"A living spirit in Tlingit tradition, rising from tidewater to sky at the edge of the world's largest non-polar icefield"
Mt. Saint. Elias, border of Canada and U.S.
Yukon, Canada
The Yakutat Tlingit call it Was'eitushaa and know it as a living being -- a male spirit, strong and intelligent, who communicates through weather and holds the memory of their ancestral migration. Rising 18,008 feet just ten miles from the sea, Mount Saint Elias stands at the border of Alaska and Yukon within a vast UNESCO World Heritage wilderness of ice and stone where human spiritual longing meets the raw force of the natural world.
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Quick Facts
Location
Yukon, Canada
Coordinates
60.2933, -140.9294
Last Updated
Feb 11, 2026
Learn More
Alaska Native presence in the region dates back approximately 13,000 years. The Kwaashk'ikwaan clan of the Yakutat Tlingit followed Was'eitushaa during their ancestral migration to Yakutat Bay, making the mountain central to their identity. Europeans first sighted the peak in 1741, named it for the Prophet Elijah, and did not reach the summit until 1897. The mountain now sits within a transboundary UNESCO World Heritage Site spanning 24 million acres.
Origin Story
The Kwaashk'ikwaan clan tells of a migration from the Copper River basin to Yakutat Bay, guided by the towering presence of Was'eitushaa. The mountain was not simply a waypoint; it was a guide and a spiritual presence that drew the people to their homeland. Upon arrival, the mountain became one of the clan's most important crests -- a heraldic emblem appearing in regalia, songs, and ceremony. One sub-lineage took the name Mountain House, binding their identity to the peak itself.
The European naming story is different in character but has its own resonance. On July 16, 1741, Vitus Bering's expedition sighted the mountain from the sea during the Second Kamchatka Expedition. The feast day of the Prophet Elijah -- known as Elias in Greek -- was approaching on July 20, and the mountain received the prophet's name in the Russian Orthodox tradition of naming geographic features for the saint of the day. Elijah, in the Hebrew Bible, was a prophet who challenged false gods, was fed by ravens in the wilderness, and was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire. Whether Bering himself named the mountain or later cartographers applied the name remains a matter of historical debate.
Key Figures
Kwaashk'ikwaan clan of the Yakutat Tlingit
The clan whose ancestral migration was guided by Was'eitushaa and for whom the mountain remains one of their most important crests. The Mountain House sub-lineage takes its name directly from the peak.
Frederica de Laguna
Archaeologist and anthropologist who conducted fieldwork at Yakutat from 1949 to 1954. Her three-volume Under Mount Saint Elias (1972) is the definitive ethnographic study of Yakutat Tlingit history and culture, documenting the clan migration story, the spiritual significance of the mountain, and the cultural traditions of the people who have lived in its presence.
Vitus Bering
Danish-born Russian explorer who led the 1741 Second Kamchatka Expedition. His crew's sighting of the mountain from the sea produced the European name and initiated the long process of colonial cartography in the region.
Prince Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi
Led the first ascent on July 31, 1897, with a large Italian expedition that included photographer Vittorio Sella. The three-month, 1,200-mile approach from Seattle became a landmark in mountaineering history.
Vittorio Sella
Mountain photographer who accompanied the 1897 first ascent, documenting the climb through photographs developed in a makeshift darkroom tent on the mountain. His images remain among the earliest visual records of the peak.
Spiritual Lineage
The sacred significance of Was'eitushaa belongs primarily to the Yakutat Tlingit, specifically the Kwaashk'ikwaan clan (also known as K'ineix Kwaan). The broader Tlingit cultural tradition recognizes the mountain's importance, and the Ahtna Athabascan people of the Copper River Basin maintain their own connections to the Saint Elias Range, though specific Ahtna practices related to this peak are less documented. The European engagement with the mountain -- from Russian explorers to Italian mountaineers to American and Canadian park managers -- represents a parallel but fundamentally different lineage, one concerned with naming, measuring, climbing, and conserving rather than with the reciprocal spiritual relationship the Tlingit maintain.
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