Another B Peak (6865')
by Willy Hersman, Scree 9/91

Perhaps unnoticed because of bigger brothers nearby, Peak 6865, on the ridge between Bold Peak and Bashful Peak, has remained unvisited for years. Its position is well-guarded, with steep walls on most sides; walls built with rock of the most dubious nature; rock more suitable as valley material than peaks.

Five of us left our camp below Bold's north face at an early hour on September 1, Jim Sayler and Dolly LeFever hurrying ahead of Greg Dubois, Kneely Taylor and myself. We lost 1700 feet from Hunter Creek Pass and marched upstream in cool shadows towards the peak, a red-letter day ahead of us for weather. We passed Bold's east face and hiked up to a moraine north of our peak, at 4500 to 5000 feet.

Given a choice between temporarily suspended metasediments of the distant past and temporarily suspended seracs of the recent past, I let an internal debate go on for several minutes. The ice climber within me won over, and I announced my intentions to climb up the ice route of the glacier ahead of us. The others had not brought crampons and so continued on to the northeast ridge.

French technique came in handy for much of the remaining 1800 feet, and though crevasses slowed the pace, I found myself alone on the summit ahead of the rest. No cairn was found on the north summit (higher than the nearby twin) and I rested, hoping that the crew had not abandoned the ridge. After a while Jim and Dolly showed up and we built a small cairn and dropped in a register.

Boisterous Peak seemed a good choice for the loud mood of the rowdy little brother of the area and so it was written in the jar. After waiting some more, we decided to descend, passing Greg and Kneely on their way to the top. There was plenty of time on the descent to note the 1200-foot ice hose on Baleful's north face, perhaps the biggest unclimbed challenge in the Western Chugach.