'Senator Robert F. Kennedy, 39, is taking off this week for the Yukon, where he will join in the assault on 13,900-ft. Mt. Kennedy, an icy spire named after the late President by the Canadian government and the highest unclimbed mountain in North America.'

Time Magazine, March 26, 1965

Last week, the world lost someone who had contributed to its history and the Yukon lost a man who had given much to its geography.

Gone but not forgotten is a mountaineer, photographer, mapmaker and former director who led the Boston Museum of Science for more than 40 years.

At the age of 96, Bradford Washburn, who led the 1965 team who mapped out Mt. Kennedy in Kluane National Park's St. Elias mountain range, died of heart failure in Lexington, Mass.

The 1965 mapping expedition which followed Robert Kennedy's historic first summit of the peak named after his brother, helped give a face to the territory. Washburn himself held a special place in his heart for the Yukon.

Sitting in his home in Riverdale this week, Monte Alford, a longtime Yukon mountaineer, hydrologist, surveyor and author, shared his memories of a man whose death has sparked headlines the world over.

After Robert Kennedy was the first to summit the mountain named after his brother John, the U.S. president who was shot and killed in Dallas, Tex., two years earlier, Alford explained, the National Geographic Society and the Boston Museum of Science were called on to map the area.

They brought in the best people who could map the terrain and determine the precise elevation of the area, and the leader was Washburn, Alford said.

'He was one of the leading mountain cartographers (mapmakers) in the world �-' he explained, so the American government asked permission for Washburn's team to enter and record the terrain in the area.

Ottawa said yes. Along with some Canadians, Washburn entered the St. Elias mountains to record the land forms in the area as well as the precise elevation of Mt. Kennedy.

Alford, who worked in the territory for the water board, had been hand-picked by Washburn, a man he'd never met.

'I was quite surprised to receive a telegram from Ottawa saying permission granted to accompany Washburn on the expedition'; I hadn't even made the request,' he said.

Alford was familiar with the terrain and had been chosen by Washburn, a man he only knew by reputation, due to his mountaineering experience and knowledge of the area.

'I was there more or less to assist them; none of (the surveyors) were mountaineers.'

Also on hand was a team from the University of New Brunswick, including Gotfried Konecny, Adam Chrzanowski and Peter Wilson , Alford said and university records confirm.

They were there to do some of the survey work in what turned out to be unforgiving weather.

'We were there for about six weeks,' said Alford. 'The mapping was done in about two; the weather wasn't very co-operative, I'm afraid.'

But it was the weather, Alford added, that gave him the chance to share some personal moments with Washburn.

'In the course of the expedition, Brad and I got to know each other quite well. During the expedition, we were often snowbound and we shared the same tent.'

Stories, some embellished and some not, were shared between the two men, Alford said, before the weather broke and the U.S. Airforce was able to lend a hand to the expedition with some of the most advanced aerial technology of the day.

The photos from the U-2, a U.S. model of a spy plane which had one of its numbers shot down over the U.S.S.R. five years earlier, flew over Mt. Kennedy one of the few clear days of the expedition to give the team members the photos they needed to assist in their mapmaking efforts.

'They had the U.S. Airforce fly over with a U2 at 75,000 feet and do aerial photography.

'They had one of their top pilots make the passes.'

Washburn and his maps, Alford said, helped Yukoners understand an area which has since become known as one of the territory's most scenic landscapes.

Washburn went on to map areas all over the world, including Mt. Everest and the Grand Canyon.

However, as Alford explains, he always maintained his ties with Alaska and the territory.

'In the course of his expeditions, he got to know Whitehorse. He also got to know a number of people in Whitehorse

'It's only natural that we got to know him and take an interest in his life.'