The very steep traverse en route to a peak we named Queequeg. This ascent was a second ascent of this peak.
Personnel in 1999: Stan Wagon, Katie Larson, Chet Roe, Peter Crisci, Kurt Morscher, Cory Case, and guides Tom Raudaschl and Steve Luvnuik. Also Mike Anderson and Cheri Dubois from Denver. In 2000 (no photos): Stan Wagon, Jonathan Kriegel, Byron Lemay, Katie Larson, Chet Roe, Phil Williams; also Chic Scott, Howie Bock. After the 1999 Abbey week Katie, Katie, Kurt, Chet, Jonathan, Cory, and I spent a few days at Asulkan Hut.
More photos can be found in the report of The Wrong Way to Battle Abbey, which describes our 2004 trip during which we skied to the Abbey from the south and spent a week at the lodge. Link here.
The remote Battle Abbey Lodge, built by Hans Gmoser, the founder of CMH, and William Lowell Putnam, Jr., the nephew of the Putnam of the Putnam math competition.Tom Raudaschl and Kurt Morscher on the steep descent (side-step required) en route to Typee Peak, from which we had a 3500-foot descent in perfect powder.Katie Larson enjoying the steep and deep near Battle Abbey. (Photo by Kurt Morscher.)Stan sucking the snow near the Battle Abbey Lodge. (Photo by Kurt Morscher)Dawn at the Abbey. Moby Dick at rear left.The terrain around the lodge is dominated by the view of Moby Dick (which David Nebel, Pierre Hungr, and I climbed in 2015).The very steep traverse en route to a peak we named Queequeg. This ascent was a second ascent of this peak.he summit of Queequeg: Stan Wagon, Peter Crisci, Cory Case, Chet Roe, Katie Larson, Steve Luvnik, Tom Raudaschl. This was a long day from Battle Abbey and a second ascent of the peak, which is near the giants of Beaver and Duncan. We had a 4000-foot descent. I suggested this name, which seems to have stuck. Many of the peaks in this valley have a Moby Dick or Herman Melville motif.From right to left: Butters, Moby Dick, Typee (left of center), Ridiculous (below horizon). This is an excellent view of the terrain right above the Battle Abbey lodge (which is just left of Ridiculous). This photo is from Queequeg. Guide Tom Raudaschl (from Austria; he had a small role—Lutz Chicken—in the Brad Pitt movie, “Seven Years in Tibet”) leads the way on a high ridge (called the King’s Landing, because the King of Spain had landed there to ski down to the lodge) above Battle Abbey, with the flat-topped Typee Peak and the sharp Moby Dick visible.
