More than any other state, Alaska offers splendid opportunities to explore remote places untouched by humans.
Perhaps no one has seized that opportunity quite like Tim Kelley.
Last month, Kelley, 51, became the fourth climber to earn the Mountaineering Club of Alaska's Hoeman Award for making 91 first ascents of remote peaks in the Western Chugach, Talkeetna and Kenai mountains -- and for sharing his discoveries with others.
"(That's) more than any other known person, and he continues to add more every year," said Bill Romberg, head of the club's award committee. "It's probably safe to say that no other person since Vin Hoeman has climbed and named as many peaks in Alaska."
Hoeman, who died in an avalanche in Asia in 1966, was a renown local climber who became the first person to reach the highest point in all 50 states.
Willy Hersman (2002), Tom Choate (2005) and Greg Higgins (2005) are the only other climbers to earn the Hoeman award.
"Lots of people haven't climbed 91 peaks," said Steve Gruhn of the mountaineering club. "It's a lot of perseverance -- and he's gone to places not really traveled much, lots of places with thick brush."
Kelley is quick to point out that he rarely does technical climbs requiring ropes and other equipment.
"I've always been very proud to be a crazed Alaskan peak bagger," noted Kelley, a computer programmer and commercial fisherman. "There's a difference between a technical climber and a peak bagger, and I'm definitely a peak bagger. My goal is to get to the top of the mountain."
TWENTYMILE VALLEY
But while his determination to reach summits may be high, his focus isn't particularly narrow.
"I don't tie a sense of accomplishment to individual peaks," he said. "My goal is to live a long life filled with adventures of my own making. So I get a sense of accomplishment if I can look back on a year and feel that I lived it to the Alaskan max."
He doesn't have a favored peak, though "my most memorable ones are the big peaks at the head of the Twentymile Valley. (Climbs) that are memorable are the ones where you think you're not going to make it but at the last moment you find a route."
Kelley, a former U.S. ski team member who moved to Alaska in 1981, continues to ski, hike and climb with such avid skiers as former Olympian Bill Spencer, who still holds the record for the fastest time at Seward's annual Mount Marathon race on July 4.
"Bill was my most prominent partner for most of those," Kelley said. "He's a tall boy with legs that go up to his armpits. He makes these massive stretches, and you'd just groan: 'How are my 5-9 legs are going to contort to make those moves?' "
Kelley's peak bagging started after he read a newspaper account years ago of Willy Hersman's and Jim Sayler's bid to climb all 21 of the 7,000-foot peaks in the western Chugach Range, topped by 8,005-foot Bashful Peak overlooking Eklutna Lake.
RESEARCH FIRST
Kelley thought, "There's got to be a lot of others (unclimbed peaks) out there."
There were.
Kelley assembled spread sheets of what had and had not been climbed, best as could be determine. He read every issue of the mountaineering club's journal, Scree.
Eventuall, his list of unclimbed peaks gave him an inexhaustible source for trip ideas.
"The list will never stop growing," he said. "Like any peak bagger, each time I cross a mountain off of my list, I add three more."
But times had changed since the 1960s when such local climbers as Hoeman and Tom Choate were, as Kelley puts it, "kids in a candy store.
"These folks could look in most any direction from roads north and south of Anchorage and see rows of unclimbed peaks.
"When I got into peak bagging gear in the 1980s the 'low-hanging fruit' had been picked.
What was left was the obscure. The remote. The forgotten. And the hard to get to."
That meant lots of hiking and lots of bushwhacking just to reach the base.
LOTS OF VARIETY
How does a climber know for certain if he or she is first to the summit? Or even where the true summit is?
At times, they don't.
Summit climbs are often described in Scree or the American Alpine Club Journal, but Kelley said that over the years he's made it to nine summits that showed evidence of being climbed but weren't mentioned in any journal.
Similarly "there are lots of mountains where you get on the top, and don't really know if you're on top. The bottom line is you end up climbing all the (nearby) peaks. It's work getting to the summit, and we try to be really methodical. If you made a mistake, your credibility would be shot."
His climbing expeditions -- actually all his outdoors pursuits -- are hardly a secret.
Perhaps more valuable than his numerous articles in Scree over the years is Kelley's regularly updated Web site, with photos of his latest outings and fun, informative captions. Most Alaskans will never make 91 mountain ascents -- never mind first ascents -- but anyone can get a peek at the kaleidoscope of Kelley adventures on his Web site. The site makes it clear he's no single-minded climber. In fact it's far down his personal list of accomplishments.
"Without a doubt my favorite outdoor activity, the one that I was most passionate about, was raising a team of malamute/McKenzie River husky sled dogs. This was a 20-year adventure that I shared with my wife, Tammy. Exploring new trails around Alaska on cross country skis would be next, followed by commercial set-net fishing with my wife and then climbing."
That diversity -- and the endless supply of fresh climbing prospects -- is one reason he loves Alaska.
"It's one of the last places in the world where you can live a normal life -- have a house, go to a job -- and in your free time go to places people have never been before."
Find reporter Mike Campbell online at adn.com/contact/mcampbell or call 257-4329.
By MIKE CAMPBELL