In July Clark Gerhardt and I visited the Cumberland Peninsula. Since the ice was breaking up when we flew into Pangnirtung on June 29, we could not use canoes or snowmobiles to travel 18 miles up the fjord to Canada’s new Auyuittuq National Park. By chance, a film crew helicopter was in the area and so we flew to the cirque north of Mount Turnweather, just outside the park. On July 4 we climbed Turnweather via the 1500-foot snow and ice gully to the Turnweather-Guardian col and the east buttress. By connecting devious chimneys, dikes and flakes, we reached the top of the steep summit tower, using only a few nuts for aid. We descended to the southeast, bivouacked and circled back to the col. On July 12 we climbed an inviting buttress immediately west of and facing Turnweather. This eight-pitch climb provided the best rock and the most difficult climbing of the trip. We moved camp up the Weasel Valley, planning to visit the Asgard area. However, across the valley from Mount Thor an unnamed peak capped by a beautiful bullet-like dome caught our fancy. On July 21 we climbed 25 pitches up the jumbled east face and then swung to the north side for the final five or six pitches on the upper dome.

Craig McKibben