Bradford Washburn, an Extraordinary Life by Bradford Washburn

Author:Bradford Washburn
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780882409481
Publisher: Graphic Arts Books

Bob Bates and Einar Nilsson on the 1942 U.S. Army cold-weather testing expedition in Alaska.

The skies were very disquieting. A cirrus cloud would pop up here and there, then disappear quickly; and a very curious double sun halo appeared. We had a short rest and a bite to eat at 2:15 P.M., at an altitude about the same as the 19,470-foot North Peak. At 3:45 the grade lessened, and we came out on top of Belmore Browne’s shoulder. The true top was just a step away up a short, sharp little ridge of real ice, drifted over in spots with fresh snow from the last storm. Bob and Terry went ahead so I could take good pictures of them reaching the top. At 4:10, Einar and I reached their side in the most perfect weather conditions under which McKinley can ever be climbed.

We stayed on top for almost an hour. The descent was easy: powder snow is awful going up, but is often a wonderfully cushioned brake for descending. The next day, Sterling Hendricks, Peter Webb, and Jack Bollerud reached the summit at 1:15 P.M.

However, reaching the summit did not end the assignment—there was still the matter of clearing the mountain, and writing reports. I was the last one left doing expedition work in Fairbanks; then I was ordered to stop in Anchorage to meet with General Buckner and other officers. They seemed concerned, above all, with the consequences of planes going into the water along the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands, and what gear might help downed pilots.

On August 18, I was flown on a DC-3 to several locations on the Kenai Peninsula and beyond to the Aleutians, past Mount Redoubt, past Mount Illiamna, to Cape Douglas, Cape Kuliak, and Cape Unalisagvak. We never flew higher than 1,000 feet after leaving Anchorage. We traveled along very savage coastline, big cliffs of vertical rock, past Unalaska Island, and finally to Umnak. I’ll never forget a tiny spruce tree that was planted in front of one of the Army buildings there—the only tree on the island, surrounded by a barbed wire fence with a sign reading, “Umnak National Forest—Keep Out!” It was a curious feeling to hear the hum of P-40s and P-38s overhead, and to realize that I was only four hours from the Japanese.

I had a conference with Maj. Jim Starkey about clothing and emergency gear. The fellows in the Aleutians who were fighting wanted emergency gear and plenty of it quick. They needed food packages and emergency kits that could float and be easy to release. I then met with bombardment, pursuit, and Navy pilots. They offered ideas about clothing and emergency equipment.

Two days later I was on a plane again, flying above the Bristol Bay canneries to Naknek and then on to Kodiak. I left Alaska on August 23; by then it was clear that the war was coming closer and closer to home. The battle for the Aleutians was on.

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