Voyager Peak

Voyager Peak

Alaska Mountain Range, Denali National Park | Anne Perkins

🏔️ Overview

Voyager Peak is a remote 12,213-foot (3,723-meter) mountain in Alaska’s central Alaska Range, rising above the rarely visited northwest fork of the Lacuna Glacier in Denali National Park and Preserve.

Until 2011, the mountain was simply an unnamed point identified by its elevation—Peak 12,213. That changed when climbers Mark Allen and Graham Zimmerman reached its summit on May 26, 2011, completing the first known ascent after two earlier attempts during the same expedition.

Allen and Zimmerman named the mountain Voyager Peak, inspired by NASA’s Voyager spacecraft and by the exploratory nature of their expedition into a section of the Alaska Range that had seen almost no documented climbing activity.

Voyager Peak belongs to a rugged group of mountains extending south from The Fin between the Yentna and Lacuna glaciers. Although its approximately 413 feet (126 meters) of prominence makes it a subsidiary summit rather than a major independent mountain, its steep south face, complex glacier approach, and extraordinary isolation make it a serious expedition-level climbing objective.

⚡ Fast Facts

Fact	Details
Continent	North America
Country	United States
State	Alaska
Protected Area	Denali National Park and Preserve
Mountain Range	Alaska Range
Local Group	Fin Group
Elevation	12,213 ft / 3,723 m
Prominence	Approximately 413 ft / 126 m
Isolation	Approximately 0.33 mi / 0.53 km
Parent Peak	The Fin
Nearest Higher Neighbor (NHN)	The Fin
Major Glacier	Lacuna Glacier
First Known Ascent	May 26, 2011
First Ascenders	Mark Allen and Graham Zimmerman
First-Ascent Route	To the Center
Route Length	Approximately 4,500 ft / 1,370 m
Route Grade	AK4 AI2
Original Map Name	Peak 12,213
Named For	Voyager spacecraft / spirit of exploration
Nearby Major Mountain	Mount Foraker

Voyager Peak’s modest prominence does not reflect the scale of the climbing required to reach it. Its south face rises thousands of feet above a remote glacier reached only after a difficult multi-day approach from the Kahiltna Glacier.

📍 Where Is Voyager Peak?

Voyager Peak lies southwest of Mount Foraker in the central Alaska Range.

It rises above the northwest fork of the Lacuna Glacier, one of the more isolated glacier systems surrounding the enormous Foraker massif.

Immediately north is The Fin, a roughly 13,300-foot subsidiary summit associated with Mount Foraker’s southwest ridge.

Voyager Peak is part of the ridge system extending south from The Fin between two huge glacier basins:

Yentna Glacier to the west
Lacuna Glacier to the east

Farther northeast rise Mount Foraker, Mount Hunter, and Denali.

Despite its location in one of North America’s most famous national parks, Voyager Peak occupies an exceptionally isolated corner of the Alaska Range.

📏 Elevation

Voyager Peak reaches 12,213 feet (3,723 meters).

The mountain appeared on maps simply as Peak 12,213 before its 2011 first ascent.

Some contemporary reports rounded the height to 12,214 feet, while an expedition report contains another minor elevation variation.

These differences are insignificant compared with the scale of the mountain and reflect normal variations in map interpretation and conversion.

Peakbagger currently uses:

12,213 feet / 3,723 meters

That is the most appropriate elevation for Mountain Field Guide.

📐 Prominence & Isolation

Voyager Peak has approximately 413 feet (126 meters) of topographic prominence.

Its topographic isolation is approximately:

0.33 mile / 0.53 kilometer

These numbers reveal that Voyager Peak is closely connected to higher terrain.

It is not a highly independent mountain in the way nearby Mount Foraker or Mount Hunter is.

Instead, Voyager Peak rises as a distinct point along the larger mountain system extending southward from The Fin.

Its relatively small prominence nevertheless conceals enormous local relief.

The south face alone provides climbing routes thousands of feet long.

🧭 Nearest Higher Neighbor: The Fin

Voyager Peak’s nearest higher neighbor is The Fin.

The Fin rises north of Voyager Peak to approximately 13,300–13,400 feet.

It is part of the great southwest ridge system associated with Mount Foraker.

Voyager Peak lies on the same broader chain of ridges extending south from The Fin between the Lacuna and Yentna glaciers.

This close relationship explains Voyager Peak’s relatively small prominence and isolation.

Topographically, The Fin is the dominant neighboring summit.

Geographically, however, the entire area sits beneath the much larger presence of 17,400-foot Mount Foraker.

🏔️ The Fin Group

Following their exploration of the area, climbers began informally referring to the mountains extending south from The Fin as the Fin Group.

The group includes:

The Fin
Voyager Peak
The Bats Ears
Mount Laurens
Several unnamed summits

These mountains form a complicated ridge separating the Yentna and Lacuna glacier systems.

Although overshadowed by nearby Foraker, they contain substantial technical faces.

Their remoteness kept them largely outside the mainstream of Alaska Range mountaineering for decades.

Several remained unnamed or unclimbed into the 21st century.

🏔️ A Mountain Without a Name

Before 2011, Voyager Peak was simply Peak 12,213.

This is common in Alaska.

The state contains thousands of remote summits that have never received official or widely adopted individual names.

Even mountains exceeding 10,000 feet may appear on topographic maps only as elevations or contour features.

Peak 12,213 attracted Allen and Zimmerman not because of a famous name or established route but because aerial imagery revealed a mountain with large, aesthetically appealing faces in an almost unexplored glacier basin.

Its anonymity was part of the attraction.

🚀 Why Is It Called Voyager Peak?

After completing the first ascent, Mark Allen and Graham Zimmerman named the summit Voyager Peak.

Their American Alpine Journal report states that the name referred to the Voyager satellite.

More broadly, the choice matched the expedition’s emphasis on exploration.

NASA’s Voyager spacecraft were launched in 1977 to explore the outer Solar System and ultimately traveled farther from Earth than any previous spacecraft.

Allen and Zimmerman were operating on a vastly smaller scale, but they were similarly interested in entering unknown territory.

Their expedition explored a glacier fork for which they could find virtually no previous climbing history.

The name therefore fit both the space-exploration reference and the character of the expedition.

🧭 Discovering the Northwest Lacuna

Allen and Zimmerman became interested in the area during the winter before their 2011 expedition.

While studying aerial photographs, they noticed steep faces and promising ice and mixed-climbing lines around the northwest fork of the Lacuna Glacier.

They searched for evidence of earlier visits.

Very little appeared.

The Mount Everest Foundation later described their expedition as the first climbing exploration of the northwest fork of the Lacuna Glacier.

The climbers themselves believed they might have been among the first people to enter that particular glacier basin with climbing objectives.

That degree of uncertainty is unusual in a mountain range as internationally famous as the Alaska Range.

🎿 The Approach from Kahiltna

Voyager Peak cannot be reached by a trail.

Allen and Zimmerman began from Kahiltna International, the glacier base camp used by climbers heading toward Denali and other major Alaska Range mountains.

From there they traveled on skis around the southern side of the Mount Foraker massif.

The Mount Everest Foundation describes the journey into the northwest Lacuna as approximately 27 kilometers.

Other contemporary accounts describe the approach as roughly 15 miles.

The route involved:

Long glacier travel
Avalanche-prone slopes
Several icefalls
Crevasses
Complicated navigation

Their first journey to the northwest fork took approximately three and a half days.

🧊 Lacuna Glacier

The Lacuna Glacier occupies the southern side of Mount Foraker.

It is much less traveled than the Kahiltna Glacier, which serves as the main mountaineering corridor for Denali.

The Lacuna system contains several branches separated by steep mountains and ridges.

For climbers, travel through the glacier requires careful navigation around:

Crevasses
Icefalls
Séracs
Avalanche runout zones

The 2011 team initially reached the east fork beneath the south face of Mount Foraker.

From there, they crossed glacier heads and negotiated additional major icefalls before entering the remote northwest fork beneath Voyager Peak.

🧗 First Attempt: Lunar Spur

Allen and Zimmerman made their first attempt on Peak 12,213 in early May 2011.

They selected a line along the right side of the south face.

They named it the Lunar Spur.

Over approximately a day and a half, they climbed around 2,500 feet of mixed terrain.

Difficulties reached approximately:

M5 mixed climbing
AI2 ice

The lower climbing was excellent.

Higher on the route, however, they encountered a narrow ridge covered with deep unconsolidated snow.

Bad weather approached.

The climbers decided conditions were too dangerous and retreated.

🔙 Back to the Kahiltna

After their first Voyager Peak attempt, Allen and Zimmerman returned to the Kahiltna Glacier.

The journey back took approximately two days.

Rather than immediately returning to Peak 12,213, they changed objectives.

The pair climbed the West Ridge of Mount Hunter, one of the great technical peaks of the central Alaska Range.

After resting and allowing snow conditions around the Lacuna to improve, they prepared to return to their unnamed mountain.

This time they had a better understanding of both the approach and the south face.

🧗 Second Attempt: Nebula Arête

Allen and Zimmerman returned to the northwest Lacuna later in May.

Their second objective was a central rib on the south face.

On the evening of May 23, they began climbing without carrying full bivouac equipment, hoping to move quickly.

The lower portion followed approximately 2,500 feet of granite buttress.

They climbed:

Dihedrals
Flakes
Mixed terrain
Narrow rock ridges

The climbing reached approximately M6, with sections of AI2 ice and A1 aid.

Above the main buttress, they entered a roughly 1,000-foot couloir.

That couloir led toward the upper summit ridge.

🌌 Nebula Arête

Allen and Zimmerman called their second route Nebula Arête, after the Los Angeles rock band Nebula.

It was substantially more technical than their first attempt.

The granite buttress provided sustained mixed climbing before narrowing into an exposed ridge.

Above the couloir, the climbers reached the final ridge system leading toward the summit.

They were closer than they had ever been.

Then black clouds arrived.

Ahead remained a long section of corniced summit ridge.

Rather than become trapped high on the mountain in deteriorating weather, the climbers retreated again.

They had now attempted the mountain twice.

Neither attempt had reached the summit.

⏰ Twenty-Six Hours on the Mountain

The second attempt was a serious undertaking.

Contemporary reports describe Allen and Zimmerman returning to camp approximately 26 hours after leaving.

They had climbed around 3,500 feet of technical terrain before retreating.

They were running increasingly low on food.

The expedition could not continue indefinitely.

But the pair now knew much more about the mountain.

They also knew that the central south face contained another possibility—a more direct couloir that might provide faster access to the summit ridge.

🧗 Third Attempt: To the Center

Only a few days later, they tried again.

On the evening of May 26, 2011, Allen and Zimmerman left camp for their third attempt.

This time they chose a direct couloir in the center of the south face.

Conditions were dramatically better.

Instead of deep unstable snow, the couloir contained excellent névé—firm, consolidated snow well suited to rapid climbing.

The pair moved quickly.

They reached the summit ridge in less than six hours.

Then they passed the high point of their previous attempt.

For the first time, nothing remained between them and the top except the upper ridge.

🏆 First Ascent of Voyager Peak

Approximately another hour of climbing brought Allen and Zimmerman to the summit.

They had made the first known ascent of Peak 12,213.

The route was named:

To the Center

It climbed approximately 4,500 feet (1,370 meters).

The American Alpine Journal records the grade as:

AK4 AI2

After reaching the summit, the climbers descended via the southeast ridge and southeast buttress, using anchors they had established during the earlier attempts.

The complete outing took a little over 20 hours.

📅 When Was Voyager Peak First Climbed?

The first ascent took place on May 26, 2011.

The successful summit came during Allen and Zimmerman’s third attempt on the mountain that month.

The timeline was approximately:

Early May — Lunar Spur attempt
May 23 — Nebula Arête attempt
May 26 — successful ascent via To the Center

The climb was reported in the 2012 American Alpine Journal.

The Mount Everest Foundation and New Zealand Alpine Club also documented the ascent.

👥 Mark Allen and Graham Zimmerman

Both first ascenders were experienced technical alpinists.

Mark Allen became known for exploratory climbing and difficult first ascents in Alaska and other mountain ranges.

Graham Zimmerman, a New Zealand-American climber, developed an international reputation for technical alpine climbing and expeditions to remote mountain regions.

Voyager Peak represented exactly the type of climbing both men valued.

Rather than following a famous established route, they deliberately sought out terrain with little recorded climbing history.

Their 2011 trip blended exploration, technical climbing, glacier travel, and repeated attempts from a remote temporary camp.

🧗 What Does AK4 AI2 Mean?

The first-ascent route was graded AK4 AI2.

AK4

The Alaska grading system considers more than individual climbing moves.

It incorporates factors such as:

Route length
Commitment
Remoteness
Objective hazards
Difficulty of retreat
Overall seriousness

An AK4 route is a serious Alpine undertaking rather than a simple snow climb.

AI2

AI stands for Alpine Ice.

AI2 generally describes moderately angled ice climbing where technical tools and crampons are required but the ice itself is not extremely steep.

On Voyager Peak, the difficulty came from the combination of ice, snow, corniced ridges, enormous scale, and isolation rather than exceptionally steep waterfall ice.

🧗 Three Routes, One Mountain

The 2011 expedition left Voyager Peak with three named climbing lines or attempted lines.

Route	Result	Difficulty
Lunar Spur	Attempt	M5, AI2
Nebula Arête	Attempt	M6, A1, AI2
To the Center	First Ascent	AK4, AI2

Interestingly, To the Center was technically easier than the unsuccessful Nebula Arête.

The difference emphasizes an important principle in alpinism.

A harder-looking route is not necessarily the best route to a summit.

By their third attempt, Allen and Zimmerman had learned enough about the mountain to identify a faster and more efficient line through the south face.

🌨️ Cornices

One of Voyager Peak’s defining hazards is its corniced summit ridge.

Cornices form when wind deposits snow on the leeward side of a ridge, creating an overhanging shelf.

From above, the boundary between solid ridge and unsupported cornice can be extremely difficult to identify.

A climber who walks too far toward the apparent edge may actually be standing on snow suspended over empty space.

Allen and Zimmerman encountered extensive corniced terrain during their attempts.

Poorly consolidated snow on these ridges contributed directly to their decision to turn around during the first two climbs.

⚠️ Avalanche Danger

Avalanche conditions also played a major role in the expedition.

The approach to the northwest Lacuna crossed slopes exposed to avalanche hazard.

Fresh snowfall complicated several stages of the climbing.

Before the successful third attempt, Allen and Zimmerman specifically evaluated whether recent snow had created dangerous avalanche conditions.

They concluded that accumulation had not been sufficient to prevent another attempt.

That decision illustrates how Alaska Range climbing depends not simply on technical ability but on continuous assessment of changing snow conditions.

🧊 Icefalls & Crevasses

The glacier approach includes major icefalls.

An icefall forms where a glacier flows across steep or irregular terrain and fractures into:

Crevasses
Séracs
Towers
Blocks
Chaotic ice formations

Allen and Zimmerman crossed multiple icefalls before reaching Voyager Peak.

One proved especially difficult for route-finding.

These sections greatly increase the seriousness of the approach.

Even after a successful summit climb, the team still had to reverse many kilometers of complicated glacier terrain before reaching the relative security of Kahiltna base camp.

🎿 The Journey Home

After the first ascent, Allen and Zimmerman were almost out of food.

Their expedition report famously notes that only four packets of oatmeal remained.

The following day, they began the long ski back to the Kahiltna.

They completed the journey in approximately 13 hours.

The promise of food—and, according to their account, whiskey—at Kahiltna base camp provided additional motivation.

The lighthearted detail contrasts sharply with the seriousness of what they had just completed: three attempts on a previously unclimbed mountain in a glacier basin almost devoid of climbing history.

🏔️ Mount Laurens

The 2011 expedition indirectly influenced exploration of another nearby mountain.

From Voyager Peak, Allen and Zimmerman noticed a striking face on Mount Laurens, farther south along the Fin Group.

They nicknamed it the Mastodon Face because of its appearance.

The pair returned to the area in 2013.

After multiple attempts, they completed what was believed to be the second ascent of Mount Laurens by a new northeast-buttress route.

Voyager Peak therefore became a launching point for further exploration of this forgotten corner of the Alaska Range.

🦇 The Bats Ears

Another nearby mountain is The Bats Ears, approximately 11,044 feet high.

Freddie Wilkinson, Ben Gilmore, and Jed Brown/Turgeon-era exploratory teams helped establish climbing history on the lesser-known summits surrounding the Yentna and Lacuna glaciers during the late 2000s.

Together with Voyager Peak, Mount Laurens, and The Fin, these summits demonstrate how much significant unclimbed terrain remained close to the famous Denali–Foraker region surprisingly late in modern mountaineering history.

🪨 Geology

Voyager Peak forms part of the geologically active Alaska Range.

The mountains owe their height to tectonic forces generated by the interaction of the Pacific Plate, the Yakutat microplate, and the North American Plate.

Compression has uplifted the Alaska Range while major faults accommodate ongoing crustal movement.

Many of the dramatic high peaks in the central range contain resistant intrusive rocks such as granite.

These strong rocks can withstand erosion better than weaker surrounding formations.

Glaciers then exploit fractures and valleys, carving steep faces, narrow ridges, and sharp Alpine forms.

Voyager Peak’s granite buttresses were clearly evident to Allen and Zimmerman during their second attempt, when they climbed thousands of feet of dihedrals and flakes on the south face.

🧊 Glacial Erosion

Glaciers are among the most powerful forces shaping Voyager Peak.

Ice flows around both sides of the ridge system containing the mountain.

Over thousands of years, glaciers have:

Deepened valleys
Steepened mountain walls
Cut cirques
Sharpened ridges
Transported rock
Created enormous relief

The resulting mountain architecture explains how a summit with only 413 feet of topographic prominence can still possess a face more than 4,000 feet high.

Prominence measures the summit’s relationship to higher terrain.

It does not measure the height of its walls.

🌨️ Alaska Range Weather

Weather is one of the greatest challenges on Voyager Peak.

The Alaska Range intercepts moisture moving north from the Gulf of Alaska.

Storms can develop rapidly and bring:

Heavy snowfall
Strong winds
Extreme cold
Whiteouts
Rapid avalanche loading

Weather stopped both of the first two 2011 summit attempts.

On the Lunar Spur, deteriorating conditions combined with dangerous snow.

On Nebula Arête, dark clouds appeared as the climbers approached the final corniced ridge.

Their successful third attempt depended on a brief period of better conditions.

🌡️ Altitude

At 12,213 feet, Voyager Peak is high enough for altitude to affect climbers, particularly when arriving rapidly by aircraft and glacier travel.

Possible effects include:

Headache
Shortness of breath
Fatigue
Poor sleep
Nausea

However, altitude is not the primary challenge on Voyager Peak.

The mountain is substantially lower than Denali or Mount Foraker.

Its seriousness comes primarily from steep technical terrain, glaciers, cornices, weather, avalanche hazard, and extreme isolation.

⚠️ Mountaineering Hazards

Potential hazards include:

Crevasses
Séracs
Icefalls
Avalanches
Cornices
Unconsolidated snow
Steep ice
Mixed climbing
Loose rock
Severe weather
Difficult retreat
Extreme remoteness

Rescue options may be severely limited.

A climber cannot treat Voyager Peak as simply a shorter version of a more accessible mountain.

Its remote location makes self-sufficiency essential.

🥾 Can You Hike Voyager Peak?

No.

Voyager Peak is not a hiking destination.

There is no maintained trail to the summit or even to the base of the mountain.

The approach requires extensive glacier travel.

The known climbing routes involve combinations of:

Snow climbing
Ice climbing
Mixed climbing
Exposed ridge travel
Technical descent

Even reaching the northwest fork of the Lacuna Glacier is an expedition-level undertaking.

Voyager Peak should therefore be considered a technical Alpine climbing objective.

🏞️ Denali National Park Wilderness

Voyager Peak lies within the vast protected landscape of Denali National Park and Preserve.

Much of the park is managed for wilderness character.

Away from established visitor corridors, the Alaska Range remains remarkably undeveloped.

Climbers may travel for days without:

Trails
Huts
Bridges
Route markers
Permanent camps
Immediate rescue resources

The northwest Lacuna epitomizes this wilderness character.

Its obscurity was precisely what attracted Voyager Peak’s first ascenders.

🏔️ Voyager Peak vs. The Fin

Voyager Peak and The Fin belong to the same broader ridge complex.

Feature	Voyager Peak	The Fin
Elevation	12,213 ft	Approx. 13,350 ft
Prominence	Approx. 413 ft	Approx. 500 ft
Isolation	Approx. 0.33 mi	Approx. 1.13 mi
First Documented Ascent	2011	Traversed by 1977
Famous Route	To the Center	Fin Wall
Character	Remote mixed summit	Major technical wall

The Fin is higher and serves as Voyager Peak’s nearest higher neighbor.

Voyager Peak, however, remained unclimbed decades longer because relatively few expeditions had explored the northwest Lacuna.

🏔️ Voyager Peak vs. Mount Foraker

Feature	Voyager Peak	Mount Foraker
Elevation	12,213 ft	17,400 ft
Prominence	413 ft	Approx. 7,250 ft
Classification	Subsidiary summit	Major independent mountain
First Ascent	2011	1934
Known First-Ascent Route	To the Center	West Ridge
Setting	Fin Group / Lacuna Glacier	Central Foraker massif

Mount Foraker dominates the region.

Voyager Peak is approximately 5,200 feet lower, yet both mountains require genuine expedition mountaineering.

🏔️ Nearby Mountains

The Fin

The Fin rises immediately north of Voyager Peak.

It is Voyager Peak’s nearest higher neighbor and the feature from which the informal Fin Group takes its name.

Mount Foraker

Mount Foraker reaches 17,400 feet northeast of Voyager Peak.

Its enormous south and southwest ridge systems dominate the upper Lacuna Glacier.

Mount Hunter

Mount Hunter reaches approximately 14,573 feet farther east.

Allen and Zimmerman climbed its West Ridge between their Voyager Peak attempts.

Denali

Denali reaches 20,310 feet northeast of the area and is the highest mountain in North America.

Mount Laurens

Mount Laurens reaches approximately 10,042 feet farther south along the ridge system between the Yentna and Lacuna glaciers.

Allen and Zimmerman first noticed its impressive east face while climbing Voyager Peak.

🌍 Why Voyager Peak Is Special

Voyager Peak is not famous because it is exceptionally high.

It does not make lists of Alaska’s tallest major mountains.

It has only a few hundred feet of prominence.

And until 2011, it did not even have a widely used name.

Its significance comes from something different.

Voyager Peak demonstrates that genuine exploration can survive in a mountain range that has been studied and climbed for generations.

Allen and Zimmerman traveled beyond the heavily used Kahiltna Glacier, crossed difficult icefalls into a little-known glacier fork, and found an unclimbed mountain with thousands of feet of technical terrain.

They failed twice.

Each attempt taught them something new.

On the third try, they found the right combination of route, snow conditions, speed, and weather.

The name Voyager is therefore particularly fitting.

This is a mountain whose modern identity was created through exploration.

💡 Interesting Facts

Voyager Peak reaches 12,213 feet (3,723 meters).
Before 2011, it was known simply as Peak 12,213.
Its prominence is approximately 413 feet.
Its isolation is approximately 0.33 mile.
The Fin is its nearest higher neighbor.
Voyager Peak lies above the northwest fork of the Lacuna Glacier.
It belongs to the informal Fin Group south of Mount Foraker.
Mark Allen and Graham Zimmerman made the first known ascent in May 2011.
They required three separate attempts on the mountain.
Their first line was called Lunar Spur.
Their second attempt was called Nebula Arête.
The successful route was named To the Center.
To the Center climbs approximately 4,500 vertical feet.
The route was graded AK4 AI2.
The summit was named after the Voyager spacecraft and the expedition’s exploratory character.
The northwest Lacuna had almost no documented previous climbing exploration.
Allen and Zimmerman later returned to the region to climb Mount Laurens.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

How high is Voyager Peak?

Voyager Peak reaches 12,213 feet (3,723 meters).

Where is Voyager Peak?

It lies above the northwest fork of the Lacuna Glacier in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska.

What mountain range is Voyager Peak in?

Voyager Peak is part of the Alaska Range.

What is Voyager Peak’s nearest higher neighbor?

The nearest higher neighbor is The Fin.

What is Voyager Peak’s parent peak?

Topographically, Voyager Peak is connected toward The Fin and the larger Mount Foraker ridge system.

How prominent is Voyager Peak?

Its topographic prominence is approximately 413 feet (126 meters).

How isolated is Voyager Peak?

Its topographic isolation is approximately 0.33 mile (0.53 kilometer).

When was Voyager Peak first climbed?

Mark Allen and Graham Zimmerman made the first known ascent on May 26, 2011.

What was Voyager Peak called before 2011?

It appeared on maps as Peak 12,213, referring to its elevation.

Why is it called Voyager Peak?

Allen and Zimmerman named it Voyager Peak after the Voyager spacecraft, a name that also reflected the exploratory character of their expedition.

What route was used for the first ascent?

The first-ascent route is called To the Center.

How difficult is To the Center?

The approximately 4,500-foot route was graded AK4 AI2.

Did the first ascenders succeed on their first attempt?

No. Allen and Zimmerman attempted the mountain three times.

Their first attempt on Lunar Spur ended because of dangerous snow and bad weather. Their second attempt on Nebula Arête reached the upper ridge but was stopped by another approaching storm.

They succeeded on their third attempt.

How long did the successful climb take?

The successful summit climb and descent required a little over 20 hours.

Is Voyager Peak a hiking mountain?

No. Reaching Voyager Peak requires technical glacier travel and Alpine climbing. There is no hiking trail to the mountain.

Is Voyager Peak inside Denali National Park?

Yes. The mountain lies in a remote section of Denali National Park and Preserve.

🔗 Related Articles

📚 Sources

Rate this post