Just back from a quick trip to Alaska and Canada. Here is
quick trip report.
It was during the middle of a long hot summer in Australia
when I received a call from a good mate Ryan suggesting a climbing trip to
Alaska. The Alaskan range is a
mecca for big steep mountains of rock, ice and snow so I didn’t need much
convincing.
It had been about 9 years since my last visit when I climbed
Denali, the highest mountain in North America and I was psyched for another
trip. Our focus for the trip would
be long technical routes on rock and maybe ice if there was any left by June.
We flew from Australia through San Francisco then up to
Anchorage in Alaska. A long flight and some excessive excess baggage charges
later due to accidently flying on United Airlines, we arrived to a beautiful
midnight sun casting an amazing glow over the Alaskan mountains.
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| Denali and the massive Ruth Glacier |
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| Plane dwarfed by Mt Dickey, Ruth Gorge |
After two days in Anchorage stocking up on food and supplies
we made our way to Talkeetna, a quaint little drinking town with a climbing
problem and our launching point for our flight into the mountains. We had been
blessed with perfect clear weather and a few hours after arriving in Talkeetna,
we were aboard a Twin Otter aircraft and weaving through the steep mountains on
our way to the impressive Mountain House landing strip in the Ruth Gorge.
The following day, Ryan and I skied into the Ruth Gorge past
the massive monoliths of Mt Dickey, Mt Barrill and the peaks of the Moose’s
Tooth toward a formation called the Stump, named after the enigmatic Mugs Stump
a prolific climber in Alaskan Range.
The first objective was a route called Goldfinger (5.11a) on
apparently immaculate rock. After 3 incredible pitches of incredible stemming
corners and cracks, I encountered slimy wet cracks, which were unpleasant and
somewhat dangerous to climb. The wetness and slime appeared to extend up the
route, maybe a product of the late wet spring that Alaska had experienced. At
this point, it was also evident that Ryan hadn’t spent much time rock climbing
in the last 3 years as a result of living in exile in Rockhampton in rural
Queensland. We bailed and skied back to our camp at the Mountain House.
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| Ryan on Goldfinger, Ruth Gorge |
After a rest day we headed back to the Stump to climb some
of the other amazing looking routes in the area.
We climbed about 8 pitches of good quality rock around the
Stump and then headed back to camp, which was about a 3-hour ski uphill from
the Stump Camp. With Ryan’s lack of rock climbing fitness, the super long
routes of the Ruth Gorge were out of the question so we opted for a bump flight
to the Pika Glacier otherwise known as Little Switzerland, an area known for
its moderate long rock routes and ski touring opportunities.
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| Planking in the Pika |
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| Camp in the Pika with the trolls behind. |
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| South Troll, Little Switzerland |
We arrived to a deserted base camp and promptly scoped our
options. The weather was holding and options were plentiful. Our first route in
the Pika was the South Face of Middle Troll (5.9 300m), which began with some
scrambling followed by some beautiful 5.8-5.9 pitches on beautiful rock. Near
the summit was an incredibly cool spike of rock that jutted over the void like
a diving board. We took turns posing on the diving board before descending the
route and skiing back to camp.
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| The trolls, Little Switzerland |
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| Planking on the diving board, Middle troll, Pika |
The following day we attempted the gargoyle buttress (5.10c,
600m) on the Royal Tower. After negotiating the schrund and climbing the
stunning first few pitches, we encountered massively loose and slimy rock. I
ripped a huge flake off and took a small fall on an apparently classic
well-travelled route. I tried a few variations and encountered more loose and
wet rock before common sense prevailed and we bailed back to camp.
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| Rob on great cracks on Sth Face, Middle Troll |
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| Ryan on Sth Face middle troll |
We took the opportunity to meet the new arrivals in camp,
Tom and Mark from Seattle. Tom and Mark were on a week’s holiday in the range
and their company and humour was a great addition to an otherwise deserted base
camp. During the next week, we would share stories, salmon flavoured chocolate,
camp-baked cinnamon scrolls and some great ski runs.
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| Royal Tower, Pika Glacier |
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| Lost marsupial route on Throne. |
Next up was a fun route called the Lost Marsupial Route (5.9
350m) on the Throne. The route consisted of some fun pitches of climbing
interspersed with some moderate 5th class scrambling. As was
becoming customary for the summits, we shared some American ever-fresh bagels
with crème cheese and took in the rewarding views of Mt Foraker and Denali in
the distance. After retrieving the skis from a hollow shrund, we skied down to
camp 6 hours after setting out. A few days later, another team of 3 would take
15 hours to climb and descend the same route, arriving back at camp at 3am the
following day after starting. We
did get a bit worried about them but they ended up descending safely back to
camp.
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| Skiing in the Pika |
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| Little Guy retrieves the skis - hahah |
By this stage of the trip, our original tent platforms were
becoming seriously melted out and our tents sat about 1 foot above the surrounding
snow. The edges of my borrowed 1.5 man tent had sunk off the edges of the
platform, effectively lowering the roof of tent and creating a coffin like
effect. I couldn’t sit upright in my tent and had to worm my way in to enter.
My spacious base camp was sitting on the lounge room floor at home. Doh!
After a day of skiing and camp maintenance, we headed up to
climb a route on the west face of the South Troll called Free Radical (5.10+,
400m), a route claiming to have some of the best cracks in Little Switzerland.
After a few approach pitches on moderate rock to avoid the dodgy and dangerous
couloir mentioned in the route description, we began climbing on some amazing
sustained hand and finger cracks for about 5 pitches. After a quick scramble to
the summit for the obligatory bagel and crème cheese and photos, we headed
down, backing up and fixing some of the aged anchors as we descended. The
rappel anchors on this route were apparently fixed but needed careful checking
after Ryan pulled a 2-piton anchor out by hand. This ended up being one of the
best routes of the whole trip and probably the closest to camp (a 5 minute ski
away).
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| Rob on Free Radical 510+ |
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| Ryan on Free Radical 510+, Pika Glacier |
The last route we completed in Little Switzerland was an
unknown route spotted by Mark and Tom and climbed the previous day. A 20-minute
ski approach followed by 4- 5pitches of perfect hand and finger cracks led to
the west summit of the Crown. Tom and Mark had spotted the route and climbed it
not knowing the name or if it had been done before.
We found fixed anchors and perfect rock. With endless
daylight we followed up the climb with some ski touring and fun ski runs during
the midnight hours.
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| Mark on west face of Crown, Pika |
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| West face of Crown, Pika |
By day 13, we were pretty much out of food so opted to fly
out with Mark and Tom and make our way to Squamish in Canada for some more
climbing. With the weather still perfect, the plane made a detour to Denali
Base camp on the West fork of the Kahiltna Glacier. Conditions were far from
ideal on the Kahiltna with waist deep slushy snow, hardly the perfect
conditions of the Ruth and Pika Glaciers. In contrast to the climbers slogging
with heavy packs on Denali, we had carried only light day-packs and climbed
technical warm rock routes with easy ski approaches. Life was good.
Showers and burgers in Talkeetna topped off a perfect trip
into the hills before we headed back to Anchorage and other adventures.
Another key factor in my decision to head to Alaska was to
catch up with a great friend of mine who lived in Anchorage. Our lasting
friendship was forged in the wild mountains of Patagonia where, both
partnerless for various reasons we teamed up for an epic attempt on Fitzroy and
a successful ascent of Poincenot in 2006. Charlie’s spirit was still strong and
although he had largely given up climbing seriously due to various injuries, we
headed out scrambling on one of the local cliffs and spent a cool day Stand-up
paddle boarding on Prince William sound near the historic Alaskan town of
Whittier. Time spent with good friends like Ryan and Charlie is one of my
treasured memories and one of the most valuable times in life. Friendships
forged in the mountains seem to endure the years. Maybe it’s the intensity in
which they develop or shared understanding of those tough and amazing days
shared in the hills.
With a few days up our sleeve, we decided to head south to
Canada via Seattle. We picked up a big Dodge Grand Caravan and a few hours
later met up with Erik (a friend from Adelaide) and Sarah in Squamish below the
fabled Chief, a mecca for granite climbing an hour north of Vancouver.
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| The Chief in Squamish |
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| Sara on Star Check |
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| Ryan takes a stack on the way down |
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| Erik- Wild natural beauty |
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| ryan on Mt Habrich |
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| Ryan on Mt Habrich |
After simul-rapping to the base, a steep descent and fun
mountain bike descent with a few crashes, we topped the day off with some
ciders and Mexican food. Damn fine day with about 14 hours of action.
Next on the list was Angel Crest (5.10c, ~500m (13
pitches)), a classic route leading to the top of the Chief via some fantastic
climbing. The last few days of hard climbing had taken their toll on Ryan and
for the first few pitches he was suffering along with persistence. With some
perseverance and admission that the hard climbing and abuse would toughen him
up and get him back into shape, he kept going and slowly got back into the
groove despite getting savagely pumped on many occasions.
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| Ryan on Angels Crest |
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| Ryan on Angels Crest |
This was the last big route of our trip, as I had to head
home and Ryan was staying on in Canada for a few more weeks to climb and travel
before coming home to look for work. Ryan had quit his job prior to the trip and
moved back to Brisbane after his leave from work was denied. He was a man of
freedom now and the month in the hills had him more psyched than ever.
Another great trip comes to an end and the next one is being
planned. Onward and upward.
