Mountaineering | Chugach Range

Baleful Peak (Northeast Ridge)

Baleful Peak (7,990′) lies in the southeast corner of the Bold / Bashful / Baleful massif that sits tucked between the East Fork of the Eklutna and the headwaters and glacier of the West Fork of Hunter Creek. The summit is a sharp buttress that juts sharply 1000’ above the surrounding ridgelines and Rod Wilson proposed the name because “of its rugged and sinister appearance” during the July 18, 1959, ascent of Bashful Peak. The name Baleful Peak became official on September 8, 1964, after the MCA proposed it to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names in December 1963. The peak saw several attempts before it was finally climbed by Art Davidson and Vin Hoeman in 1965 – and subsequently only saw a handful of ascents over the next 30 years. Renown for difficulty and poor rock quality, the peak has three known routes to the summit as well as several routes that have thwarted climbers.

Mike Meyers on the White Slab pitch at 7,210′.

Routes There are 3 known routes to the summit. 2 parties / 3 people have climbed the Southwest Ridge, 1 party / 2 people have climbed the East Face and a dozen+ parties / 30+ people have climbed the Northeast Ridge. The ascents span 50 years and the peak is considered one of the hardest in Chugach State Park. Tucked into a far corner or the park, the peak is hard to access and all routes require ascending thousands of feet of shattered steep Class 4 or harder rock. Eric Parsons referred to it as the “Chugach final exam” – if you pass this you can move onto bigger and greater things. Southwest Ridge First Ascent: Art Davidson, Vin Hoeman; August 8, 1965

Rating: Class 5

Davidson and Hoeman gained the Southwest Ridge from the East Fork of Eklutna River, climbed the entire ridge to the South Summit and then down to the notch and up to the North Summit. They encountered difficult climbing above 6000’ (where the Southwest Ridge steepens above the Red Spot Glacier) and traversed the South Summit to gain the North (true) summit. Art Davidson described the ascent as follows: “We began to encounter what difficulties as they were above the col at 6000’. Often on incredibly rotten rock, we followed the ridge up and down, over and around gendarmes, onto broken faces, into gentle areas, and onto numerous knife edges. The crumbling rock made climbing not as difficult as dangerous in many places. We climbed unroped, but in retrospect felt that we might have roped up in several places. Though we were benighted on the descent, Baleful can be done in two days if one gets an early start each morning.”

– Art Davidson, Scree, September 1965 An interesting historical aside about this route: Art Davidson and Vin Hoeman got separated on the descent and when Art called out for Vin, Vin didn’t respond. Art got back to the truck first and drove back to town, thinking he needed to get a search party going. After rounding up a search party Art returned to Eklutna and encountered Vin on the drive back to the East Fork of the Eklutna River. Vin was steamed that Art had left him and Art was miffed that Vin hadn’t replied, when he called for him, even though Vin had admitted to hearing him. 54 years later this route is still considered one of the more respectable and difficult routes in the Western Chugach. It has seen one known repeat via a variation that gained the ridge from Red Spot Glacier (Greg Higgins, Jim Sprott; August 5, 1980) as well as several repeats to the South Summit only. Higgins and Sprott climbed together to the South Summit, but Sprott elected to remain behind as Higgins soloed down the notch and across to the North summit. According to Higgins the crux was the downclimb from the South summit to the notch: The descent to the notch towards the N Peak was very treacherous, but we were able to pick out a possible line on the far side enroute. The crux turned out to be a low 5th class off-width crack above the rotten black face and scree chute seen from the S peak.

– Greg Higgins, Scree, September 1980 East Face First Ascent: Tom Choate, Willy Hersman; June 23, 1990

Rating: Class 5 / Steep snow

The East Face was climbed by Tom Choate, Willy Hersman, Jim Sayler on June 23, 1990. They ascended the rock face below the hanging glacier that is on the East Face (3 pitches 5.4) then crossed the glacier and climbed the 2000’ couloir to the notch. Sayler opted to remain at the notch while Choate and Hersman scrambled up gullies and rock to the North Summit. This was the third ascent of the peak in 25 years. Willy described the route as follows: On the morning of June 25th, Tom (Choate) began the first of three leads which would take us above to the glacier. He had scoped out a nice crack the night before and wasted no time proving it would work. Natural chockstones were used as much as anything for protection and a large one provided a great anchor for a fixed line. None of us had any idea what was above since wed never seen it, but felt very relieved to find that a long couloir extended from the hanging glacier to the major notch between the south and north summits. It was taylor-made, with an easily crossed bergschrund and great step kicking for 2000 feet. It seemed we’d be on top in no time, only 500 feet to go, but then the route-finding got interesting. Tom the master-scrambler, was in his element. Quite a bit of time was spent deciding on the route; the ridge looked good in profile but turned out to be very knifey. Increasingly the gullies looked less inviting too, but Tom insisted that the previous parties must have taken a gully somewhere. I spent some time checking the ridgelines as he sped on ahead, and then I waited for his report. He’s been right, because the next we heard from him was a yell from the summit.

– Willy Hersman, Scree, July 1990 Northeast Ridge First Ascent: Phil Fortner, Jim Sayler; June 1993.

Rating: Class 5

The 4th ascent of Baleful was by Sayler and Fortner who climbed the Northeast Ridge (note – some people refer to this route as the North Northeast Ridge – they are the same route) during a spell of great June weather in 1993. They had good snow up to 6000’ and then described the remaining 1000’ as “not as bad as usual and requiring very little belaying”. The route has since become the standard route with a dozen+ repeats since 1993 – the majority of those repeats happening in the past 3 years. The September 2017 Scree provided two descriptions of this route – a 3 page story by Eric Parsons and Joe Chmielowski / Dave Hart’s 6 page / 3000 word essay meticulously describing the entire 5000’ route. Joe and Dave’s essay removed all the mystery behind the route and since its publication the route has seen 13 ascents. If you are planning on attempting Baleful, I highly recommend that you join the MCA so you can download this guide. Unclimbed Routes West Face (attempt): On July 4, 1980, Jack Duggan, Gunnar Naslund, Dave Staeheli, Jeff, and Al (surnames unknown) attempted Baleful via the West Face. They hiked into Tulchina Valley and then ascended a slope to gain the ridge somewhere near Benevolent Point and downclimbed / rapped a gully to gain the cirque at the base of the West Face. They then climbed steep snow gullies somewhere near the North/South summit notch to gain the ridge. They encountered loose snow and several avalanches while gaining the ridge, endured rock fall that severed their 9mm rope, bivied on the ridge and endured high winds while attempting the summit. They turned around just shy of the true summit due to deteriorating conditions. North Face and North Ridge: There is an immense “ice hose” on the North Face that Willy Hersman called the “biggest unclimbed challenge in the Western Chugach”. Likewise the 4000’ North Ridge is one of the great steep ridges of the Western Chugach that has yet to see an ascent. Full Traverse: And of course there is perhaps the greatest challenge in all of the Western Chugach: the entire Boisterous > Bashful > Baleful ridge traverse. A 5 mile technical route on poor rock over 4 summits, several sections of which have never been attempted. Map of the routes embedded below. Click here to view it full-sized.

Ascent History of Baleful Peak (as of 2019) Thanks to Steve Gruhn for his meticulous note keeping, we have a record of all (known) ascents of the peak. Note that there are several local climbers who eschew talking about their climbs, so we can’t be sure of all ascents. Likewise there have been several ascents of the South Peak via the complex Southwest Ridge which are not recorded here. 8/8/1965 Art Davidson, Vin Hoeman; Southwest Ridge

8/6/80 Greg Higgins; Southwest Ridge (Red Spot Glacier Variation)

6/25/90 Tom Choate, Willy Hersman; East Face

6/93 Phil Fortner, Jim Sayler; Northeast Ridge

6/9/97 John Cafmeyer, Karen Cafmeyer; Northeast Ridge

6/27/97 Steve Gruhn, Kneely Taylor, Niles Woods; Northeast Ridge

6/30/97 Richard Baranow, Wendy Sanem; Northeast Ridge

6/15/02 Josh Sonkiss, Martina Volfova; Northeast Ridge

7/10/06 Wayne Todd, Carrie Wang; Northeast Ridge

7/10/12 Ross Noffsinger, Charlie Sink; Northeast Ridge

7/16/17 J.T. Lindholm, Eric Parsons; Northeast Ridge

7/21/17 Joe Chmielowski, Dave Hart; Northeast Ridge

7/21/18 Dan Glatz, Nathan Hebda, Brendan Lee, Gerrit Verbeek; Northeast Ridge

7/21/18 Maresa Jenson, Max Neale; Northeast Ridge

7/6/19 Shane Ohms, Sophie Tidler; Northeast Ridge

7/6/19 Jen Aschoff, Joe Nyholm, Laron Thomas, Northeast Ridge

8/3/19 Billy Finley, Mike Meyers; Northeast Ridge

Approaching via the East Fork trail. The magnificent couloir on Bounty begs for an ascent.

Ascending the scree slopes to gain Baleful Pass at the golden hour.

Easy Class 3 scrambling just below the summit.

And then the final summit headwall which consisted of yet another Class 4 chimney followed by easy scrambling to the summit.It had taken us 6 hours to reach the summit and we sat down and enjoyed the view. The weather was absolutely perfect and the climb had gone smoothly and, thanks to Joe’s writeup, we had absolutely zero route finding issues.

Looking South at the West Fork of Hunter Glacier and beyond from the summit. The closest point is the South Summit of Baleful

And then downclimbing. And downclimbing. We downclimbed from the summit, ascended the white-slab and then began the arduous exposed downclimb that seemed to go on forever. Everything was going fine – until at some point I put too much weight on one hand-hold which snapped and sent me careening above a nice drop. I caught my balance and continued downclimbing – but as we approached the notch the angle steepened and I began to reach my maximum mental load for exposed shattered rock.

Mike on the 2nd and last rap back to the Class 3 ledges and scree slopes.



