Peaks in Pangnirtung Pass Area. The Northumbria Baffin Island Expedition was composed of climbers from the northeast of England: Dave McDonald, Ken Rawlinson, Len Wilson, Dennis Lee, Steve Blake, Kevin McLane, George Simms and me. We arrived in Pangnirtung on June 20. The fjord was still blocked with broken ice and it was not until June 23 that we were able to travel up in two canoes. Base Camp was established near the foot of Mount Ulu. On June 24 McDonald, McLane, Rawlinson and Lee began an attempt on the 2500-foot-high north face of Ulu, taking a line to the left of the centre aiming for a prominent corner that appeared to lead to the summit. Both pairs reached about half-height over increasingly loose rock before the crack system faded out. Resolved not to use bolts for aid, they retreated. On June 27 McLane and Lee made the first ascent of the southeast ridge of the west summit of Turnweather, some 2500 feet of Grade IV climbing. McDonald and Simms made the first ascent of a peak three miles northeast of Turnweather, a straightforward climb on rock followed by a snow slope and a traverse between the twin peaks of the mountain. It is hoped to give this peak the Inuit name for Sentinel. Rawlinson and Blake made the first ascent of the central pillar of Overlord, a 42-pitch Grade VI route with two bivouacs. The pillar ended in a 300-foot snow slope leading to the summit. We took 11 days to carry food and equipment some 25 miles up the valley via Windy Lake to Summit Lake. The weather was consistently bad and we were weather-bound several days. On July 15 McDonald and McLane left for a large peak opposite Mount Thor on the west side of the Weasel Glacier. They reached the summit of their peak via a 3500-foot ice couloir. Climbing was consistently hard and the weather very bad. Unable to find an easy way off, they abseiled down the gully. We have applied to the Canadian government to name this mountain “Mount Northumbria.” Other climbs were halted by bad weather.

Richard Godfrey, England