Fremont Peak revisited...big time!

Corrections and additions for Select Peaks of Greater Yellowstone.

Moderator: TomTuriano

Post Reply
TomTuriano
Site Admin
Posts: 170
Joined: Thu Dec 02, 2004 11:02 am

Fremont Peak revisited...big time!

Post by TomTuriano »

My friend and fellow historian Paul Horton recently turned me on to a website by Bob Graham of Sacramento, CA that is devoted to the journeys of the Pathfinder John C. Fremont. There is a whole gaggle of pages devoted to the Fremont Peak first ascent controversy. The effort Graham put into resolving the issue and displaying his findings is book-worthy in itself. Graham claims it is just a hobby.

If you are interested in Fremont Peak, this site is definitely worth a visit:

http://longcamp.com/flag.html

My visits to this site came at the same time that I received an unpublished letter to the editor of the Annals of Wyoming by its author Jim Wolf, the historian that wrote several superb articles in the late 1990s about early mountaineering and exploration. While I still do not agree with his findings, the letter, in combination with Wolf's 1999 Annals article, gives the most substantiated argument for Fremont having climbed Mount Woodrow Wilson that I have ever seen.

I have posted Wolf's article here:
http://www.thomasturiano.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=39

After revisiting the ventures of Fremont on the Winds with this new information, I unfortunately will have to withdraw an assertion that I made in Select Peaks. I suggested on page 41 and in a photo on page 304 that on August 15, the party went into Titcomb Basin and climbed Fremont Peak directly from Mistake Lake.

I now believe that the correct sequence of events is as follows:

August 14: The team followed the southern inlet into Island Lake through a narrow gorge up to Lake 10,813 at the foot of Elephant Head Peak. Finding difficult going, they became separated and each tried to find a route through the labyrinth of domes and creeks toward the mountain. Carson reached the highest point that day on a bump along the southwest spur.

August 15: The team circled around Island Lake and gained the bench above the lake. They followed the general line of today's Indian Basin trail into Indian Basin, and made the ascent of Fremont Peak by today's standard route.
TomTuriano
Site Admin
Posts: 170
Joined: Thu Dec 02, 2004 11:02 am

Re: Fremont Peak revisited...big time!

Post by TomTuriano »

2019...I take that all back...Now feel that the party definitely tried from Indian Basin the 14th and Titcomb Basin on the 15th.
Post Reply