North America, United States, Alaska, Arrigetch Peaks, Brooks Range

Publication Year: 1972.

Arrigetch Peaks, Brooks Range, Alaska — A group of ten from Hampshire College spent three weeks from June 9 through July 1 in the cirque where the 1964 party made its Base Camp, the first valley south of Arrigetch Creek. Besides the climb of Shot Tower (see article in this Journal), the following first ascents were made (see map, A.A.J., 1970, 17:1, p. 70): Badile (east ridge from the south) by Ed Ward and Dave Roberts on June 20; Disneyland (southwest face) by Ward and Roberts on June 27; and “Tasmania” (a 5800-foot satellite just east of “Australia” — the main peak on the ridge between the Camel and Disneyland) by Ward, David Vicario, Roberts, and Cindy Cattell on June 18, also by Vicario and Alice Bissell on June 25. Of the three, Disneyland was the hardest. The following second ascents were made (all first ascents by the 1964 party): East Maiden, by Sharon and Dave Roberts, Vicario, Bissell, Nancy Lord, and Kathy Garber, on June 13; West Maiden, by Ward, Cattell, Tom Griggs and Bob Hefner on June 13, also by Hefner, Vicario, and Bissell on June 21; and Citadel, by S. and D. Roberts on June 25. Hefner, Griggs, Cattell, and Lord also made a four-day, 25-mile exploratory circuit through the next valley south, passing beneath scores of attractive unclimbed peaks. We had temperatures up to 78° F. at Base Camp, and 18 straight days without rain. The expedition ended with an eight-day, 150-mile kayak and raft trip down the Alatna River from Takahula Lake to the native village of Allakaket, during which we battled the worst mosquitoes I had seen in nine Alaskan summers — so thick that as we paddled we heard them as a constant drone in the bushes alongside the river.

DAVID S. ROBERTS