“Alabaster”, Northwestern Chugach. After rendezvousing about mile 94 on the Glenn Highway on July 2, Bob Pelz, Royce Purinton and I camped on north gravel bars beside a roaring Matanuska River. Next morning, convinced our one-man kayak was a less than adequate craft in which to shuttle across rain-swollen channels, we turned up a local pilot who landed us on south bars of the river. The rest of the day and next were spent packing nine miles over moose and bear trails, threading the alder thickets of Monument Creek’s west benches and up the pocket glacier flowing off the northeast face of “Alabaster” (8065 feet), central peak of three sentinel eight-thousand footers containing the glacier. Next day from camp at 6000 feet we beat a lowering whiteout to the virgin summit, previously attempted in April, 1969, by its east ridge; due to poor snow conditions, our route followed the north ridge after bypassing the face in favor of a northeast chute to the ridge.

Robert Spurr