Packsaddle Island

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Packsaddle Island
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Packsaddle Island
Location of Packsaddle Island, Alaska
Highest point
Elevation 5,640 ft (1,720 m)
Coordinates 61°39′05″N143°07′31″W / 61.65139°N 143.12528°W / 61.65139; -143.12528
Geography
Location Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska
Packsaddle Island

Packsaddle Island (5,640 feet) is a nunatak located in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, in Alaska. It is surrounded by the Kennicott Glacier, and sits near the base of Mount Blackburn (16,390 feet). [1]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wrangell Mountains</span> Mountain range in the U.S. state of Alaska

The Wrangell Mountains are a high mountain range of eastern Alaska in the United States. Much of the range is included in Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park and Preserve. The Wrangell Mountains are almost entirely volcanic in origin, and they include the second and third highest volcanoes in the United States, Mount Blackburn and Mount Sanford. The range takes its name from Mount Wrangell, which is one of the largest andesite shield volcanoes in the world, and also the only presently active volcano in the range. The Wrangell Mountains comprise most of the Wrangell Volcanic Field, which also extends into the neighboring Saint Elias Mountains and the Yukon Territory in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Saint Elias</span> Mountain in Alaska and the Yukon Territory on the United States–Canada border

Mount Saint Elias, the second-highest mountain in both Canada and the United States, stands on the Yukon and Alaska border about 26 miles (42 km) southwest of Mount Logan, the highest mountain in Canada. The Canadian side of Mount Saint Elias forms part of Kluane National Park and Reserve, while the U.S. side of the mountain is located within Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Elias Mountains</span> Mountain range in Canada and USA

The Saint Elias Mountains are a subgroup of the Pacific Coast Ranges, located in southeastern Alaska in the United States, Southwestern Yukon and the very far northwestern part of British Columbia in Canada. The range spans Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in the United States and Kluane National Park and Reserve in Canada and includes all of Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska. In Alaska, the range includes parts of the city/borough of Yakutat and the Hoonah-Angoon and Valdez-Cordova census areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve</span> National park and wilderness preserve in Alaska, United States

Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve is an American national park and preserve managed by the National Park Service in south central Alaska. The park and preserve were established in 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. The protected areas are included in an International Biosphere Reserve and are part of the Kluane/Wrangell–St. Elias/Glacier Bay/Tatshenshini-Alsek UNESCO World Heritage Site. The park and preserve form the largest area managed by the National Park Service with a total of 13,175,799.07 acres, an expanse larger than nine U.S. states and around the same size as Bosnia and Herzegovina or Croatia. 8,323,147.59 acres are designated as the national park, and the remaining 4,852,652.14 acres are designated as the preserve. The area designated as the national park alone is larger than the 47 smallest American national parks combined and is more than twice the size of all but two other national parks. Its area makes up over 15% of all national park designated land in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Blackburn</span> Volcano

Mount Blackburn is the highest peak in the Wrangell Mountains of Alaska in the United States. It is the fifth-highest peak in the United States and the twelfth-highest peak in North America. The mountain is an old, eroded shield volcano, the second-highest volcano in the U.S. behind Mount Bona and the fifth-highest in North America. It was named in 1885 by Lt. Henry T. Allen of the U.S. Army after Joseph Clay Stiles Blackburn, a U.S. senator from Kentucky. It is located in the heart of Wrangell – St. Elias National Park, the largest national park in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kennicott Glacier</span> Glacier in Alaska

Kennicott Glacier is a glacier in the U.S. state of Alaska. It trends southeast 43 km (27 mi) from Mount Blackburn to its terminus at the head of the Kennicott River in the Wrangell Mountains. It is located in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park near the small town of McCarthy, Alaska and the historic ghost town of Kennecott, Alaska.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nabesna Glacier</span>

Nabesna Glacier is a glacier in the U.S. state of Alaska. Fed by deep snowfall in the Wrangell Mountains, the 53 mile (85 km) long Nabesna is the longest valley glacier in North America and the world's longest interior valley glacier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">McCarthy Road</span>

The McCarthy Road is a gravel-surfaced road that runs from the end of the Edgerton Highway in Chitina, Alaska, to about 1 mile (1.6 km) outside of McCarthy, Alaska.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Wrangell</span> Active volcanic mountain in Alaska, United States

Mount Wrangell, in Ahtna K’ełt’aeni or K’ełedi when erupting, is a massive shield volcano located in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in southeastern Alaska, United States. The shield rises over 12,000 feet (3,700 m) above the Copper River to its southwest. Its volume is over 220 cubic miles (920 km3), making it more than twice as massive as Mount Shasta in California, the largest stratovolcano by volume in the Cascades. It is part of the Wrangell Volcanic Field, which extends for more than 250 kilometers (160 mi) across Southcentral Alaska into the Yukon Territory in Canada, and has an eruptive history spanning the time from Pleistocene to Holocene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wrangell–Saint Elias Wilderness</span>

Wrangell–Saint Elias Wilderness is a wilderness area located in southeastern Alaska in the United States. At 9,078,675 acres (3,674,009 ha), the Wrangell–Saint Elias Wilderness is the largest designated U.S. Wilderness Area. The wilderness lies within Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve, the largest national park in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Bona</span>

Mount Bona is one of the major mountains of the Saint Elias Mountains in eastern Alaska, and is the fifth-highest independent peak in the United States. It is either the tenth- or eleventh-highest peak in North America. Mount Bona and its adjacent neighbor Mount Churchill are both large ice-covered stratovolcanoes. Bona has the distinction of being the highest volcano in the United States and the fourth-highest in North America, outranked only by the three highest Mexican volcanoes, Pico de Orizaba, Popocatépetl, and Iztaccíhuatl. Its summit is a small stratovolcano on top of a high platform of sedimentary rocks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Cook (Saint Elias Mountains)</span> Range in Canada

Mount Cook is a high peak on the Yukon Territory-Alaska border, in the Saint Elias Mountains of North America. It is approximately 15 miles southwest of Mount Vancouver and 35 miles east-southeast of Mount Saint Elias. It forms one of the corners of the jagged border, which is defined to run in straight lines between the major peaks. The same border also separates Kluane National Park in the Yukon Territory from Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Drum</span> Volcano in Alaska, United States

Mount Drum is a stratovolcano in the Wrangell Mountains of east-central Alaska in the United States. It is located at the extreme western end of the Wrangells, 18 miles (29 km) west-southwest of Mount Sanford and the same distance west-northwest of Mount Wrangell. It lies just inside the western boundary of Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park and Preserve and is 25 miles (40 km) east of the Copper River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mentasta Mountains</span>

The Mentasta Mountains in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Alaska form the eastern end of the Alaska Range. They lie south of the Alaska Highway, east of the Glenn Highway, north of the Wrangell Mountains, and west of the Nabesna River. Across the Glenn Highway lies the continuation of the Alaska Range, while across the Nabesna River lie the Nutzotin Mountains. They form the northern boundary of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve. The highest point of the Mentasta Mountains is an unnamed peak unofficially called Tetlin Peak with an elevation of 8,365 feet (2,550 m).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atna Peaks</span>

Atna Peaks is an eroded stratovolcano or shield volcano in the Wrangell Mountains of eastern Alaska. It is located in Wrangell–Saint Elias National Park about 6 miles (9.7 km) east of Mount Blackburn, the second-highest volcano in the United States, and just south of the massive Nabesna Glacier. Because the mountain is almost entirely covered in glaciers, no geological studies have been done, but published references state and the geological map shows that the mountain is an old eroded volcanic edifice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regal Mountain</span>

Regal Mountain is an eroded stratovolcano or shield volcano in the Wrangell Mountains of eastern Alaska. It is located in Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park about 19 mi (31 km) east of Mount Blackburn, the second highest volcano in the United States, and southeast of the massive Nabesna Glacier. Regal Mountain is the third highest thirteener in Alaska, ranking just behind its neighbor, Atna Peaks. Because the mountain is almost entirely covered in glaciers, no geological studies have been done, but published references state and the geological map shows that the mountain is an old eroded volcanic edifice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Jarvis</span>

Mount Jarvis is an eroded shield volcano in the Wrangell Mountains of eastern Alaska. It is located in Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park about 10 miles (16 km) east of the summit of Mount Wrangell. The mountain sits at the northeastern edge of the massive ice-covered shield of Wrangell, rising nearly 5,000 feet (1,500 m) above it in a spectacular series of cliffs and icefalls.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kluane / Wrangell–St. Elias / Glacier Bay / Tatshenshini-Alsek</span> International park system in British Columbia, Canada, and Alaska, USA; a UNESCO World Heritage site

Kluane / Wrangell–St. Elias / Glacier Bay / Tatshenshini-Alsek is an international park system located in Canada and the United States, at the border of Yukon, Alaska and British Columbia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">McCarthy General Store</span> United States historic place

The McCarthy General Store is a historic former general store and boarding house at Kennecott and Skolai Streets in the small community of McCarthy, Alaska, located in the heart of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. At two stories in height and measuring 47 by 56 feet, it is McCarthy's largest building, and one of its oldest. It was built in 1914, during the mining boom at nearby Kennecott. The store occupied the ground floor of the building, and the upper level had eleven rooms for boarders. The building was abandoned after the mining boom ended in the 1930s,.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Huxley (Alaska)</span> Mountain in Alaska

Mount Huxley is a 12,216-foot glaciated mountain summit located in the Saint Elias Mountains of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, in the U.S. state of Alaska. The remote peak is situated 75 mi (121 km) northwest of Yakutat, and 8.7 mi (14 km) west-northwest of Mount Saint Elias. The peak rises above the Columbus Glacier and Bagley Icefield to its north, the Tyndall Glacier to the south, and the Yahtse Glacier to the west. Precipitation runoff from the mountain drains into the Gulf of Alaska. The mountain was named in 1886 by English mountaineer Harold Ward Topham for Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895), an English biologist. The mountain was officially named Huxley Peak in 1917, but the name was officially changed to Mount Huxley in 1968 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. The first ascent of the peak was made June 9, 1996 by Paul Claus who landed his plane at 11,500 feet elevation on the western flank and climbed the remaining distance to the summit. The second ascent of Mt. Huxley, and first complete ascent from base to summit, was made in June 2018 by Scott Peters, Andrew Peter, and Ben Iwrey starting from the Columbus Glacier.

References

  1. Wrangell-St.Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska USA (Map) (1997 ed.). National Geographic. § 249.