North America, United States, Alaska, Mount Torbert from the West and P 6750, Tordrillo Mountains

Publication Year: 1995.

Mount Torbert from the West and P 6750, Tordrillo Mountains. As far as we know, our ascent of Torbert (3479 meters, 11,413 feet) was the first from the west and only the third ascent of the peak. Rod Wilson’s party made the first ascent in 1964 from the Triumvirate Glacier and Tom Choate’s party made the second in 1988 by traversing the north summit to the main peak. On April 10, Dave Johnston, Jim Sprott, Tom Meacham and I (the baby of the group at 46 years) flew to 2700 feet at the terminus of the Harpoon Glacier in the Naglishlamina River valley, west of Torbert. The next day, we skied east six miles up the Harpoon Glacier to camp at 5000 feet below two icefalls coming down from the north off Torbert’s west ridge. On the 12th, we climbed part way up the western icefall and camped at 8500 feet. The next morning, we climbed the rest of the now-easier icefall to reach the west ridge at 9300 feet. The ridge, which was not difficult except for a short stretch of steep icy snow with frightening exposure, took us to the summit plateau at 10,700 feet. We proceeded a mile west along the plateau to the summit. Only the summits above 11,000 feet were visible because the clouds had risen to where they were just below us and even occasionally enveloping us, but the view was grand. On Day Four, we descended to Base Camp uneventfully. On April 14, Johnston, Sprott and I set off for P 6750, which lay southwest of our Base Camp and is an impressive mountain, the highest of the 6000-foot peaks between the Na glishlamina and Chilligan Rivers. After skiing a mile down the Naglishlamina River, we started up a steep valley on the southeast side of the mountain. We climbed a gully and by five P.M. had reached 5500 feet on the east ridge, but the climbing was difficult, it was cold and windy and the summit was far away. I went back to Base Camp. Johnston and Sprott climbed a different gully and reached at ten P.M. what they believe to be the summit, the northernmost of two points that show on the USGS topographic map. They got back to camp at four A.M. the next morning under clear skies and northern lights.

Kneeland Taylor, Mountaineering Club of Alaska