Steve Gruhn - Oct 16, 2008 5:20 pm - Hasn't voted
Mountain Page?I agree. This peak could use its own mountain page and this trip report could be linked to it.
Bombchaser - Oct 18, 2008 4:03 pm - Hasn't voted
Re: Mountain Page?Thanks, when I have time I plan to hopefully do a mountain page for Moffett.
paulbalegend - Oct 21, 2008 1:38 pm - Hasn't voted
CoolSounds like quite the adventure. Nice going!
ChristianRodriguez - Oct 24, 2008 1:47 am - Voted 10/10
great job!!Congratulation for this great job to climb/hike Mount Moffett. Is great to know about people with huge entusiasm. NICE PICTURES.
Stu Brandel - Oct 24, 2008 1:38 pm - Voted 10/10
Good JobGood Trip Report and sounds like a great climb. Tell me the history of Adak - are the explosives you have to remove from WWII era or later?
Bombchaser - Oct 25, 2008 12:06 pm - Hasn't voted
Re: Good JobThe town of Adak is a former Navy Base. The base was closed down and what was left of it was turned over to the civilians. This occured in the late 90's I believe. The ordnance on the island is left over from WWII. There was active training ranges on the island where various munitions were fired. The island has been the focus of cleanup operations for many years.
calebEOC - Feb 4, 2010 11:52 pm - Voted 10/10
missed this oneGreat TR, love reading about a mountain climb in the Aleutian Islands, an area we just don't see much here on summitpost. BTW, is there much for WW2 wreckage remaining on the island?
Bombchaser - Feb 5, 2010 12:23 am - Hasn't voted
Re: missed this oneYes there is some wreckage on the island. There is also a lot of ordnance, that is why I was sent there. It is a nice place to visit, but the weather is brutal. The tundra is a real pain to travel through.
lelarso - Apr 16, 2011 8:24 pm - Hasn't voted
summitting Mt. Moffett -- nice postGood trip report.
Was stationed on Adak (it's always "on" Adak, never "at" or "in") for almost three years in the early 70's. Had glimpses of the top of Moffett, but was mostly obscured by clouds. In those three years, had literally fewer than a dozen nice, sunny days. So, read your report with interest. In those days, tundra obscured old holes and trenches, so hikers were required to travel in pairs; more seasoned ones carried long poles to probe the ground in front for holes, and carried rope to haul a buddy out of them. Also, the weather changed rapidly, due to the cold Bering Sea to the north, and the warmer Pacific to the south. One could start out with good weather in the morning, and have it change to nasty by noon. So, you were fortunate to have good weather for your summitting.
BTW, did you take any photos of old Navy buildings, such as the hospital?
Bombchaser - May 16, 2011 4:28 pm - Hasn't voted
Re: summitting Mt. Moffett -- nice postThanks for the post. It was very much a challenging trip. The terrain there is unforgiving. I did take numerous pics of the buildings. I think I still have them on one of my hard drives.
mtmoffett - Oct 1, 2014 2:35 pm - Hasn't voted
Summiting Mt. MoffettIn June or July of 1964 Michael Earnest and I did a summit of the southeast ridge. We were stationed at the Naval Transmitter Site at the base of Mt. Moffett. It was a unusually warm and sunny day, maybe high 50's or low 60's and we decided to climb the mountain from the transmitter site. Neither of us had any climbing experience. We left around 10:00 AM with just a
pack lunch. Your description of the descent was identical to my memory of the ascent. The ridge fell off sharply to the east towards Lake Andrews as an exposed rock face and the south was steep snowfield.
We lunched at the summit and began our descent along the same route. However the cloud cover came in while we were on the summit and we lost our reference point(the aviation beacon on the 1000' antenna at the transmitter station).
We descended the snowfield on the south face and climbed the next south ridge in hopes of spotting the beacon. To no avail, so we tranversed it and descended to the south and eventually bivouacked in a WW 2 Quonset hut on the north spit of Shagak Bay, using a old oil drum and wood from the watch station for warmth.
In the morning we could hear and eventually see the air search rescue planes overhead and attempted to signal them with our jackets as we once again began an ascent from that side. As we
gained a little height I was able to see the White Alice Early Warning Radar Site so we descended the mountain and crossed the valley and ascended the ridge towards White Alice. While in the valley we were spotted by a marine squad search party who assisted Mike up the ridge.
I was later told rather irately in a debriefing, by the Commander of the Air Search/Rescue Squadron that there were two planes, one helicopter, a tug boat,and marine search parties trying to locate us. Apparently two officers had attempted the same, previously and died of exposure.
I thanked him for their efforts but pointed out they didn't do a very good job, because we continually tried to signal them but were never spotted. I was later told by a review committee that the entire episode had cost me 'sailor of the month' and had I checked out at the quarterdeck I would had received a certificate for wilderness survival. Quite frankly I was just happy to be alive.
I'm glad to hear that your solo climb went much better than ours. It's amazing what a little experience will do. I wouldn't recommend it for a novice!
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