Bella Coola area, Coast Range. For the first time we finally beat the brush-filled valleys of the Bella Coola area by finding a cheap airplane. Although still committed to drive a great deal of the dirt road from Williams Lake to the takeoff point at Nimpo Lake, the plane flight to Ape Lake quickly made us forget this dusty and still rough highway. In fact, we estimated the 20 minutes of air time equaled six backbreaking days of thick bush. Although the Bella Coola icefield has been visited several times, many peaks remain unclimbed and unvisited. Our party of veteran Bella Coolaites, Jim Wilson (5 visits), George Whitmore (4 visits), and myself (3 visits) hoped to penetrate to the far southwest corner of the icefield. Leaving Ape Lake on July 25 we spent two days crossing the large system of glaciers and camped under the shadow of Mount Cerberus. (See map, A.A.J., 1954, 9:1, p. 74.) This large snow and ice peak had been seen by us in 1956 from Snowside and in 1958 from Jacobsen and appeared to be the primary unclimbed peak in the area. Fortunately for us the south ridge went easily although the loose rock proved a continual problem. Climbing was almost all on rock except for the summit pitch which overhung the north face. On the following days new ascents were done on Chili Peak (north of Cerberus) and Basin Peak (south of Cerberus). We also looked over Mount Sciron but left this for future years. After returning to Ape Lake for refueling and rest, we packed to the west and did the first recorded ascent of Mount Talchako. Although a technically easy climb, Talchako has developed tremendous moraines which require unusual effort to surmount. This summit (9820 feet) probably offers the outstanding view in the entire area. Even Waddington far to the south was visible. Although this summit indicated that no ordinary mountaineer had ever made an ascent, an unusually arranged group of rocks near the summit indicated some prior human presence. We were at a loss to explain this strange sight and the local Bella Coola residents could offer no reasonable explanation. All doubted the ambition of the local Indians to have placed the rows of stones on such an inaccessible peak. After returning to Ape Lake, we followed our now familiar route down the Noosatsum River to the Bella Coola valley. Frank Cook, the local mountaineer, volunteered to transport us back to Nimpo Lake and our abandoned car. The ascents had been made on the following dates: Cerberus—July 27; Chili—July 28; Basin—July 29; Talchako—August 2.

Richard C. Houston