Woman plans solo climb of Mount Logan

A Montreal mountaineer will attempt to become the first solo woman to climb Canada’s highest mountain in a trek that begins next month.

Should Monique Richard reach the summit of Yukon’s Mount Logan, she will be the first female to reach the top by herself, according to officials with Parks Canada and data it has compiled since the late 1800s.

Richard, 43, is an experienced climber who has tested her limits on some of the world’s highest mountains and has taken part in some 30 ascents since 2010.

She said she’s confident she can make it up Logan — a nearly 6,000-metre-high mountain she attempted unsuccessfully last year after a climbing partner encountered difficulties.

“I sacrificed the summit to go back down with him for safety reasons,” she said. “I was about 12 hours from the top.”

Richard said she has the benefit of having already braved Logan and that she’ll be better equipped with backcountry skis instead of the snowshoes she had last year.

“The difficulty will be the cold, the solitude, the fact that I have to bring everything I need myself,” she said. “I have to do this on my own to test my own limits and, sometimes, it’s better to be alone than to be in bad company.”

Scott Stewart, visitor safety specialist at Kluane National Park where Mount Logan is located, said an average of 35 people a year over the last five years have tried to climb it during peak season between mid-May and mid-June.

The odds of reaching the top stands at about 50-50.

“If a climber’s objective is to (reach the) summit, then it’s less than half of parties that are successful at that,” Stewart said.

Last year, an Argentine climber was forced to abort her own solo climb of Mount Logan’s east ridge when earthquakes brought down significant avalanches.