North America, Canada, Yukon Territory, St. Elias Mountains, Tombstone Mountains, Yukon Territory

Publication Year: 1996.

Tombstone Mountains, Yukon Territory. Last summer, I made four trips to Canada's Tombstone Mountains, which lie about 60 kilometers northeast of Dawson City, Yukon, where I was living at the time. With Myk Kurth (Canada), Ian Marriott (U.K) and Mark Senyk (Canada), I attempted a number of climbs in this beautiful range of steep walls and sharp needles. The scenery there is spectacular. We completed a few routes on some of the easier ridges and smaller faces at the head of the Grizzly Valley, toward the north end of the range, and also explored a number of possibilities around Tombstone Mountain, at the south end of the range. We made several feeble attempts on some of the highest peaks and largest walls (including the North Face of Mount Monolith, 7,100 feet, and the dramatic 2,000-foot East Face of Tombstone Mountain, 7,191 feet), but prudently retreated before we could get into too much trouble. Poor quality rock, either very crumbly or highly fractured, was predominant. The largest faces all look to involve fairly difficult and committed climbing on steep rock of dubious quality.

Andrew Richardson, Harvard Mountaineering Club