summit of Mount Saint Elias on July 31, 1897, having just completed the first ascent. Seeing Lucania in the far distance, beyond Mount Logan, he immediately named it "after the ship on which the expedition had sailed from Liverpool to New York," the RMS Lucania.^[4]

Climbing History

First Ascent

The first ascent of Mount Lucania was made in 1937 by Bradford Washburn and Robert Hicks Bates. They used an airplane to reach Walsh Glacier, 2,670 m (8,760 ft) above sea level; the use of air support for mountaineering was novel at the time. Washburn called upon Bob Reeve, a famous Alaskan bush pilot, who later replied by cable to Washburn, "Anywhere you'll ride, I'll fly". The ski-equipped Fairchild F-51 made several trips to the landing site on the glacier without event in May, but on landing with Washburn and Bates in June, the plane sank into unseasonal slush. Washburn, Bates and Reeve pressed hard for five days to get the airplane out and Reeve was eventually able to get the airplane airborne with all excess weight removed and with the assistance of a smooth icefall with a steep drop. Washburn and Bates continued on foot to make the first ascent of Lucania, and in an epic descent and journey to civilization,^[5] they hiked over 150 miles (240 km) through the wilderness to safety in the small town of Burwash Landing in the Yukon.^[6]

Washburn's party was forced to abandon a great deal of gear—more than 1,000 pounds of cameras, surveying equipment and other supplies—on Walsh Glacier. In 2022, an expedition led by U.S. professional skier Griffin Post located Washburn's lost equipment, which had been carried 14 miles from its original location by the glacier. Assisted by officials from Canada's National Park Service and a team of archaeologists, much of the gear was collected and cleaned.^[7]^[8]