Hummer Bay, Prince William Sound

Hummer Bay, Prince William Sound 3652' Unnamed Peak to the west of this bay
On August 14th, Colin Quinn-Hurst, Cory Smith and I took off out of Whittier to chase after an unnamed peak to the west of Hummer Bay. I had scoped this peak out several times before while traveling near it and figured it would be a worthy summit to go after. Though this peak is near the water, the direct route has plenty of challenges: wet bushwhack-slogging through alder choked tidal flats, travel along a stream of spawned out salmon - with the likelihood of encountering bears feeding on them, and wet and slimy cliff bands draped with heavy brush. I figured the best way to tackle these challenges would be to try and avoid them. So we set off on an end-run around this mess. The trip turned out to be a bit more than I bargained for. As the saying goes: "It sure looked easy on the map!" But after 8 1/2 hours, 7500 feet of climbing in 80 degree smoky air, and some lucky route finds in the toughest sections - we returned to the boat with the peak in the bag. To see Cory Smith's map of our route, click here: . For a topozone.com link to this peak, click here. And click here to see Cory's own pictures and comments from this trip. Photos and narrative below by Tim Kelley.
	From the wooded peninsula in Hummer Bay we churned our way through jungle to the top of the ridge. It was nasty going, but we slugged it out and made it up 1000 feet in about 1/2 hour. Once on the ridge, hiking got really nice.
	In the Lethcoe's guide to boating in PWS they mention hiking to the 2450 foot highpoint of this ridge Hummer Bay. We found their cairn on top. From the ridge highpoint I got a good "from across the valley" view of our intended route. I realized that today's goal wasn't going to be a piece of cake. We would be traversing through steep gullies that drain the north side glacier of this peak. I started running the math in my head as to whether we were going to make it to the top and back out the same day. "Oh boy ... this could be tight!"
	Left: One wild looking ice fall - the snout of the Bettles Glacier. This ice fall is "around the corner" - so you won't see this unique icescape from any cruise ship! Right: From down in the head of the valley Cory starts the 2600 foot climb to the summit.
	I had to take these flower pictures because I am such a sensitive guy (ha ha !)
	Before long we got into some challenging terrain.
	Once past some particularly steep tundra scrambling on the side of this ridge, we kicked it into gear and jammed to the summit. From the time we started, it took us 4 1/2 hours to reach to top.
	Left: As expected, jaw dropper views everywhere even despite the haze from interior Alaskan wildfires. Bottom: These un-stitched shots show our approach ridge.		Resume fodder for Colin Quinn-Hurst: Ace cairn builder! No cairn was found on top. So we built one.

		Looking south you could see Lansing Mountain. I climbed this peak in late June with Tim Miller, and Tammy Thiele ... a wild Alaskan woman I've been married to for 18 years!
Team Photo: I guess dedication to cross country ski racing fitness and love of the outdoors causes age boundaries to be transcended. From left to right the age spread for these peak baggers is 26 years!		Cory captures one last shot.
From the top a little white spot way down below tells us that our ride home is still where we anchored it!		We retraced our route along ledges and through gorges. Because we were traveling light with no climbing gear, we were definitely blessed to have found a safe way across this section of mountainside.
	At the head of the valley we look back at the summit. And then grind 1500 feet back up to the top of the rocky ridge we came in on.
	Unbelievable!!!! On our way out we found ski tracks that were over two million years old!		Now back on top of the 2450' high point north of Hummer Bay. The peak we climbed is the high one on the left.
Prince William Sound tundra covered ridges in late day sun have a "Middle Earth" feel to them. It's always a pleasure being on such ridges late in the day. We ran down most of this ridge.		Cory cruises brush. This picture is of by far the easiest bushwhacking we had!
	Back at waters' edge. Our faithful vessel, the "Broken Pole", awaits us. No wind here. But we would find the wind gusting hard in Passage Canal. We pounded through white-capped chop as we got near Whittier. The wind was gusting so hard in Whittier that it blew my kayak off the boat as we were trailering the boat to the storage yard. No damage though - it's a tough plastic kayak. We made it to the last (11:00 PM) tunnel opening, from Whittier to the real world, with 1/2 hour to spare.