| Summary: | Active Volcano Is Ascended: Glacier Priest And Companions Dare Dangers. ACTIVE VOLCANO IS ASCENDED Glacier Priest and Companions Dare Dangers. By Fr. Edward N. Hubbard. Santa Clara university professor, whose exploits in Alaska have won him the name, "the Glacier Priest." False Pass, Alaska, May 22. (/P) -- Two students and myself made the first ascent of Mount Shishaldin, a volcano on Unimak island, which was in extremely active eruption two months ago. We reached the summit of the 9400-foot cone, which was still emitting ashes and flowing lava six days ago. The climb was made by Kenneth Chisholm, George Peterson and myself in 21 hours. Jack Morton, the other student in the expedition, turned back before the summit. On the last 3000 feet I found the hardest going I have ever tackled. Cloud of Smoke and Gases. Foot by foot and hour by hour we toiled upward. We spent an hour in the last 100 feet to the summit, from which poured billowing clouds of smoke and gases. Cinders lying at a 50 to 60 degree angle would give way, and we would slide back. Even ice picks would not take hold. Finally, crawling and scrambing, we reached the edge. After a short time at the summit, and a thorough warming on the heated cinders, we turned back and began the descent at 9 o'clock at night. On the way down we struggled through a raging blizzard that had faced us on the ascent. Not until late the following morning did we drag ourselves back to our base camp. Weather Tempestuous. During our three weeks of preparations the weather was tempestuous at the base of the peak. The crater, whose first major outburst in a number of years occurred on February 1, was still active. After studying the meteorological conditions, I judged that the almost constant storms at the base did not rage above the 6000-foot level. On our ascent, which was begun near dawn the morning of the 16th, we found that judgment correct. After climbing for several hours through a blizzard we came out through the clouds onto the glaciered slopes of the Shishaldin cone. Difficult to Conquer. The ascent of Mount Shishaldin had been judged by many Alaskans to be extremely difficult or impossible through the failures of previous climbing expeditions. Two months ago, however, Father Hubbard and his students made a sucessful climb of Mount Katmai crater on the mainland, the first winter ascent ever made, and he was given a good chance to conquer Shishaldin. After a day's rest following the successful ascent, Father Hubbard and Peterson walked over the intervening mountains here, while Chisholm and Morton drove their dog team back to the Bering sea with the motion pictures they had made and the camp equipment. Pilot Frank Dorbandt will fly the equipment here. While awaiting a June boat to take his party to the scene of the Aniakchak volcano, the professor planned to return to the east side of the Unimak island to do excavation work at the scene of buried primitive villages he has found.
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