The Alaska Range is one of the higher ranges in the world after the Himalayas and the Andes.
Description
The range forms a generally east–west arc with its northernmost part in the center, and from there trending southwest towards the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands, and trending southeast into British Columbia and the Pacific Coast Ranges. The mountains act as a high barrier to the flow of moist air from the Gulf of Alaska northwards, and thus have some of the harshest weather in the world. The heavy snowfall also contributes to a number of large glaciers, including the Cantwell, Castner, Black Rapids, Susitna, Yanert, Muldrow, Eldridge, Ruth, Tokositna, and Kahiltna Glaciers. Four major rivers cross the Alaska Range, including the Delta and Nenana Rivers in the center of the range and the Nabesna and Chisana Rivers to the east.
The name "Alaskan Range" appears to have been first applied to these mountains in 1869 by naturalist W. H. Dall. The name eventually became "Alaska Range" through local use. In 1849 Constantin Grewingk [de] applied the name "Tschigmit" to this mountain range. A map made by the United States General Land Office in 1869 calls the southwestern part of the Alaska Range the "Chigmit Mountains" and the northeastern part the "Beaver Mountains".[5] However, the Chigmit Mountains are now considered part of the Aleutian Range.
Starting in the mid 1880s to early 1900s, early non-native explorers traversed various sections of the Alaska Range. The first recorded expedition was in the Eastern Alaska Range led by H. T. Allen in 1885. His team went from Suslota Lake to Tetlin Lake and unto the Tanana River via Miles Pass.[6][7] Six years later, Frederick Schwatka and Charles W. Hayes crossed the extreme eastern end of the range via the White River and into the Copper River basin through Skolai Pass in what is now called St. Elias Mountains. In 1898, W. C. Mendenhall and E. F. Glenn traversed Isabel Pass and were within 15-20 miles of the Tanana River before turning around.[6] Separately, that same year, Robert Muldrow and George Homans Eldridge crossed Broad Pass into the Nenana River valley.[8]
Mentasta Lake to Kitchatna Mountains (1981): Scott Woolums, George Beilstein, Steve Eck, and Larry Coxen by skis: first traverse. 375 miles (604 km) in 45 days.[9]
Canada to Lake Clark (1996): Roman Dial, Carl Tobin, and Paul Adkins by mountain bike and packraft: first full-length traverse. 775 miles (1,247 km) in 42 days.[10]
Tok to Lake Clark (1996): Kevin Armstrong, Doug Woody, and Jeff Ottmers by snowshoe, foot, and packraft: first foot traverse. 620 miles (1,000 km) in 90 days.[11]
Lake Clark to Mentasta Lake (2016): Gavin McClurg by paraglider and foot: first vol-biv (fly/camp) traverse. 466 miles (750 km) in 37 days.[12]
Cantwell/Yakutat to Unimak Island (2020): Quoc Nguyen and Dan Binde by foot and packraft. 2,500 miles (4,000 km) in 120 days.[13]
^ a bSources differ as to the exact delineation of the Alaska Range. The Board on Geographic Names entry is inconsistent; part of it designates Iliamna Lake as the southwestern end, and part of the entry has the range ending at the Telaquana and Neacola Rivers. Other sources identify Lake Clark, in between those two, as the endpoint. This also means that the status of the Neacola Mountains is unclear: it is usually identified as the northernmost subrange of the Aleutian Range, but it could also be considered the southernmost part of the Alaska Range.
^Name history from the Board on Geographic Names entry for the Alaska Range.
^ a bFred H. Moffit (1954). Geology of the eastern part of the Alaska Range and adjacent area (PDF) (Report). US Department of the Interior, Geological Survey. Retrieved 17 May 2024.
^Fred H. Moffit (1916). Broad Pass Region, Alaska (PDF) (Report). United States Geological Survey.
^"Ski Traverse of the Whole Alaska Range". American Alpine Journal. 24: 137–138. 1982. Retrieved 2023-05-24.
^"A Wild Ride". National Geographic Magazine. Vol. 191. 1997. pp. 118–131.
^"Alaska Range Traverse". American Alpine Journal. 39: 169–170. 1997. Retrieved 2023-05-24.
^Cross Country Magazine, Vol 171. Pages 52-52. Red Bull Media House Films "Under the Midnight Sun"
^"Hikers Cover 2,500 Miles to Reach Southernmost Portion on Unimak Island" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-05-31.
Further reading
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alaska Range.
Churkin, M., Jr., and C. Carter. (1996). Stratigraphy, structure, and graptolites of an Ordovician and Silurian sequence in the Terra Cotta Mountains, Alaska Range, Alaska [U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1555]. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey.