Mount Steele
Template:Short description Template:For Template:Infobox mountain
Mount Steele is the fifth-highest mountain in Canada and either the tenth- or eleventh-highest peak in North America. Its exact elevation is uncertain. Commonly-quoted figures are Template:Convert and Template:Convert. A lower southeast peak of Mt. Steele stands at Template:Convert.
It was named after Sir Sam Steele, the North-West Mounted Police officer in charge of the force in the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush.<ref name=bivouac/>
ElevationEdit
Mount Steele's exact elevation is uncertain. Until the 1960s, Canadian topographical maps showed an elevation of Template:Convert,<ref>1:250,000 Sheet 115G & 115F, "Kluane Lake", Department of Mines and Technical Surveys (Canada), 1961</ref> which was determined in 1913 by International Boundary Commission surveyors.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> However, this height was never tied to the sea-level datum established by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> More recent Canadian topographical maps no longer show a spot height, and their contour lines indicate a summit elevation of 5,020Template:+-20 metres (about 16,470Template:+-60 ft).<ref>1:50,000 Sheet 115F/1, "Mount Steele", Department of Energy, Mines and Resources (Canada), 1987</ref> The older figure continues to be quoted by other sources.<ref name="bivouac" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
First ascent in 1935Edit
Walter A. Wood led a team consisting of Foresta Wood (Walter's wife), Swiss guide Hans Fuhrer, Joseph W. Fobes, Harrison Wood and I. Pearce Hazard. The expedition approached the peak on the eastern side from Kluane Lake. Base camp was established at the foot of the Steele Glacier with horses carrying loads to Advance Base Camp (known as Camp 6) further along the glacier. ABC provided good views of the mountain and the team decided on the east ridge as their line of ascent.<ref name=Scott/>
After waiting for the weather to improve after heavy snowfalls, a four-man team consisting of Walter Wood, Harrison Wood, Fuhrer and Forbes left Camp 8 at the base of the ridge. Their plan to was to make a Template:Convert push to the summit. After steady upwards progress, deteriorating weather forced them to return to Camp 8 where they waited out a five-day storm which dumped over a metre of fresh snow. They started out again on August 15 and the ascent was made easier this time by windblown and hard steep snow slopes rather than steep soft snow on their earlier attempt. At Template:Convert, a plateau of wretched snow forced the team to crawl on all fours. Walter Wood commented:<ref name=Scott/> Template:Quote
Alternating the lead every 100 paces, they made their way from the plateau to the top, finally reaching the summit at 2:30 pm. The team enjoyed a blissful thirty minutes of windless conditions on top before beginning their descent.<ref name=Scott/>
Avalanche and landslidesEdit
On 22 July 2007 at approximately 13:25 Pacific Daylight Time, a massive avalanche took place on Mount Steele when a slab of ice with a volume of about Template:Convert broke loose from its north face. The slab broke up as it fell down the side of the mountain, developing into an avalanche that crossed Steele Glacier, overtopped a Template:Convert ridge, and continued onto Hodgson Glacier, where it finally came to rest after traveling a total horizontal distance of Template:Convert.<ref name=liposvkynov2008>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The avalanche covered about Template:Convert of the surface of Steele Glacier.<ref name=liposvkynov2008/> The avalanche registered as a 2.1-magnitude seismic event.<ref name=liposvkynov2008/>
At 17:57 Pacific Daylight Time on 24 July 2007 – only two days after the avalanche — a massive landslide occurred on the north face of Mount Steele<ref name=liposvkynov2008/> when a Template:Convert section of ice and rock fell.<ref name=cbc_2007>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> With a volume estimated at between Template:Convert, it lasted about 100 seconds and reached a maximum speed of at least Template:Convert.<ref name=whitehorse20070807>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Falling Template:Convert down the side of the mountain, the landslide traveled across the Template:Convert Steele Glacier, and reached the top of a Template:Convert ridge on the opposite side of the glacier, where it came to a stop before sliding back down onto Steele Glacier.<ref name=liposvkynov2008/> It traveled a total horizontal distance of Template:Convert.<ref name=liposvkynov2008/> It was immediately recognized as one of the largest landslides in Yukon Territory history, if not the largest,<ref name=whitehorse20070807/> and is one of the largest in the recorded history of western Canada.<ref name=cbc_2015>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
On 11 October 2015, Template:Convert of rock, snow, and ice with a volume of about Template:Convert slid Template:Convert down the side of Mount Steele and Template:Convert across the surface of Steele Glacier. It was one of the ten largest landslides of the year worldwide.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>