Peaks in the Vicinity of Grave Lake. Grave Lake has long been a popular destination for pack trippers and fishermen; however, a perusal of Bonney’s Guide to the Wyoming Mountains and Wilderness Areas indicated that the mountaineering possibilities of the area remained largely unexploited. In an attempt to rectify this situation, Whitney Robinson and I packed in to Grave Lake during the last week of August. Somewhat hampered by rainy weather, we nevertheless made a number of new climbs. On August 23, I climbed Peak 12,361, west of the lower end of Baptiste Lake. A poorly defined, rounded east ridge was easily followed to within a few hundred feet of the top, whence a vague couloir led to the double summit. No evidence of a previous ascent was found. The ridge to the southwest was then traversed to "Tower Mountain" (12,335 feet, second ascent), and the latter was descended by a steep scree chute on its north side. Two days later, we made first ascents of the four peaks lying between the forks of Grave Creek: "Buttressed Mountain" (12,200+ feet), "Grave Peak" (12,255 feet), Peak 12,150+ and Point 12,301. On the first of these, we started about half a mile up the western fork of Grave Creek and climbed slabs and a shallow couloir to a southeastern spur of the peak. We continued to the summit along the southeast ridge, at first broad and plateau-like, becoming narrow and somewhat bepinnacled near the top. The remaining peaks were then traversed from southeast to northwest. We broke out the rope for a 100-foot wall just below the summit of "Grave Peak," but otherwise no difficulties were encountered. Lying at the head of the Baptiste Lake cirque is "Hitching Post Peak" (12,326 feet), a particularly fine, toothlike summit. From the upper end of Baptiste Lake, on August 26 we continued up the valley a short way and up scree slopes to a high, boulder-filled basin directly below the east face of the peak. From here, our first problem was to reach the peak’s level southern shoulder. We climbed shallow, slabby couloirs diagonally left across the eastern face of this shoulder, and then straight up a couple of steep but moderate fourth-class pitches to its sharp crest. A rope-length or two along this brought us to the 250-foot summit spire. A short layback led to a slanting ledge, which we followed around to the west for 80 feet. We regained the south ridge by means of a spectacular hand traverse, whence the climb was completed in one more long, enjoyable pitch. The actual summit is an up-ended tabular slab, slightly tilted to the west. We descended the peak by its east ridge, climbing down as far as possible and finally rappelling into the notch between "Hitching Post Peak" and Mount Lander. Further descent from this point to Baptiste Lake appeared most unattractive, and so, instead, we traversed on over the top of Lander. Then, tempted by the prospect of another first ascent, we scrambled up the steep but broken west ridge of "Cusp Peak" (12,266), and finally descended boulder fields into the west fork of Grave Creek. John Milton, who was also camped at Grave Lake, joined me on the 28th to do a new route on Musembeah Peak. Above the northwest shore of Baptiste Lake rise two vertical buttresses separated by a deep chimney or cleft, above which a face reminiscent of a tiled bathroom wall with 12-foot-square tiles continues to the summit of the peak. We climbed the couloir on the right side of the eastern buttress to a point where we could climb directly up the left wall of the couloir to attain the flat crest of the buttress. The buttress was followed to its juncture with the wall above. The remainder of the climb consisted of four long, enjoyable pitches on near-vertical rock to the broad summit.

William J. Buckingham