Selamiut Tower
(Elevation 4750', 58.9266° -63.7463°, Map 14L13, UTM 569319)

Topographic Map of Selamiut Tower: Click for map.

Route: The North-west Face (from the McCormick River Valley via Windgap Tarn) Ray Chipeniuk, Ron Parker and Erik Sheer, 1978, first ascent. The summit team, together with Donna Hackett and Ron Wilson, made their way from the base camp on the McCormick River up Brook Four and Selamiut Brook, over loose angular fragments of rock through the stupendous chasm between Selamiut Tower and Gneissberg. They climbed over a box-canyon lip to Windgap Tarn and then over more talus and some loose snow to the col (about 3700') between the Tower and the ridge to the north leading to Torngasoak. This route essentially circled the Tower from the south and around the west side to the north side (see the map). From the col they estimated that an alternate route up Tower Brook which drains Tower Tarn on the north side of the Tower would be difficult due to the amount of debris on the headwall above Tower Tarn. They discovered the north-east face was not suited to climbing, being composed primarily of rotten red gneiss, and so they started up the north-west face. This involved about 300' of scrambling up steep scree and talus but they then faced a cliff band of 400' to 500' of elevation, which ran along the entire face and which could not be circumvented. All five in the party scrambled through the cliffs independently but they soon decided to split the group and Donna and Ron Wilson stayed behind at the cliffs while the other three went on ahead. Moves on this section were no harder then YDS 5.3 and furthermore they thought careful route selection might have reduced the climbing to a matter of scrambling up ledges and gullies. After surmounting the cliffs, the summit party reached the plateau and arrived at the summit peak about 8 hours after leaving base camp. A cairn was built on the summit which was in a direct line-of-site to their base camp, 4300' below. The party then descended and rejoined the other members and despite a forced march back to camp, a few members of the group did not return to camp till after 21:30, 14:30 hours after leaving. (1978 Torngat Mountain Expedition, A Report to the Newfoundland Dept. of Tourism, Ray Chipeniuk, 1979.)