University Peak is a high peak in the

Saint Elias Mountains The Saint Elias Mountains (french: Chaîne Saint-Élie) are a subgroup of the Pacific Coast Ranges, located in southeastern Alaska in the United States, Southwestern Yukon and the very far northwestern part of British Columbia in Canada. The range ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

. It is one of the twenty highest peaks in Alask

and one of the fifty highest peaks in the United States

It can be considered a southern outlier of the large massif of

Mount Bona Mount Bona is one of the major mountains of the Saint Elias Mountains in eastern Alaska, and is the fifth-highest independent peak in the United States.This counts both the North and South Peaks of Denali (Mount McKinley), which is not a universal ...

. However, it is a much steeper peak than Bona, and presents significant climbing challenges of its own. The peak was named by

Terris Moore Terris Moore (April 11, 1908 – November 7, 1993) was an explorer, mountaineer, light plane pilot, and the second president of the University of Alaska. Early years and education Moore attended schools in Haddonfield, Philadelphia and New York ...

during the first ascent of Mount Bona; the name refers to the University of Alaska.

Climbing

The first ascent of University Peak was in 1955, via the North Ridge. The leader was Keith Hart, University of Alaska. The party consisted of Gibson Reynolds, Columbia University, Leon Blumer, Sydney, Australia, Tim Kelley, University of Washington, Sheldon Brooks, Pacific Lutheran College and Norman Sanders, University of Alaska. The climbers started at the foot of the Hawkins Glacier, and negotiated a difficult icefall to gain a basin at around elevation, on the west side of the North Ridge. This is still the recommended easiest route, but now one can fly into the basin to avoid the icefall. This route is rated Alaska Grade 2+. A much harder route ( Alaska Grade 5) was climbed on the East Face of the peak (from the Barnard Glacier) in 1997, by

Carlos Buhler Carlos Buhler (born October 17, 1954 in Harrison, New York) is one of America's leading high altitude mountaineers. Buhler's specialty is high-standard mountaineering characterized by small teams, no oxygen, minimal gear and equipment, and relative ...

and Charlie Sassara. This East Face route, named "Third Semester", involves 8,500 feet (2,600 m) of 50-80 degree snow, ice and rock capped with a 300-foot (90 m) vertical ice cliff. The descent is via the North Ridge. The first ascent party, Charles Sassara and

, took 6 days to complete the traverse, including 2 days of storm that prevented movement.

Geology

University Peak consists mainly of an eroded subvolcanic granodioritic intrusion that formed approximately 8.4 million years ago.

Bibliography

* Michael Wood, Colby Coombs, ''Alaska: A Climbing Guide'', The Mountaineers, 2001.

References

External links

* University Peak photo
Flickr
Mountains of Alaska Saint Elias Mountains Landforms of Copper River Census Area, Alaska Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve North American 4000 m summits Mountains of Unorganized Borough, Alaska Igneous petrology of Alaska Miocene magmatism {{CopperRiverAK-geo-stub

Climbing

Geology

See also

Bibliography

References

External links