 Location: "The Cirque of the Unclimbables" is the name given to a small cluster of peaks and walls in a remote region of the MacKenzie Mountains near the border of the Yukon and Northwest Territories, just outside Nahanni National Park.
Terrain: The Lotus Flower Tower, publicized in the book Fifty Classic Climbs of North America is perhaps the most well known climb there. It is also home to the awesome Mount Proboscis, an amazing hunk of granite who's easiest free route is a fifteen pitch 5.12a! Late June to the end of August are best. Deep snow may be encountered as late as mid June. Torrential rains occur frequently throughout the summer, bringing snow to the summits and occasionally all the way down to Fairy Meadows. Fortunately, spells of excellent weather often last three to five days. In addition, the 18 hour days allow one to take maximum advantage of good weather. September brings shorter days and snow which lingers on the faces longer. Both black and grizzly bears are found in the area around Glacier Lake. If you leave a food cache make sure it is bear proof. Bears have also been known to destroy cached rafts. Apparently the rubber smells tasty to them. The bears never seem to venture above timberline (most importantly to Fairy Meadows), but if they realize what goodies are up there we are all in big trouble. Marmots and smaller rodents are currently the only food thiefs in Fairy Meadows. [Expect nasty mosquitoes at Glacier Lake, and possibly in Fairy Meadows too]
History: As a member of a 1955 expedition to the Logan Mountains, Arnold Wexler was one of the first to see the Lotus Flower Tower. So frustrated was he by the sheer granite walls that ring the entire drainage that he named it "The Cirque of the Unclimbables". Nearly a hundred years earlier, frustrated members of the California Geological Survey described Half Dome as a peak "which never has been, and never will be trodden by human feet". The similarity of these descriptions is more than just coincidence; The Cirque of the Unclimbables is remarkably similar to Yosemite Valley in scale, altitude, and even layout. One can get a fairly accurate perception of The Cirque by mentally shifting Yosemite Valley northward 2000 miles to the middle of the Canadian wilderness, near the border between the Yukon and Northwest Territories. The geographical culmination of the Logan Mountains, The Cirque of the Unclimbables is in reality several cirques, which drain through an idyllic alpine garden known as Fairy Meadow. Both the floor of Yosemite Valley and Fairy Meadow lie at the same elevation, and are surrounded by "unclimbable" granite walls, culminating in 9000' peaks. Wexler's pronouncement of these peaks as unclimbable caught the attention of the mountaineering community. Bill Buckingham, a young mountaineer with a voracious appetite for Teton and Bugaboo ascents, organized an expedition to the Logan Mountains in 1960. Over a period of a month, his team succeeded in climbing nearly every...more
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