Mount Marcus Baker (

Ahtna The Ahtna (also Ahtena, Atna, Ahtna-kohtaene, or Copper River) are an Alaska Native Athabaskan people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. The people's homeland called Atna Nenn', is located in the Copper River area of souther ...

: ''Ts'itonhna Dghilaaye’''; Dena'ina: ''Ch'atanhtnu Dghelaya'') is the highest peak of the

Chugach Mountains The Chugach Mountains of southern Alaska are the northernmost of the several mountain ranges that make up the Pacific Coast Ranges of the western edge of North America. The range is about long and wide, and extends from the Knik and Turnagain ...

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 located approximately east of Anchorage. This peak is very prominent because of its proximity to tidewater and is only 12 miles (19 km) north of the calving face of

Harvard Glacier The Harvard Glacier is a large tidewater glacier in the Alaska's Prince William Sound. The glacier has a 1.5-mile (2 km) wide face where it calves into the College Fjord. It is 300 ft thick and covers 120,000 acres of Chugach National Fo ...

. When ranked by

topographic prominence In topography, prominence (also referred to as autonomous height, relative height, and shoulder drop in US English, and drop or relative height in British English) measures the height of a mountain or hill's summit relative to the lowest contou ...

, Mount Marcus Baker is one of the top 75 peaks in the world.

History

Mount Marcus Baker was originally called "Mount Saint Agnes"; according to

Bradford Washburn Henry Bradford Washburn Jr. (June 7, 1910 – January 10, 2007) was an American explorer, mountaineer, photographer, and cartographer. He established the Boston Museum of Science, served as its director from 1939–1980, and from 1985 until his d ...

, James W. Bagley of the

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

named it after his wife Agnes, adding the "Saint" in hopes of making the name stick. The name was later changed to honor a cartographer and geologist named

Marcus Baker Marcus Baker (September 23, 1849 – December 12, 1903) was an American naturalist, explorer of Alaska, journalist, and newspaper editor. Early life and education Baker was born September 23, 1849, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and graduated ...

.Michael Wood and Colby Coombs, ''Alaska: A Climbing Guide'', The Mountaineers, 2001. The peak was first climbed on June 19, 1938 by a party led by famed explorer

; the climb took almost two months owing to weather delays. Today's standard route is the North Ridge. Despite being much lower in elevation than

Denali Denali (; also known as Mount McKinley, its former official name) is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of above sea level. With a topographic prominence of and a topographic isolation of , Denali is the thir ...

, Marcus Baker is a similarly serious ascent, due to the remoteness of the peak and the resulting length of the approach and climb. A number of noted climbers have perished or sustained permanent injury in attempting to summit the peak as climbing conditions can change rapidly as storms arise. In early 1988, a State of Alaska Fish and Game biologist, 28-year-old Sylvia Jean Lane, succumbed to hypothermia as a two-day storm separated her from the two others in the climbing party attempting to dash to the top in a winter ascent.

References

External links

Alaskan peaks with prominence > 1500mMount Marcus Baker on bivouac.com
Mount Marcus Baker and College Fiord

{{Authority control Marcus Baker, Mount Marcus North American 4000 m summits

History

See also

References

External links