The Revelation Mountains are a small, rugged subrange of the Alaska Range

Alaska Range

The Alaska Range is a relatively narrow, 650-km-long mountain range in the southcentral region of the U.S. state of Alaska, from Lake Clark at its southwest end to the White River in Canada's Yukon Territory in the southeast...

 in Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. They mark the furthest western extent of the Alaska Range. The range is rarely visited because of the flying time necessary to get there and also because of notoriously poor weather conditions that are prevalent in the range. The highest peak in the range is Mount Hesperus

Mount Hesperus (Alaska)

Mount Hesperus is the highest peak of the Revelation Mountains, the westernmost subrange of the Alaska Range. The Revelations are a small, rarely visited range, but they contain dramatic rock peaks, rising from low bases. Mount Hesperus particularly impressive in terms of local relief: for example,...

 (9,828 feet/2,996 m).

The Revelation Mountains are located approximately 140 miles (225 km) west-northwest of Anchorage

Anchorage, Alaska

Anchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost major city in the United States...

, and approximately 130 miles (210 km) southwest of Mount McKinley

Mount McKinley

Mount McKinley or Denali in Alaska, United States is the highest mountain peak in North America and the United States, with a summit elevation of above sea level. It is the centerpiece of Denali National Park and Preserve.- Geology and features :Mount McKinley is a granitic pluton...

. They are accessed by small plane; the closest airports to the range are near Anchorage and in Talkeetna

Talkeetna, Alaska

Talkeetna is a census-designated place in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, United States. It is part of the Anchorage, Alaska Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the 2000 census the population was 772.-Geography:...

, which is also approximately 130 miles (210 km) away. This makes access to the range very expensive; the weather also creates the potential for delays in reaching the range (both to drop off climbers and to pick them up).

The principal peaks of the Revelation Mountains are granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 spires, rising out of relatively low-elevation glacial

Glacier

A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...

 valleys. The high vertical relief in the Revelations makes the range a very dramatic place and also creates challenging climbing conditions, despite the low absolute elevation of the peaks.

The Revelations are drained on the northwest by the Big River, one branch of which flows from the Revelation Glacier, which is the main glacier of the core of the range. On the southwest they are drained by the Swift River

Swift River (Alaska)

The Swift River is a river in southwestern Alaska. It is a tributary of the Kuskokwim River....

, while the valleys of the southeast side feed the Stony River

Stony River (Alaska)

The Stony River is a river in southwest Alaska. It lends its name to Stony River, Alaska, a village with a population of 61. The river meanders westward from the Mount Mausolus area until it meets the Kuskokwim River at the community of Stony River....

. The east and northeast slopes lead to the Hartman and South Fork Kuskokwim Rivers.

The first recorded visit to the range occurred in July, 1967 by David Roberts

David Roberts (climber)

David Roberts is a climber, mountaineer, and author of books and articles about climbing. He is particularly noted for his books The Mountain of My Fear and Deborah: A Wilderness Narrative, chronicling major ascents in Alaska in the 1960s, which had a major impact on the form of mountaineering...

, et al. Roberts and his party achieved a few first ascents, and subsequently named the range and many of its notable peaks. In his American Alpine Journal

American Alpine Journal

The American Alpine Journal is an annual magazine published by the American Alpine Club. Its mission is "to document and communicate mountain exploration."...

article, Roberts writes of extremely bad weather, including very high winds that frequented the range, and also of challenging climbing conditions. The Roberts party spent 52 straight days in the range.

Selected peaks in the Revelation Mountains

• Mount Hesperus
  Mount Hesperus (Alaska)
  Mount Hesperus is the highest peak of the Revelation Mountains, the westernmost subrange of the Alaska Range. The Revelations are a small, rarely visited range, but they contain dramatic rock peaks, rising from low bases. Mount Hesperus particularly impressive in terms of local relief: for example,...
  
  (9,828 feet/2,996 m)
• The Apocalypse (9,345 feet/2,848 m)
• The Angel (9,265 feet/2,824 m)
• Mount Mausolus (9,170 feet/2,795 m). First ascent March, 2011 (Clint Helander, Scotty Vincik).
• The Four Horsemen (8,600 feet/2,621 m)
• Golgotha
• South Buttress (9,345 ft). First ascent August 28, 1967 (Fletcher, G. Millikan, R. Millikan).
• Mt. Patmos (~ 9,000 ft). First ascent August 22, 1967 (Hale, Roberts).
• Hydra Peak (~ 7,800 ft). First ascent July 29, 1967 (Fletcher, Hale, Roberts).
• The Sylph (~ 7,600 ft). First ascent August 20, 1967 (Roberts).
• The Cherub (~ 7,300 ft). First ascent August 4, 1967 (G. Millikan, R. Millikan, Roberts).
• Sentry Peak (~ 7,294 ft). First ascent August 3, 1967 (Hale, Roberts).
• Century Peak (~ 7,100 ft). First ascent July 28, 1967 (Fletcher, Hale, Roberts).
• Babel Tower
• P8351 (8,351 feet/2,545 m)

Sources

• David S. Roberts, "First Ascents in the Revelation Mountains", American Alpine Journal 44(Vol. 16), 1968.
• Michael Wood and Colby Coombs, Alaska: a climbing guide, The Mountaineers, 2001.
• Revelation Mountains on Topozone
• Stephen Spaulding, "Hesperus", American Alpine Journal 60 (Vol. 28), 1986.

External links

• Pictures of Revelation Mountains on picasaweb.google.com