Mount Anderson

The ascent of Mount Anderson, which should be attempted 
only by experienced climbers, is generally made from 
Anderson Pass Shelter or the moraine camp at the end of the 
Anderson Glacier Trail. Occasionally, however, climbers 
backpack to Flypaper Pass (6500 ft/1981 m), but it is a 
rather inhospitable place.

The route makes a beeline to the glacier's headwall, and 
then ascends snow directly to Flypaper Pass. The slope 
becomes progressively steeper, narrowing to a snow finger, 
or chute, as rock walls encroach from either side. Belaying 
may be advisable on the upper part, depending on the nature 
of the ice. When viewed from below, climbers approaching 
the pass appear to be clinging to a vertical wall, which 
may account for the name of the pass.

Flypaper Pass is nothing more than a narrow gap in the 
ridge that lies between the Anderson and Eel glaciers. This 
cold, snowy place is not a good campsite because space is 
severely limited, the weather is often bad, water is 
lacking, and the climber has no protection from the wind. 
Abrupt cliffs border the pass on the east and west, but to 
the south one looks down the steep slope just ascended, and 
north of the pass is another, less precipitous, drop to the 
Eel Glacier.

The route to the East Peak (7321 ft/2231 m) descends onto 
the upper Eel. A bergschrund often extends from one rock 
wall to the other, and may be difficult to cross. After 
descending slightly to skirt a rock buttress, the route 
ascends a steep slope broken by large crevasses, and then 
traverses directly beneath the peak. The route follows the 
exposed snow ridge to rock ledges, and shortly the summit 
is attained. On the tip of the peak climbers have built an 
immense cairn more than seven feet high.

The view of snow-clad peaks in all directions is 
spectacular. The mountain's slopes fall away sharply, and 
the glaciers extend down rockbound troughs to the 
timberline. Anderson Pass is lost in the depths of the 
forested lower slopes.

The route to the West Peak (7365 ft/2245 m) is steeper and 
more difficult and should not be attempted by the novice 
climber.

Lieutenant Joseph P. O'Neil named the twin peaks of Mount 
Anderson in 1890 for Colonel Thomas M. Anderson and 
Elizabeth Van Winkle Anderson.

O'Neil and Private John Johnson may have climbed on the 
peak's northern slopes in 1885; if not, the first men who 
visited the mountain were two members of O'Neil's 1890 
expedition. On September 7 and 8, 1890, Harry Fisher and 
Jacob Kranichfeld explored the Anderson Glacier, and Fisher 
climbed to Flypaper Pass. The Eel Glacier, on the north 
slope, was named for Fairman B. Lee, who led the party that 
made the first ascent of the East Peak on August 5, 1920. 
Spelling Lee backwards derived the name.