Yukon who is who

Albert H. MacCarthy (1876 - 1956)

Albert McCarthy [sic] was born at Ames, Iowa.¹⁾ His father came from Brockville, Ontario. He was a graduate of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis and he was a lawyer and an engineer. He had a cattle ranch and a summer home in the Kootenays. Albert MacCarthy was a member of the Canadian and American Alpine Clubs.²⁾ He joined the Alpine Club of Canada in 1911.³⁾

MacCarthy was on the first ascent of Mt Robson in 1913 and he was chosen by the Canadian Alpine Club to lead the first ascent of Mount Logan in 1925. The climbing party included deputy leader H. Fred Lambart (a Dominion Land Surveyor), W.W. Foster (who had been with MacCarthy on the Mt Robson climb), Allen Carpé, Henry Hall Jr., Norman Read, Robert Morgan, and Andrew Morrison Taylor (an outfitter from Alaska who came north during the gold rush).⁴⁾

The group started at McCarthy, Alaska and took a pack train up the Chitina Valley to the foot of the Chitina Glacier, and then travelled over the Chitina, Walsh, and Logan Glaciers. The men studied maps and photographs produced by the International Boundary Commission in 1912 and 1913. No one had travelled within 40 km of Mt Logan so MacCarthy took a reconnaissance trip.⁵⁾ He returned again in February 1925 and used dog teams to cache 8,600 kilograms (19,111 pounds) of supplies enroute to Mount Logan.⁶⁾

The climbing party reached the summit on June 23rd. On the way down they encountered a fierce storm on June 26th. MacCarthy was doubled over with a bad stomach pain and could eat nothing but dill pickles. On July 11th, they built rafts to travel the last miles to McCarthy as they were all suffering from frostbite on their feet. In 1927, a doctor identified a scar on MacCarthy’s abdominal as that from the rupture of a duodenal ulcer. MacCarthy had carried his pack an incredible 150 miles after the ulcer had ruptured.⁷⁾

The Canadian Alpine Club climb was the last on Mt. Logan for twenty-five years, until 1950 when two parties reached the summit via the King Trench route pioneered by MacCarthy’s party.⁸⁾ N.H. Read, at age 61, was in a second party to climb Mt. Logan, and he stood on the summit for the second time on June 17, 1950.⁹⁾