North America, Greenland, Trekant Basin, Staunings Alps, Northeast Greenland

Publication Year: 1971.

Trekant Basin, Staunings Alps, Northeast Greenland. Bruno Friedrich, Christoph Schwarz, Toni Mayer and I as leader were in the basin of the Trekant Glacier, east of Alpefjord in the Staunings Alps, from July 28 to August 18. Base Camp was on the terminal moraine of the Trekant Glacier. On July 31 we climbed Trekant (7382 feet). (All our climbs were first ascents.) In a 7½-hour ice climb we ascended the northeast hanging glacier. On August 3 and 4 Schwarz and 1 climbed the east face of Pyramide (7382 feet), northwest of Trekant, with a bivouac high on the Trekant Glacier. This dominant peak at the head of the basin had difficult but lovely rock climbing on the granite summit wall. On the descent we went east onto the inland icecap and climbed a 7500-foot snow peak northwest of Pyramide which we called “Eidechselspitze” (“Lizard Peak”). On August 8 and 9 Friedrich and I climbed “Mitternachtspitze” (“Midnight Peak”; 7710 feet) by its 2250-foot northwest face, encountering 65° ice. A windslab avalanche wiped out our uphill tracks and so we descended the west ridge, a difficult 7-hour rock climb rather than risk unstable snow again. The peak lies southeast of Trekant. At the same time Schwarz and Mayer climbed “Bayerndom” (“Bavarian Cathedral”; 7612 feet). They found difficult rock climbing. On August 12 Mayer and I climbed P 1361 (4465 feet; “Bischofsmütze” or “Bishop’s Mitre”), which lies left of the glacier as one ascends. We had delightful rock climbing on the east ridge. Meanwhile Friedrich and Schwarz climbed the “Blattspitze” (“Leaf Peak”; 6562 feet), which lies at the right head of the tributary glacier up which Bayerndom is found. They had easier terrain but winter conditions. On August 15 and 16 we crossed the Alpefjord and climbed the Hahnenkamm (Coxcomb; 6772 feet), attempted unsuccessfully in 1968 by Germans. The last 650 feet along the south ridge were on very difficult rock with winter conditions and took us seven hours.

WOLFGANG Weinzierl, Deutscher Alpenverein