Mount Emmerich, Chilkat Mountains, Alaska Coast Mountains. One lovely alpine peak stands out in particular from the Chilkat River, only some eight miles from Haines and in plain view of the town. Mount Emmerich (6405 feet), a bastion of granite and hanging glaciers, had apparently never been climbed. Craig Zaspell, Jack Tackle and I found a spot of good weather in early August, and with the kind assistance of Paul Swift of Haines, we arranged a boat ride across the muddy river and obtained directions on the Kicking Horse River approach. An air- drop of 23 small bundles by Layton Bennett proved exciting and successful, the drop being made in tight circles from a Helio Courier on a small unnamed glacier at 4000 feet. The hike in was done in a hard day, with one quite dangerous log crossing, and a long brush and gully ascent (including one impromptu F7 pitch at a gully wall). We did not reach the airdrop the first night, but found a scrub hemlock hiding spot, then located all the bundles the next day—in the fog. Our efforts on the first objective, the spectacular northeast buttress, all ended in frustration: poor weather and friable rock. After three sorties on the buttress we pulled our gear off and then waited out days of poor weather. Finally we decided that time had run out, even for a climb by what seemed the easiest route. We packed a camp across a ridge for a new descent route. Swift and friends appeared out of a cloud and dropped additional food. As an omen, the weather suddenly cleared, and so we climbed the long crevassed glacier to a col south of Emmerich. Here we discovered a possible route. Luck was with us on August 14, absolutely our last day (food and time limits). From our previous high point on the glacier, we found that the best way to reach the crumbly southwest ridge was to do an aid pitch off the ice on solid granite. Later we did the cakewalk along the ridge, always finding a possible route, but one that was scary and perhaps too dangerous to recommend. Most of this was belayed climbing, but occasionally we used some chocks and pitons for safety. Various ridge-climbing antics finally placed us on the summit at about seven P.M. Here we built a cairn and admired the vista of such peaks as Crillon and Fairweather, as well as the Coast Mountains in the opposite direction. Fishing boats could be seen clearly in Lynn Canal.

Fred Beckey