Baleful's East Face
by Willy Hersman, Scree 7/90

It's said that starting a trip in the rain is good luck for later on, but when biking around Eklutna Lake on June 23rd, with mud flying up my backside, I would never have believed that the sun was going to shine for the remainder of our ten-day excursion to the far end of Chugach State Park. Tom Choate, Ken Zafren and I met up with Jim Sayler around noon after hauling heavy packs up the East Fork Trail to where he'd been camped for the night, and proceeded to grunt our way up and out of the valley bottom. We made a late camp above the Baleful Gorge, south of the south summit, and enjoyed the wildlife nearby, a real treat if you ever get up that way.

Jim and I noted less snow than the same time last year as we crossed a 5450-foot pass and slid over crevasses on our way to the east face of Baleful Peak (7950+). We camped near the base of a prominent cliff, smoothed over by a glacier which used to cover it at one time. Several waterfalls pour over this 300-foot high cliff. So recent is the melting of this hanging glacier from the cliff that it is not evident on the USGS topo sheet; the contour's are deceiving. Menacing rocks and seracs tumbling over the cliffs complicate matters, and as yet no way has been found to bypass the mess on ledges.

On the morning of June 25th, Tom 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. As I belayed Tom over the last pitch (the crux, at about 5.4), Jim came up the line and three hours from starting we were ready for some walking. Ken elected to watch as we disappeared out of view.  None of us had any idea what was above since we'd 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 like 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 ridgeline as he sped on ahead, and then Jim and I waited a while for his report. He'd been right, because the next time we heard from him was a yell from the summit.

The point where Jim and I stopped was near a risky bit of ice above a nasty drop and though Tom had done fine on it, that didn't really change its nature. I gave up on the ridge idea since Tom had taken all the pro with him and decided to go with his route. Jim elected to wait. This was at about 7700 feet. Two more gullies over I met Tom on his descent and asked if he would like visiting the summit again that pleasant evening, to show me his route. By 9:15 we were on one of the two north summits, having ascended Higgins' chimney just below it.

Of course it is lower than the next one, so we went over there as well. All evidence of previous ascents were gone, but as far as is known we were the third, Greg Higgins having been last in 1980. We dropped a bread bag into a cairn and began a long descent which took us into the next day to camp. Other routes on the east face exist and seem to me preferable to Hoemans original which takes one over the south summit (quite a bit lower) and encourages much dangerous traversing.