P 7450 (“Ivers Peak”) Ascent and Mount Orville Attempts, Fairweather Range. In 1991, Patrick Simmons and I flew with bush pilot Mike Ivers of Yukutat when we made an unsuccessful attempt to climb Mount Orville. In 1992, we were saddened to hear that he had been killed while flying in bad weather in the Fairweather Range. In 1991, Simmons and I had spotted attractive P 7450 close to Mounts Orville and Wilbur. Because of the association of the names to aviation, we thought it would be appropriate to name P 7450 for an Alaskan pilot active in the range and began to call it “Ivers Peak.” In 1993, we returned to the region with a third partner, Steve Carroll, and succeeded in climbing P 7450, although we again failed on Orville. We climbed the east face in a one-day round trip from Base Camp below the face. We bypassed the bergschrund on the right. A short rock traverse led to the wide snow slopes of the lower face. Above, we took the central couloir and its upper left fork to meet the north ridge. The exposed ridge took us up the final few hundred feet to the summit.

Philip Kauffman