Differential GPS surveys done in 2014 have confirmed that Mount Isto is the highest point in the Brooks Range, the North Slope Borough, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as well as a peak with world-class prominence and isolation. Mount Chamberlin, 25 miles to the west, was long thought to be higher or at least a contender, but Isto is now known to be 75 feet higher.
Mount Isto is in a somewhat remote part of the Brooks Range. It lies near the headwaters of some popular rafting rivers that flow north to the Arctic, and access is by a bush plane landing on the tundra in the valley bottoms. The climbing features steep ridges of loose rock and/or small glaciers, but it would be considered relatively easy by Alaskan mountaineering standards. |
