North America, United States, Alaska, Paradise Peak, Kenai Peninsula

Publication Year: 1970.

Paradise Peak, Kenai Peninsula. Although my husband Vin had been attracted by Paradise Peak as early as 1961, it remained virgin until June. F. Cady, D. and H. Bludworth, D. Johnston, D. Hodaway, H. Van der Laan and I committed ourselves to the swirling waters of the Snow River. Then a ferocious alder jungle, laced with devils clubs, taxed us to the limit, but finally we got to the glacier west of the peak. I spent the night without food or shelter 1000 feet above the others. Early in the morning, encouraged by an army of mosquitoes, I fled up the ridge - my little tormentors made even an F7 vertical step look easy — and reached the summit without delay. The others followed later that day.

Grace Hoeman