Science to Valdez

Tory Dugan and I flew with Matt Keller of Blue Ice Aviation to the upper Science Glacier.  We skied Mt Fafnir the next day, but my altitude sickness dissuaded us from our proposed journey to Mt. Gilbert Louis.  We elected to ski down the Science and head to Audubon.   

Summit of Fafnir, deciding what to do.

Day skiing up a peak near the gap between the Science and Nelchina glaciers, visible just above Tory.

Above the west face of Audubon.  We didn't see a good way through the bergschrund.

Headed towards Cashman Pass via kite around midnight.  

I skied the right margin of the shady tooth above while Tory waited below.  

Cashman Pass.  Tory decided to double carry but I stubbornly decided to carry the rest of our stuff in 1.  Managed to skin the whole thing with almost 100lbs on my back.  A dumb decision but it worked out. 

Final ice to the finish line, the Valdez Airport where Tory's truck was waiting. 

Mount Temple

I finally got some time off from school, so recently Sam Johnson and I met up in Missoula for a quick trip to the Canadian Rockies. We managed to do one route, the Greenwood/Jones on the north face of Mt. Tempe (V 5.8 A1 ca. 4000'), easily visible from the Lake Louise townsite. I borrowed the photo below from the internet, Parks Canada website I think. It shows our route very well: the sun/shade ridge just left of the pine tree superimposed on the face. We considered the Greenwood/Locke, but 'The Dolphin' was rather melted out (more than in this photo) and subject to copious rockfall in the non-freezing temps. We decided the G/J was the only safe route on the face.
Below is Sam approaching the base of the face, with hundreds of acres of petrified ocean bottom looming above.

Lots of third classing...


Finally roped up, I think we did about 17 belayed pitches.


Still climbing on the bottom of an ancient ocean, Sam traversed to avoid a jellyfish...

Fortunately the rock quality improved as we got higher, the limestone gave way to beautiful quartzite...

We were glad to be on a ridge, safe from rockfall...



You can see the village of Lake Louise carved out of the trees behind Sam

Sam lead the crux pitch just as a thunderstorm was rolling through the valley. Luckily he got through it before the rock was too wet, but not before it got dark. I followed as fast as possible, and we immediately hunkered down on a small ledge until the rain passed. Amazingly, we never got the soaking we expected, despite being surrounded by dark clouds and verga. By that time we were dozing off, so we elected to just spend the night on the ledge and continue at first light. I guess our vacation-style 7am departure from the parking lot caught up with us.

The next day was beautiful and we quickly finished off the 4 remaining pitches. Here we put away the ropes and got out the crampons.
The timing ended up working out well since the snow was nice and firm...
On top...

In other hiking related news, Sam and I also walked in to the N. Face of Mt. Geikie, about a 35 mile round trip, heavy with full alpine climbing equipment. Pouring rain and lightning kept us from getting on the face, but the wildflowers were awesome. The mosquitos, not so much.



A little respite between squalls in the Tonquin valley, but not quite good enough to commit to a 5000' route.

On our way south to Missoula, we decided to check out a rocky ridge I had noticed many years ago in Glacier National Park. Unfortunately it didn't look nearly as good as in my memory, so we ended up carrying all our gear on a single push 25 mile traverse of the park. The highlight was seeing a wolverine, who paused for a photo about 20 feet from us as we were having lunch on Gunsight Pass. I think he wanted a sandwich, but all we had was cheese and crackers so he kept on moving.


This goat showed up and promptly fell asleep in the snow about 30 feet from us as we were taking a break on Lincoln Pass. He's the most friendly goat I've ever met.

December in Alaska

Here are some belated photos from December skiing in AK. Sally and I went up for my Christmas break and had a great time catching up with family and friends. Sally skinning up on a typical day out...

I finally got to go skiing with Charlie Renfro, after more than a year of trying...
Cortney Kitchen and Tobey Carman, landlocked friends from Wyoming...
Sally at dawn...
And at dusk, just a couple hours later...
Jon Cobb and I spent some time exploring around the Mat valley...
Cobb...



Sam Johnson, Ben Chriswell, Cortney Kitchen and Sally stop for a break on the way up...
Sally coming through the alders...
Sam's dog Jennie spent the night of winter solstice near the top of Clive Peak because she was afraid to go down. We had to go back up the next day to get her, and luckily the skiing was just as good the second time. Jennie didn't seem the least bit phased, but she was certainly hungry!


Tobias Schwoerer and Luc Mehl engaged in the decision making process...

Notch Peak

School has been pretty busy lately, but before that I enjoyed a couple weekends of fun. I did a great route on Notch Peak with my one climbing partner in SLC, Jim Howe, a friend from our days guiding at JHMG.

Notch Peak is an incredible limestone cliff out in the West Desert, about 4 hours from SLC. It's about 4500' in total, but is broken in half by a very large ledge. The lower wall is about 2000' and the uppper 2500' or so, and it's roughly a 20 minute walk between the two. They're not quite directly above/below one another. Some people call this the biggest cliff in the western US, but the catch is that it's not continuous. Mt Siyeh in Glacier National Park is a continuous 3500', so that might win out...check it in Alpinist.

Regardless, we did a route called Western Hardman (IV, 5.11, 12 pitches, ca2000'), which was really superb limestone adventure climbing in an awesome location. I can't wait to do more of the routes here...it's like the big Canadian Rockies limestone routes but with bolted anchors...very civilized and safe.

Notch Peak:Jim on a ledge, 1 pitch below the top:
Above is the view topping out...the West Desert is a very satisfying place for a displaced Alaskan looking for some wilderness.
Above: Jim sending on pitch 11...below on pitch 5.
The weekend before that, Sally and I hiked Kings Peak, the highest mountain in Utah at 13,528'. It was a great day out, and we did the 25 mile, 4000' route in about 9 hours car-car with no running involved. We thought about running, but just ended up enjoying chatting and hiking...not needing to hurry with such nice weather. Below are some photos of Sal up high. Despite the looks of it, there was a nice trail most of the way.
The Henry's Fork tail (our route) comes from the trees in the upper left part of this photo...12 miles distant.

Wind Rivers

Sally and I departed our beloved Alaska about a month ago and moved down to Salt Lake City so that for the next 2 years, I can attend Westminster University's Master's of Science in Nurse Anesthesia program.

Before school started, Sally and I went off to the Wind River mountains of Wyoming to escape the heat of Salt Lake. I've spent a bunch of time in the Winds back when I worked for Jackson Hole Mountain Guides and lived in Jackson...but was again amazed at their wildness. We did a 55 mile loop through the southern half of the range, spending most of our time above 10,000' and under clear skies.

One of my favorite parts was once again walking below Mt. Hooker. Back in 1998 Kirby Spangler and I completed a new route on the high and shady north face, and I hadn't seen it since then. Sally and I took a side trip to check it out.

Below is a classic Wyoming plains landscape...
Sally on the trail...

a pine martin...
Sally on the Lizard Head plateau, ca 11,600'
Sally pointing to East Temple Peak. We scrambled to the summit earlier that day...
Sally and me on top of East Temple. Behind us is the Cirque of the Towers and the rest of the Wind River Range.

Below is a better view of the two thousand foot N. Face of Mt Hooker, 12,504', with me and Kirby's route The Northwest Passage (VI 5.9 A3) drawn in red. There's a write up in the 1999 American Alpine Journal.