Mount Blackburn
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| Mount Blackburn | |
|---|---|
| Elevation | 16,390 feet (4,996 metres) |
| Location | Alaska, USA |
| Range | Wrangell Mountains |
| Prominence | 3,546 m |
| Coordinates | |
| Topo map | USGS McCarthy C-7 |
| Type | Shield volcano |
| First ascent | 1958 (true summit) |
| Easiest route | North Ridge: snow/glacier climb |
- For the mountain by this name in Antarctica, see Mount Blackburn (Antarctica).
Mount Blackburn is the highest peak in Alaska’s Wrangell Mountains and also the worthy range’s most dramatic high peak. Blackburn is the fifth highest peak in the United States and the twelfth highest peak in North America. The mountain was named in 1885 by Lt. Henry T. Allen of the U.S. Army after Joseph Clay Stiles Blackburn, a U.S. senator from Kentucky.
The mountain's massif is covered almost entirely by icefields and glaciers and is the principal source of ice for the Kennicott Glacier. The mountain also contributes a large volume of ice to the north flowing Nabesna Glacier and the Kuskulana Glacier system.
The western of Blackburn’s two summits is the mountain’s highpoint, a fact that was not understood until the 1960s when the then new USGS maps came out. The first ascent of the west peak, and hence Mount Blackburn, was done on May 30, 1958 by Bruce Gilbert, Dick Wahlstrom, Hans Gmoser, Adolf Bitterlich, and Leon Blumer via the Northwest Ridge. This intrepid team made the first ascent of Blackburn, but did not even know it at the time! Blumer’s article in the 1959 American Alpine Journal is titled “Mount Blackburn - Second Ascent.”
“Kennedy Peak” is “East Blackburn” at 16,286 ft (4964 m). The first ascent of this summit was in 1912 by Dora Keen and George Handy via the Kennicott Glacier and East Face. This heady exploit was ahead of its time. Dora Keen, driven by a deep desire for the climb, solicited miners from the nearby Kennicot Copper Mine, and forged a route up the heavily crevassed East Face to the East Peak, but did not traverse over to the West Peak. Dora went on to write a famous article for the Saturday Evening Post titled, “First up Mount Blackburn.” In 1912, Dora and George thought they were on Blackburn’s highest point.
With global warming, Keen’s route is not practical today. Instead, the standard route on the peak is the North (also called the Northwest) Ridge. It is a moderate climb by Alaskan standards (Alaska Grade 2).
[edit] Notes
- ↑ This is not counting the North Summit of Mount McKinley, which is sometimes counted as an independent peak and sometimes not.
[edit] Source
- Michael Wood and Colby Coombs, Alaska: a climbing guide, The Mountaineers, 2001.
