Alaska Borough/Census Area High Points

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List Description

This might just be the hardest list featured on this site--perhaps even tougher than the World 8000 meter peaks. There are about 20 high points here that require major expeditions to remote, icy, cold, technically difficult peaks. Denali is actually one of the easy ones, due to the infrastructure in place to handle the hordes of climbers and the relatively gentle slopes on the easiest route. Saint Elias, Fairweather, Hunter, and Hayes are all monster peaks, and then there are the notoriously hard Coast Range summits of Devil's Paw, Nesselrode, and Kate's Needle. Then there's stuff out on the Aleutian Peninsula/Islands, the Brooks Range, and so on. A climber's odds of getting killed while trying to do all these peaks is very considerable, due just to bad weather. Good luck with it!

Note that there are no counties in Alaska. The equivalent is the borough, and there are 18 of these areas that handle local government functions. The boroughs do not completely cover the state, though, and the U.S. Census Bureau has divided the remainder into 11 Census Areas, which have no governmental reality and and are used mainly for statistical reporting purposes. Compared to other states, the boroughs and census areas change often, and new incorporations or rulings by the census bureau could change the number or boundaries of these units, possibly changing this list. Potential completers should beware of these possible changes!

Acknowledgements:

• Personal research determined several of these peaks by 1990.
• Book County High Points by Andy Martin; list compiled 1996 by Andy Martin.
• Dave Covill and Jerry Brekhus helped me figure out the recent (2007-2008) changes in SE Alaska

Links

Selected Guidebook(s) for this List

  Alaska: A Climbing Guide (Wood, Coombs)

Caution: These books feature many of the peaks on this list, but may not have information on all of them.