Baleful (7990')
by Mike Miller, Scree

Webster definition: "Harmful or threatening harm or evil; ominous; deadly."

Our plans to climb Baleful Peak began last summer, August 1984, when four of us, John Dunlap, Suzi Noldan, Ron Van Bergeyk and I climbed Bashful Peak.  Although we couldn't see Baleful for the clouds, we knew there lurked a remote mountain with fewer summit attempts than Bashful.  Our ascent of Bashful, according to the summit register, was the first in the last four years, and only the twelfth in the last 24 years.

Bashful and Baleful are accessed by the East Fork trail near Eklutna Lake, south of Bold Peak.  Bashful, at 8005 feet, is reportedly the highest peak in the Chugach west of Lake George, with Baleful close behind at 7920 feet.  Eklutna Lake lies at roughly 1000 feet.

This year John couldn't accompany the three of us to Baleful.  July 4 we biked around Eklutna Lake and hiked up the East Fork trail about 3 miles; past the valley with twin waterfalls that marks the access (between the falls) to the valley between Bold and Bashful, which is used as the base camp for climbing Bashful.  We started climbing up into the next valley just south of the spectacular waterfall on an old sheephunter's trail.  Too soon the trail ran out and we were left bushwacking with heavy packs through dense alders and devil's club, reminiscent of the bushwack to Bashful.  Hours later we arrived at base camp at about 3000 feet elevation near the end of the valley.  Sheep were everywhere.

We were off at 5:15 the next morning up the Red Spot Glacier through what we called the "death funnel", since any avalanches flowing from anywhere in the steep bowl above (with seracs) obviously funnel through this neck.  We climbed frozen snow above the bergschrund to the col at 6200 feet, arriving at 8:30 a.m.  Surprisingly we found bear tracks going over the col and down into the next valley.

The climb from there involves ascending the ridge to the summit.  Numerous giant gendarmes, appearing impossible to climb with the loose rock, made the ascent difficult and dangerous. Sometimes over, sometimes around; the climbing is slow.  Twice we belayed rock pitches and once a steep frozen snow traverse on the shady side of the mountain.  Another steep snow traverse on the sunny side of the ridge resulted in many huge wet snow avalanches gouging deep grooves and falling to the valley floor thousands of feet below.  We clung to the rock to safeguard the traverse.  We had one final rock climb on better rock (but still not good) to the summit, arriving at 2:30 p.m.

The skies were clear and the view was fantastic.  The summit register on the south summit indicates only two other ascents: the first by Vin Hoeman in 1965 and another by Greg Higgins in 1981.  Past SCREEs also indicate another ascent by Duggan in 1981 (before Higgins).  The first two climbs followed the long West Ridge from near the East Fork trail. We followed Higgins' route which is obviously faster.

The long downclimb to the 6200 foot col was without mishap although difficult.  We kicked off more avalanches and descended the tracks through the "funnel" and across the avalanche debris to the valley floor and camp at 8:45 p.m.