Glacier Viewing Backpacking Trip > Wilderness Area
The Yukon's Coast Mountains
The Yukon’s Coast Mountains have a distinct character from the mountains of the interior. They are know for their steep sides, deep snow, immense glaciers, and challenging travel. These mountains create an effective barrier between the more temperate environment of the pacific northwest coast and the drier and colder Yukon interior. As moisture-laden air from the Pacific Ocean rises up over the steep Coastal Mountains it condenses and falls as either rain or snow. Being quite far north, much of this precipitation falls as snow and it is for this reason that immense glacial fields have formed along the coast, acting as a giant obstacle to reaching the interior of the Yukon.
The Coast Mountains have played backdrop to some of the Yukon’s most memorable historic events. The Tlingit First Nation people (pronounced “Klin-kit”) of the pacific northwest coast knew the challenges of crossing the Coastal Mountain to reach the Yukon’s interior. Through time they discovered all of the available routes that reached the interior that didn't require crossing over the perilous ice fields. One such route was the famous Chilkoot Trail, used by the gold seekers in the famous Klondike Gold Rush of 1898. This trail had been in existence long before the arrival of non-Frst Nations and had acted as a trading route for the Tlingit who took goods over the pass to trade with the interior First Nations.
The Coastal Mountains are mostly composed of granitic rocks rich in silica. These rocks are relatively hard and resistant to the forces of erosion. However, granitic rocks are prone to large areas of fracture, which causes whole sections of mountainsides to break away leaving steep, near vertical faces. The valley bottoms still have a "U" shape, characteristic of post-glaciation mountains. High levels of precipitation have lead to eroded, steep-sided gullies, which are characteristic of the Coast Mountains and make for challenging hiking.
