The Stikine Icecap is a large icefield straddled on the Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

–British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

 boundary in the Alaska Panhandle

Alaska Panhandle

Southeast Alaska, sometimes referred to as the Alaska Panhandle, is the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Alaska, which lies west of the northern half of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The majority of Southeast Alaska's area is part of the Tongass National Forest, the United...

 region. It lies in the Boundary Ranges

Boundary Ranges

The Boundary Ranges, also known in the singular and as the Alaska Boundary Range, are the largest and most northerly subrange of the Coast Mountains...

 of the Coast Mountains

Coast Mountains

The Coast Mountains are a major mountain range, in the Pacific Coast Ranges, of western North America, extending from southwestern Yukon through the Alaska Panhandle and virtually all of the Coast of British Columbia. They are so-named because of their proximity to the sea coast, and are often...

. Within the United States, most of it is under the administration of the Tongass National Forest

Tongass National Forest

The Tongass National Forest in southeastern Alaska is the largest national forest in the United States at 17 million acres . Most of its area is part of the temperate rain forest WWF ecoregion, itself part of the larger Pacific temperate rain forest WWF ecoregion, and is remote enough to be home...

 and is part of the Stikine-LeConte Wilderness

Stikine-LeConte Wilderness

The Stikine-LeConte Wilderness is on the mainland of southeast Alaska, southeast of Petersburg and north of Wrangell, Alaska. The boundary extends from Frederick Sound on the west to the Alaska-Canada boundary on the east. The wilderness is in size...

 within the national forest.

An extremely large icefield, the icecap is a primary source for both the Taku River

Taku River

The Taku River is a river running from British Columbia, Canada, to the northwestern coast of North America, at Juneau, Alaska. Its mouth coincides with the Alaska-British Columbia border...

, which forms its northern boundary, and the Taku's southern tributaries, and also the Stikine River

Stikine River

The Stikine River is a river, historically also the Stickeen River, approximately 610 km long, in northwestern British Columbia in Canada and southeastern Alaska in the United States...

 and its lower western tributaries, notably the Chutine

Chutine River

The Chutine River, originally named the Clearwater River, is a major right tributary of the Stikine River in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. It is located west of the Stikine Icecap and just inside the boundary between Alaska and British Columbia. The former settlement of Chutine or...

, which form its southern and southwestern boundary, respectively. The Stikine Icecap is the parent icefield of the LeConte

LeConte Glacier

LeConte Glacier is a and glacier in the U.S. state of Alaska. It flows southwest to the head of LeConte Bay. It was named in 1887 by U.S. Navy Lieutenant-Commander Charles M. Thomas in honor of a California biologist Joseph LeConte...

 and Sawyer Glaciers on its US side, and the Great Glacier

Great Glacier Provincial Park

Great Glacier Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada, created to protect the Great Glacier, one of the major sights along the lower Stikine River. The park lies on the river's west bank inland from the British Columbia-Alaska boundary, which lies a few miles downstream...

 on its Canadian side. Also on the Canadian side and entering the lower Stikine, like the Great Glacier, are the Mud and Flood Glaciers, which form the boundaries of the small Boundary Range

Boundary Range

The Boundary Range, formerly official also as the Boundary Mountains, is a subrange of the similarly named but much larger Boundary Ranges which run most of the length of the border between British Columbia, Canada, and Alaska, United States...

, which is an eastern abutment of the range comprising the Stikine Icecap and marks the approximate boundary claimed by the United States prior to the Alaska Boundary Settlement

Hay-Herbert Treaty

The Alaska boundary treaty, also known as the Hay–Herbert treaty, signed in 1903, is a treaty between Great Britain and United States that resolved a dispute on the location of the border between Alaska and Canada....

 of 1903.

The Stikine Icecap area is also renowned for its technically demanding and dangerous peaks and spires of granite that have garnered comparisons as North America's version of Patagonia

Patagonia

Patagonia is a region located in Argentina and Chile, integrating the southernmost section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean and from the east of the cordillera to the valleys it follows south through Colorado River towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean...

. Peaks of particular renown include Devils Thumb

Devils Thumb

Devils Thumb, or Daalkunaxhkhu shaa in Tlingit, is a mountain in the Stikine Icecap region of the Alaska-British Columbia border, near Petersburg. It is named for its projected thumb-like appearance. Its name in the Tlingit language has the meaning "the Mountain That Never Flooded" and is said to...

, Witches Tits, Cat's Ears, and the Burkett Needle.

Most expeditions into the region usually depart from Petersburg, Alaska

Petersburg, Alaska

Petersburg is a city in Petersburg Census Area, Alaska, in the United States. According to 2009 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 2,824 full time residents.- History :...

.

External links

• Bivouac.com writeup