Word of the death of a 22-year-old Calgary woman on Mount Logan reached the warden's office Monday, six days after she was hurled down the East Ridge by an avalanche.

Jessie Aulik, an experienced climber who has climbed Logan and Alaska's Denali, the two highest peaks in North America, died last Tuesday.

Her death came four days after three other climbers from the Vancouver area had to be rescued from the southwest Yukon mountainside because of weather.

Aulik's 34-year-old climbing partner from Fairbanks, Alaska, avoided the onslaught of snow and ice.

He found his partner dead by the time he was able to reach her after descending from the 2,865-metre (9,400-foot) elevation, Kluane National Park warden Rhonda Markel said in an interview this morning.

Aulik was not buried by the avalanche, but it appears she died from its tumbling fierceness.

Officials have not been able to get the man's permission to release his name.

The acting chief warden said it looks as though the rough weather climbers have experienced on the mountain so far this spring played a factor. She said there is an indication there was an abnormal buildup of wet snow on the ridge that came loose.

The climbing team was not equipped with a satellite telephone. Park officials only learned of the incident after Aulik's partner waved down a Trans North helicopter flying overhead at about 3 p.m.

The body was recovered and removed from the mountain.

'Parks Canada would like to express its condolences to family and friends,' Markel said. 'It was a tragic incident.'

Canada's highest mountain measures in at 5,956 metres (19,541 feet), compared to 6,193 metres (20,320 feet) for Denali, the continent's highest peak.

In the 22 years since the park was formed in 1973, there have been 18 deaths, of which 11 have occurred on Logan and seven in others areas of the St. Elias mountains. There was also a climber killed in May 2004.

Markel said there are currently six climbing groups on Logan and three other groups in the icefields.

The climbing season for Mount Logan usually begins in late April and runs to late June, before the warmer temperatures have a chance to destabilize snow and ice conditions, she explained.

Aulik and her partner began their expedition on May 27, and were scheduled to return by June 25.

'She has previously summitted the King's Trench on Mount Logan, and she has done the West Buttress on Denali,' Markel mentioned. 'So she has done the two highest mountains in North America.'

The park warden said snow at that elevation would normally just blow off the ridge but she suspects there was a buildup because of its heavy and moist condition.