Noel Peak, Stikine Icecap. Between June 27 and July 18, Stacia Cronin, Jay McCubbrey, Peter VanderNailen, Tony Watkin, Beverly Wilson, David Wilson, Les Wilson, and I visited the northern Stikine Icecap of British Columbia. Our primary objective was Noel Peak (10,040 feet), which we believed unclimbed. We flew by float plane from Edontenajon Lake on the Stewart-Cassiar Highway to a Base Camp on Chutine Lake (1000 feet). I’d used this camp on previous trips in 1978 and 1980. We made an airdrop of food and fuel on the icecap at 6500 feet about ten miles south of the lake. Within three days we had gained the icecap and collected our supplies. Using homemade drags, constructed from heavy plastic sheeting by Les, we skiied south across the undulating icecap another twenty miles to the base of Noel Peak. A high camp was established at 7700 feet, just below an impressive rock buttress, on the northwest ridge. On July 6 all but Stacia and Peter crossed the glacier at the base of the west face to tackle the southwest ridge. Actually, this proved to be a series of parallel arêtes rather than a single ridge. We climbed a rotten gully between two of them to 9500 feet. Beyond, the ridge line consisted of a complex series of staggered gendarmes. The weather deteriorated suddenly. As it was nearly seven P.M., we bivouacked there. The next morning the weather showed no signs of clearing and we descended. When the weather was still poor two days later, we started back to Base Camp. On the return trip we made ascents of Boundary Peak 74 (7358 feet), Peak 8170, two miles to the northeast, and the east peak of the Sheppard Peak massif (8200 feet). Much to our surprise, Peak 8170 had seen a previous ascent by persons unidentified. Soon after our return to the U.S. the 1982 Canadian Alpine Journal came out and we learned that Noel Peak had been climbed the previous summer by the southeast face. Ours had been the fourth unsuccessful attempt of the southwest ridge.

Paul Tamm