Mount Marcus Baker is the highest peak of the Chugach Mountains of Alaska. It is located approximately 75 miles (121 km) east of Anchorage. This peak is very prominent because of its proximity to tidewater and is only 12 miles (19 km) north of the calving face of Harvard Glacier. When ranked by topographic prominence, Mount Marcus Baker is one of the top 75 peaks in the world.
Mount Marcus Baker was originally called "Mount Saint Agnes"; according to Bradford Washburn, James W. Bagley of the USGS named it after his wife Agnes, adding the "Saint" in hopes of making the name stick. The name was later changed to honor a cartographer and geologist named Marcus Baker.
The peak was first climbed on June 19, 1938 by a party led by famed explorer Bradford Washburn; the climb took almost two months owing to weather delays. Today's standard route is the North Ridge. Despite being much lower in elevation than Mount McKinley, Marcus Baker is a similarly serious ascent, due to the remoteness of the peak and the resulting length of the approach and climb. Actually, a number of noted climbers have perished or sustained permanent injury in attempting to summit the peak as climbing conditions can change rapidly as storms arise. In early 1988, a State of Alaska Fish and Game biologist, 28-year-old Sylvia Jean Lane, succumbed to hypothermia as a two-day storm separated her from the two others in the climbing party attempting to dash to the top in a winter ascent.
Famous quotes containing the words mount, marcus and/or baker:
“My name shall mount upon Eternitie.”
—Michael Drayton (1563–1631)
“We fight our way through the massed and leveled collective safe taste of the Top 40, just looking for a little something we can call our own. But when we find it and jam the radio to hear it again it isn’t just ours—it is a link to thousands of others who are sharing it with us. As a matter of a single song this might mean very little; as culture, as a way of life, you can’t beat it.”
—Greil Marcus (b. 1945)
“Inanimate objects are classified scientifically into three major categories—those that don’t work, those that break down and those that get lost.”
—Russell Baker (b. 1925)