Information About

Limestack Mountain

Quick Facts

Open in The Map Limestack Mountain on The Map

Location

68 ° 6' 0" N,
150 ° 46' 32.999" W

Region

North Slope

Nearest City

Anaktuvuk Pass

Parent

Brooks Range

Elevation

5896 ft (1797.1 m)

Limestack Mountain in Detail.

Getting There


The closest ways to access Limestack Mountain a 23 mile hike from Anatuvuk Pass up along the Anaktuvuk River then follow Graylime Creek.

Other options include; approach from the Dalton Highway or chartered flights out of Coldfoot or Anatuvuk Pass to Ernie Pass.

About

at head of Graylime Creek, E of Ernie Pass, 23 mi. E of Anaktuvuk Pass, Brooks Range


Summiting

If hiking in from Anatuvuk Pass, as Graylime Creek turns north then west up the valley, continue east to Ernie Pass. From Ernie Pass summiting Limestack Mountain is an easy hike up the mountain. Ascents from the northern cliffs can be very technical.

Limestack Mountain is a dramatic portion of the Brooks Range, in so much that the Continental Divide runs along its ridge. Limestack Mountain sits inside Gates of the Arctic National Park. Limestack Mountain is a large limestone ridge with cliffs over 1,500 high in some spots.

Dall Sheep and Grizzly Bear can be found on and around the mountain at times.

History

About his naming this mountain in 1930, Marshall (1956, p. 41) wrote8 "Above me rose the last thousand feet of my mountain just a gray stack of limestone. So I called the peak 'Limestack Mountain'."

Naming

About his naming of the mountain in 1930 Robert Marshall wrote, "Above the conglomerate came a slope of yellow rock fragments so steep that I was continually starting juvenile landslides; I could not climb more than 25 steps without stopping for breath. But when I reached the top of this incline I could see from the course of the streams I was on the very divide. Above me rose the last thousand feet of my mountain just a gray stack of limestone. So I called the peak 'Limestack Mountain'.

"The view from the summit showed a myriad of wildly thrown together mountains rising from deep valleys, cut up by great clefts and chasms, their bases resting in green vegetation, then rising into rocks...The number of mountains was bewildering." He stayed atop Limestack for three hours making observations, soaking it in, photographing and sketching.