Mount Logan is a mountain on the

Gaspé Peninsula The Gaspé Peninsula, also known as Gaspesia (; ), is a peninsula along the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River that extends from the Matapedia Valley in Quebec, Canada, into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. It is separated from New Brunswick o ...

, in Quebec, Canada. Part of the Chic-Choc Mountains, Mount Logan rises above sea level, making it the highest point in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region and one of the few Quebec peaks over . The mountain's unusually steep northern flank is visible from

Cap-Chat Cap-Chat is a town in the Canadian province of Québec, in the Regional County Municipality of Haute-Gaspésie, and in the administrative region of Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine. Cap-Chat is found west of Sainte-Anne-des-Monts. , Cap-Chat's p ...

, on the

estuary of Saint Lawrence The estuary of the Saint Lawrence in Quebec, Canada, is one of the largest esturaries in the world. Situation The estuary of the St. Lawrence River is located downstream of the St. Lawrence River and upstream of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It ...

. The altitude and the summit's exposure to winds from the

Gulf of St. Lawrence The Gulf of St. Lawrence () is the outlet of the North American Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence River into the Atlantic Ocean. The gulf is a semi-enclosed sea, covering an area of about and containing about of water, at an average depth of . ...

make it one of Quebec's most precipitated summits. The combination of the mountain's physiography and unusual climate make it the habitat of several rare animal and plant species, such as

caribou Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...

and griscom arnica. Mount Logan's topography, ancient geological composition, and remarkable flora and fauna aroused the scientific community's interest in the mid-19th century. Despite conditions favorable for skiing, Mount Logan's remoteness has worked against efforts to develop recreational and tourist enterprises. Straddling the boundaries of Gaspésie National Park, the Réserve faunique de Matane (Matane Animal Reserve), and the

Fernald Ecological Reserve Fernald Ecological Reserve is an ecological reserve of Quebec, Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocea ...

, its protected status severely limits industrial activities such as forestry or broadcasting.

Toponymy

Mount Logan is named after William Edmond Logan. Although already in use for some time, the name was formalized in 1898 by the Geographical Survey of Canada. The highest point in Canada,

Mount Logan Mount Logan () is the highest mountain in Canada and the second-highest peak in North America after Denali. The mountain was named after Sir William Edmond Logan, a Canadian geologist and founder of the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC). Mount ...

in Yukon, is also named in his honor.

Geography

Location

Mount Logan is in the unorganized area of Rivière-Bonjour, on the Gaspé Peninsula's northern flank in the province of Quebec in eastern Canada. It is east of Matane, the capital of the La Matanie Regional County Municipality, and northeast of Quebec City, the provincial capital. The summit rises to about in the Chic-Choc Mountains of the chain of the Notre Dame Mountains.

Topography

The Mount Logan massif contains three physiographic divisions. The north features highlands, the center is a mountain ridge of the Chic-Chocs and the south is a plain.. The piedmont highlands are made up of wooded valleys with an average altitude of . Streams and rivers flow through ravines up to . Mount Logan's terrain is variegated, with gentle rounded and grassy slopes alongside steep cliffs. To the north, a steep escarpment makes it one of eastern Canada's highest peaks, with a height at the peak of . This wall, whose height varies between , has a slope generally between 20 and 40 degrees and is even vertical in certain places. The wall is visible from several places along the coast of the Saint Lawrence, in particular

and

Sainte-Anne-des-Monts Sainte-Anne-des-Monts () is a city in the Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine region of the province of Quebec in Canada. Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, a small city between the Chic-Choc Mountains and sea, is on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence river ...

.. The wall's western portion, although not as steep, is nonetheless as impassable. The slopes of the southern flank of the massif are gentle; its elevation varies from , with a sloping distance of about one kilometer. The summit itself is a picturesque dome with an elevation of up to , set on a ridge of similarly elevated peaks (Mattawees, Fortin, Pembroke) interspersed with deep valleys.

Geology

Mount Logan was formed about 450 million years ago, during the Lower Ordovician, Paleozoic era. During the Taconic orogeny, a mountain-building period that affected most of modern-day New England, the lateral pressure exerted by other formations in the bedrock created folds and a bed load a few hundred meters thick. The north overlap fault of Lake Cascapedia marks the front of one of these folds. The southern edge is made up of a

strike-slip fault In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

zone known as the "South Schikshock" or the "Brompton – Baie-Verte line". This line separates the Taconian belt from the Acadian belt.. The Logan nappe consists of metabasalt and metasedimentary rocks., which are harder than the rocks of the surrounding formations, which in turn erode faster, revealing the unusual relief of the Chic-Choc mountains, and more specifically of Mont Logan. Soundings revealed intrusions of the

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, whe ...

in the form of

sill Sill may refer to: * Sill (dock), a weir at the low water mark retaining water within a dock * Sill (geology), a subhorizontal sheet intrusion of molten or solidified magma * Sill (geostatistics) * Sill (river), a river in Austria * Sill plate, a ...

and

dyke Dyke (UK) or dike (US) may refer to: General uses * Dyke (slang), a slang word meaning "lesbian" * Dike (geology), a subvertical sheet-like intrusion of magma or sediment * Dike (mythology), ''Dikē'', the Greek goddess of moral justice * Dikes, ...

. This research also revealed a substantial presence of copper, talc and

marl Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, clays, and silt. When hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae. Marl makes up the lower part o ...

on the mountain.

Climate

There is no station providing continuous climate data at the top of Mount Logan; a climate model is used to estimate temperatures and precipitation from data from surrounding stations. The climate of the mountain is influenced by its altitude and its proximity to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, whose currents carry cold waters from the Arctic. The average temperature at the top of the mountain is around . Moisture condenses there more easily due to the lower pressure and temperatures at the summit. Thus, on an annual basis, the mountains receive some of the greatest amounts of precipitation in Quebec.. Episodes of rain, melting conditions, the formation of ice shells and numerous snowstorms during the winter combine to cause conditions conducive to avalanches, common on the cliffs of the mountain.. The prevailing winds are from the west. At east of Logan, on Mount Albert.,Similar in elevation and latitude to Mount Logan. winds average , and gusts of have been recorded.

Fauna and flora

Mount Logan is primarily covered in fir forest with white birch.. The preindustrial forest was dominated by mature

conifers Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All extan ...

, but logging has changed that.. In particular, the Hammermill Paper Company held cutting rights for an annual volume of of wood on the mountain, which has since transformed the forest into mostly young coniferous shoots and hardwoods. The regeneration cycle is slow: are required for a

grove Grove may refer to: * Grove (nature), a small group of trees Places England *Grove, Buckinghamshire, a village * Grove, Dorset * Grove, Herefordshire * Grove, Kent * Grove, Nottinghamshire, a village * Grove, Oxfordshire, a village and civil ...

dominated by balsam fir to mature, nearly twice as long as other conifers. The altitude of the mountain and its exposure to the winds make it an excellent site for the vegetation of subalpine meadows. The western slope of the mountain and its summit are home to a large number of rare, threatened or vulnerable plant species, some of which are endemic to the Chic-Choc massif. The Ministry of the Environment and Fight Against Climate Change protect threatened or vulnerable species on the mountain such as Arnica griscomii,

Arnica lanceolata ''Arnica lanceolata'' is a North American species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, known by the common name clasping arnica or lanceleaf arnica. It has a disjunct (discontinuous) distribution in western North America and northeastern ...

, the

Athyrium distentifolium ''Athyrium distentifolium'' commonly known as alpine lady-fern is a fern found in widely in the Northern Hemisphere. It is a common upland variety above 600 metres in the Highlands of Scotland, with more than 10% of the UK population bei ...

, Packera, ,

Dryopteris filix-mas ''Dryopteris filix-mas'', the male fern, is a common fern of the temperate Northern Hemisphere, native to much of Europe, Asia, and North America. It favours damp shaded areas in the understory of woodlands, but also shady places on hedge-banks, ...

Festuca altaica ''Festuca altaica'', synonym ''Festuca scabrella'', is a perennial bunchgrass with a wide native distribution in the Arctic, from central Asia to eastern North America. It has been called altai fescue and, under the synonym ''F. scabrella'' ...

, Norwegian gnaphale and Gaspé saxifrage. In its land use plan, La Matanie Regional County Municipality identifies the mountain as the habitat of many plants likely to be vulnerable, such as Rosy Cat's Foot, Allen's Buttercup,

sagina ''Sagina'' (like ''Colobanthus'' called "pearlworts") is a genus of 20–30 species of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae. These are flowering herbs native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere extending south to tropical m ...

, snow saxifrage, and Cerastium cerastoides. Mount Logan is home to two vulnerable animal species. The eastern slope is a habitat for Bicknell's thrush. Gaspésie-Atlantique caribou, having deserted it in the 1970s,. now frequent the mountain again..

History

Logan's Expedition

In search of coal, William Edmond Logan explored Gaspé for the first time in 1843, and returned there in 1844. On a boat taking him to Gaspé, chemist Édouard Sylvestre de Rottermund, joking with Captain Walter Douglas, proposed to name the highest mountain they could see off

, as "Logan", which they intended to explore.. Logan disapproved of this. Along with the Earl of Rottermund, the geologist Alexander Murray, two assistants, and four Mi'gmaq guides, the party left

on 5 July 1844, with the intention of reaching

Mont Saint-Joseph Mont may refer to: Places * Mont., an abbreviation for Montana, a U.S. state * Mont, Belgium (disambiguation), several places in Belgium * Mont, Hautes-Pyrénées, a commune in France * Mont, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, a commune in France * Mont, Sa� ...

and

Chaleur Bay frame, Satellite image of Chaleur Bay (NASA). Chaleur Bay is the large bay in the centre of the image; the Gaspé Peninsula is to the north and the Gulf of St. Lawrence is seen to the east.">Gulf_of_St._Lawrence.html" ;"title="Gaspé Peninsula ...

. The explorers proceeded to the peaks visible from the coast in the north of the peninsula, then canoed up the

Cap-Chat River Cap-Chat is a town in the Canadian province of Québec, in the Regional County Municipality of Haute-Gaspésie, and in the administrative region of Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine. Cap-Chat is found west of Sainte-Anne-des-Monts. , Cap-Chat's p ...

. They reached the base of the mountain on July 14. Four days later, they become the first Europeans to reach the summit of Mount Logan, planting the Union Jack there. Logan described the view: The expedition explored the surroundings, then crossed a pass to finally reach the Cascapedia River, which they surveyed in detail. They reached Chaleur Bay on 6 September 1844.

Fernald's Expeditions

Academic publications became interested in the Chic-Chocs massif during the 1920s. Noting the paucity of knowledge of the mountain, the botanist Merritt Lyndon Fernald tried to reach the summit of Mount Logan with the intention to survey the flora. His work was inspired by the Laurentian herbarium of the botanist John Macoun, as well as physiographic studies by geologists William Edmond Logan,

Arthur Coleman Arthur Alonzo Coleman (March 18, 1898 - February 27, 1960) was a professional baseball player in the Negro leagues The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent ...

and Frederick J. Alcock. In 1922, accompanied by botanist

Arthur Stanley Pease Arthur Stanley Pease (September 22, 1881 – January 7, 1964) was a professor of Classics, a respected amateur botanist, and the tenth president of Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts.

and guide Joseph Fortin, Fernald tried to find the trail that Logan had taken to the summit. With little information the researchers attempted several routes to reach the top, but a series of thunderstorms put an end to their expedition. The following year, Fernald formed a team of seven botanists, including Pease, James Franklin Collins, Carroll William Dodge, Ludlow Griscom, Kenneth Kent Mackenzie and

Lyman Bradford Smith Lyman Bradford Smith (September 11, 1904 – May 4, 1997) was an American botanist. Smith was born in Winchester, Massachusetts. He studied botany during the 1920s at Harvard University and received his PhD from Harvard in 1930. Between 1928 a ...

. They found plants on the mountain characteristic of the

Canadian Arctic Northern Canada, colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories and N ...

and Western Cordillera, which had never before seen so far south and east. The expedition identified about 3,000 different plants: arctic, alpine and endemic. Fernald hypothesized that Mount Logan and the surrounding peaks were nunataqs during the last ice age.. Several neighboring mountains and a sunflower were named in honor of Fernald's acolytes: Mont Collins and Mont Dodge, and arnica de Griscom.. Fernald's work in Gaspésie inspired botanist Brother Marie-Victorin to form his ''Laurentian Flore'', a botanical record of species indigenous to Southern Quebec.

Focal point for television broadcasting in Eastern Canada

As television spread across Quebec in the 1960s, a race to claim the Chic-Chocs emerged between different broadcasting groups. At the beginning of 1961, Télévision Transgaspésienne (TVTG, affiliated with

Télé-Métropole CFTM-DT (channel 10) is a television station in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, serving as the flagship of the French-language TVA network. Owned by Groupe TVA, the station has studios on Boulevard de Maisonneuve East and Rue Alexandre de Sève in th ...

) and the Compagnie de broadcasting de Matane (CKBL) both demanded from the Board of Broadcast Governors a broadcasting license on the highest summits of Gaspé. TVTG had obtained from the Quebec State an emphyteutic lease for the installation of an antenna at the top of Mount Jacques-Cartier; CKBL, which was ultimately licensed, instead obtained permission from the government to occupy the Logan summit. Yvan Fortier, the technical director of the station, led the project. Construction took place from June to October 1961. The work was extensive: a road connecting

Saint-Octave-de-l'Avenir Mont-Albert is an unorganized territory (Quebec), unorganized territory in the Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine region of Quebec, Canada. The only population centre within the territory is Cap-Seize, located south of Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, Que ...

to the transmitter was built, as well as buildings and a

generator Generator may refer to: * Signal generator, electronic devices that generate repeating or non-repeating electronic signals * Electric generator, a device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy. * Generator (circuit theory), an eleme ...

. But the equipment installed was rudimentary. To ensure uninterrupted television signal in Gaspésie, on the North-Shore and Labrador, three technicians and their families were assigned in rotation to reside at the transmitter's base, supplied with food and oil by helicopter, then by snowmobile. Although powerful, the signal was ill-suited to the rugged Gaspé topography and as a result it was difficult to turn a profit. Contemporaneously, at the foot of the mountain, the village of

was abandoned, forcing supplies to be obtained from Cap-Chat. When the Société Radio-Canada (SRC) acquired CKBL in 1972, plans to put the transmitter off-wave were made. In 1977 by the engineers of the SRC announced operation "Descent of Mount Logan", and part of the installations were dismantled the next year. The remaining buildings and the main pylon were demolished in 2011. In 2007, SRC, still owner of the summit, tried to divest itself of its land. The

Ministry of Environment An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment ...

blocked the sale. Studies revealed soil contamination from the diesel that once powered the generators. A decontamination project began in 2014. The process was mandated to be spread over a period of at least six years due to the harshness of the climate, the isolation of the site, and ecological sensitivity. Since 2019, the summit serves as a radio transmission site for the operations of the Society for the Protection of Forests Against Fire (SOPFEU), the National Integrated Radiocommunication Network (RENIR) of the Ministry of Government Services, and de Télécommunications de l'Est. Radio-Canada remains the owner of block B of the Faribault township.

Ski resort proposals

In order to make their Mont Logan transmitter profitable, the owners of CKBL planned to develop the ski potential of the mountain as soon as it was put into service. They called on Ernie McCullogh, a ski trainer, to organize an exploration expedition with industrialists from Matane, followed by a cinematographic expedition to demonstrate its potential in the spring of 1964. The mountain was praised for its abundant and persistent snow, in addition to its multiple slopes.. McCullogh planned to make Mount Logan the training site for the Canadian alpine ski team, comparing it to Val-d'Isère, a ski resort in the French Alps. The expeditions attracted the attention of politicians and Toronto financiers. Details included a ski resort accommodating up to 5,000 skiers, five chairlifts, and lodging in nearby towns and hotels. Initial estimated costs were , then , and eventually between and . The Ministry of Lands and Forests entrusted Claude Robillard with the task of studying the plausibility of the project. Plans eventually became more elaborate with the inclusion of a network of access roads and an airport large enough to accommodate airliners, which would have cost . Ultimately, no public investment was made.

Mont Sainte-Anne Mont-Sainte-Anne is a ski resort in eastern Canada, located in the town of Beaupré, Quebec, about northeast of Quebec City. The mountain is part of the Laurentian mountain chain and has a summit elevation of above sea level with a vertical dr ...

, closer to Quebec and Montreal, was preferred for establishing an international ski resort.. The project was discussed again in the mid-1970s, this time with using helicopter for ski transport. The Quebec government decided not to invest. Nevertheless, a heli-ski resort was privately operated between 1985 and 1990. The effort was short-lived due to competition from Massif de Charlevoix. In 2002, the Société des establishments de plein air du Québec picked Mont Jean-Yves-Bérubé over Mount Logan for the construction of a luxury resort.

Activities

Mountain skiing

While attempts to establish the infrastructure necessary for a ski resort have failed,

mountain skiing Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow. Variations of purpose include basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IO ...

is still practiced on Mount Logan. Parc national de la Gaspésie and the Société des establishments de plein air du Québec provide rudimentary infrastructure on Mount Logan and surrounding peaks in the form of beacons, shelters, refuges and emergency equipment. Although the slopes of the southern slope are of intermediate class, they are nevertheless a challenge even for advanced skiers. Journeying to the summit from

is via a long trail of whose positive elevation is close to and requires two to three days of hiking. Snowmobile transport is offered from Mont Jean-Yves Bérubé at Mount Logan at Chic-Chocs mountain inn in Cap-Chat.

Hiking

Ascent of Mount Logan is possible when the ground is clear of snow, from late June to late September. The trails are isolated and rarely frequented... The hike generally requires overnight camping. Climbing the mountain is also possible from the west, via the

international Appalachian trail The International Appalachian Trail (IAT; french: Sentier international des Appalaches, SIA) was originally a hiking trail which ran from Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, in Maine, through New Brunswick, to the Gaspé Peninsula of Q ...

from the

valley. The round trip requires two to three days of hiking.. From the east, it is possible to take a forest path or a steep path. In order to shorten the route, one can take a shuttle from Cap-Chat. or the

Mont Albert Mont Albert may refer to: * Mont Albert, Quebec, a mountain in the Gaspé Peninsula, and one of the highest mountains in southern Quebec, Canada * Mont Albert, Victoria Mont Albert is an inner eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 12 ...

Environmental protection

As part of the Gaspé National Park, most of the mountain has been protected since 1937. In order to ensure increased protection of the flora and fauna particular to the Chic-Chocs massif, industrial forestry and mining have been prohibited in the park since 1977. The summit of the mountain is not part of the Parc de la Gaspésie, as Société Radio-Canada is still decontaminating diesel in the soil. The eastern slope benefits from additional protection to ensure the survival of rare and threatened plant specimens found there. Part of the western slope, while excluded from the protections of Parc de la Gaspésie, is protected by the Réserve faunique de Matane. In the northwest, the

Fernald ecological reserve Fernald Ecological Reserve is an ecological reserve of Quebec, Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocea ...

provides full protection of the escarpment north of the Collins, Mattawees and Fortin summits.. The entire mountain is included in the legal habitat of the Gaspé caribou.