Triangle Peak (5455')
Willy Hersman, Scree

Memorial Day weekend began with very nice sunshine and it was Jim Sayler's choice to go up to the South Fork of Eagle River which sounded good to the rest of us (Karen and John Cafmeyer, Larry Hartig and Frank Jenkins and me) so we followed.  I was somewhat anxious to rectify an earlier failure to make it up Cantata if possible, but the area has several nice climbs for this time of year if you are careful about getting off the snow early enough.  We camped Friday night, May 27th, at the far end of Eagle Lake while it proceeded to rain.

The next day didn't clear up until late in the morning so we needed a half-days avalanche-safe climb.  I had noticed several times the 5455-foot peak west of Calliope and learned two years ago that the locals call it Triangle Peak (another symphonic instrument).  Not difficult, but a nice vantage point anyway, so we walked over there and up the easy NE slopes to the top.  A cairn was no surprise to find and we placed a register in it.  I have no information on the first ascent.

On the 29th Jim stayed behind as the rest of us arose early and hiked up-valley to Eagle Peak (6955).  We cramponed our way up the South Gully, which was deeply furrowed by afternoon avalanches.  The view down to the Eagle River Visitor's Center from the summit was excellent as was the view along the 3-mile knife ridge leading south to Flute Peak (6610').  The South Gully is a good route during the summer, being mostly a scree ascent.

On the way to Eagle I noticed a possible route on Cantata Peak (6410') via North Face gullies and on Monday Karen, Frank and I decided to check it out.  It turned out to be steeper than expected, but at least we finally got some use of the darn pickets we had been hauling around.  The route consisted of two separate gullies which connected behind a small buttress.  We were able to go directly to the summit on snow, thus avoiding some of the worst rock the Chugach has to offer, which is on the more-used SE ridge.  Nothing exists in Scree about this route and we didn't dig out the register for fear of waiting too long to descend.