What is the highest peak in the Brooks Range?
Answer
Mount Isto
Mount Isto is the highest peak in the Brooks Range.
The summit rises to about 8,976 feet (2,736 metres) in Alaska’s eastern Brooks Range, within the Romanzof Mountains and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It is roughly five miles south of Mount Hubley, the range’s second-highest peak.
Mount Isto was named in 1966 for Reynold E. “Pete” Isto, a civil engineer associated with U.S. Geological Survey mapping in the Brooks Range. The peak became especially notable after improved elevation measurements in 2014 established that it stands above the range’s other major summits.
The main historical mix-up involves Mount Chamberlin, which was long believed to be the Brooks Range’s highest mountain. New measurements placed Chamberlin third, behind Mount Isto and Mount Hubley. Mount Michelson is another nearby high summit, but it ranks below those three. The Brooks Range stretches about 700 miles across northern Alaska into Canada’s Yukon Territory.