Hampshire
Member
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2003
- Messages
- 127
- Reaction score
- 21
Peak 11,300 has been a long sought after objective of mine. A culmination of climbs that began in 2004.
I climbed with Kevin Mahoney http://www.newhampshireiceclimbing.com through Alaska Mountaineering School http://www.climbalaska.org/shop.html. Kevin is a NH guide located in Madison, NH. I cannot say enough good things about Kevin, his climbing / guiding resume speaks for itself. I felt privileged to be at the other end of the rope.
I arrived in Anchorage late in the evening of April 23rd. I took the train to Talkeetna the next morning (not as relaxing as I could have been as my backpack didn’t make it all the way to AK). The train ride was awesome otherwise and beats riding in a van. The rest of the day was spent on the phone trying to track down my lost pack. The pack arrived later that evening and I was able to enjoy my night at the Roadhouse.
What was planned for a leisurely morning of packing on the 25th and afternoon flight to glacier turned into a scramble as the weather was coming in and Paul with TAT wanted to leave sooner that later. The flight in was incredible and Paul was able to land on the West Fork of the Ruth Glacier at the base of the climb saving us a day’s hump from the Mountain House. There was an empty camp that we could see in the distance (we would own these guys some beers for the trail breaking they did on route) otherwise we had the glacier to ourselves. With the route directly in front of us and the west face of Huntington at our back you could not ask for a better camp spot. The plan was to spend 8 days on the glacier with the main objective being the Southwest Ridge of Peak 11,300 and perhaps Mt. Barrill or Mt Dan Beard if time allowed. That evening we discussed the weather and route conditions and decided to head up the next morning.
The 26th we got up early and started up the ridge (I’ll let the attached pictures do the talking about the route). After 8 hours of some of the most spectacular climbing we arrived at the Gray Rock bivy. During a sleepless night I had a hard time breathing (what would eventually be diagnosed as pneumonia).
The 27th we continued up the ridge, the climbing even more spectacular. As the day wore on my breathing became more difficult which slowed us down considerably. We reached the summit after 12 hours. The clouds had moved in and we wanted to be sure we found the proper descent route so we bived just down from the summit. Just before we called it a night the clouds broke and we could make out the route, making the night a bit more peaceful.
The 28th we started down climbing the route and after countless (I know Kevin counted them) we reached the glacier. By this time my breathing had become very laborious which I know worried Kevin, however, we had one last obstacle, the hanging glacier that threatens the decent back down to camp. We made a dash for safety (false sense as it would turn out) and were able to relax the rest of the way back to camp which we reached after 8 hours.
The 29the we relaxed in camp and decided to make the call to bail on any more climbing (due to my condition) and prepare the runway so TAT could pick us up the next day. During the day the clouds parted and we heard a loud “whoo” form the decent route. We looked up and saw a party of two descending, the path they were on (the one we had been on the day before) had been obliterated by an avalanche. The avalanche reached much farther than neither Kevin nor I could have imagined. The hanging glacier must have cut loose during the night.
The 30th Paul flew in right on schedule with the big Otter as he had picked up a party of two prior to picking us up and we flew up to the Moose’s Tooth to pick up a party of three. We were back in Talkeetna before lunch.
The 31st I took a shuttle back to Anchorage and the emergency room were I got some much needed medical attention. I spent the next couple of days recuperating while traveling around Alaska.
Here is the link to the slideshow.
http://outdoors.webshots.com/slideshow/577845175ehuNUP
I climbed with Kevin Mahoney http://www.newhampshireiceclimbing.com through Alaska Mountaineering School http://www.climbalaska.org/shop.html. Kevin is a NH guide located in Madison, NH. I cannot say enough good things about Kevin, his climbing / guiding resume speaks for itself. I felt privileged to be at the other end of the rope.
I arrived in Anchorage late in the evening of April 23rd. I took the train to Talkeetna the next morning (not as relaxing as I could have been as my backpack didn’t make it all the way to AK). The train ride was awesome otherwise and beats riding in a van. The rest of the day was spent on the phone trying to track down my lost pack. The pack arrived later that evening and I was able to enjoy my night at the Roadhouse.
What was planned for a leisurely morning of packing on the 25th and afternoon flight to glacier turned into a scramble as the weather was coming in and Paul with TAT wanted to leave sooner that later. The flight in was incredible and Paul was able to land on the West Fork of the Ruth Glacier at the base of the climb saving us a day’s hump from the Mountain House. There was an empty camp that we could see in the distance (we would own these guys some beers for the trail breaking they did on route) otherwise we had the glacier to ourselves. With the route directly in front of us and the west face of Huntington at our back you could not ask for a better camp spot. The plan was to spend 8 days on the glacier with the main objective being the Southwest Ridge of Peak 11,300 and perhaps Mt. Barrill or Mt Dan Beard if time allowed. That evening we discussed the weather and route conditions and decided to head up the next morning.
The 26th we got up early and started up the ridge (I’ll let the attached pictures do the talking about the route). After 8 hours of some of the most spectacular climbing we arrived at the Gray Rock bivy. During a sleepless night I had a hard time breathing (what would eventually be diagnosed as pneumonia).
The 27th we continued up the ridge, the climbing even more spectacular. As the day wore on my breathing became more difficult which slowed us down considerably. We reached the summit after 12 hours. The clouds had moved in and we wanted to be sure we found the proper descent route so we bived just down from the summit. Just before we called it a night the clouds broke and we could make out the route, making the night a bit more peaceful.
The 28th we started down climbing the route and after countless (I know Kevin counted them) we reached the glacier. By this time my breathing had become very laborious which I know worried Kevin, however, we had one last obstacle, the hanging glacier that threatens the decent back down to camp. We made a dash for safety (false sense as it would turn out) and were able to relax the rest of the way back to camp which we reached after 8 hours.
The 29the we relaxed in camp and decided to make the call to bail on any more climbing (due to my condition) and prepare the runway so TAT could pick us up the next day. During the day the clouds parted and we heard a loud “whoo” form the decent route. We looked up and saw a party of two descending, the path they were on (the one we had been on the day before) had been obliterated by an avalanche. The avalanche reached much farther than neither Kevin nor I could have imagined. The hanging glacier must have cut loose during the night.
The 30th Paul flew in right on schedule with the big Otter as he had picked up a party of two prior to picking us up and we flew up to the Moose’s Tooth to pick up a party of three. We were back in Talkeetna before lunch.
The 31st I took a shuttle back to Anchorage and the emergency room were I got some much needed medical attention. I spent the next couple of days recuperating while traveling around Alaska.
Here is the link to the slideshow.
http://outdoors.webshots.com/slideshow/577845175ehuNUP
