Monday, June 2, 2008

Alaska 2008 - The Ruth Gorge

April 14 - May 8 brought me to Anchorage, Alaska, then Talkeetna, and finally the Ruth Gorge in Denali National Park. We loaded 250 lbs of gear per person into the bush plane - "The Beaver", a 1955 single engine Cessna - and landed in the Ruth Gorge (The Gorge). The locals reverently refer to it as The Gorge because of the 5,000 foot escarpments of rock, snow, and ice that dramatically enclose the Ruth Glacier to the east and west.
My climbing partner, Jason Kuo, and I were on the Ruth Glacier for 20 days. We climbed Ham and Eggs and a few pitches of Shaken, Not Stirred on the Mooses Tooth, Japanese Couloir on Mt. Barrille, Freezy Nuts on London Tower. We attempted a first ascent of a couloir on Mt. Bradley, and attempted the southwest ridge of Peak 11,300. Our attempt at Peak 11,300 ended due to whiteout conditions.

View my pictures here:
Alaska_2008


View my partners pictures here: http://flickr.com/photos/jjkuo/sets/72157604962714521/show/

3 comments:

Tom Fayle said...

Good to see your pics. We were camped on the Root Canal glacier when you were up there. Great time.
Tom F.

Anonymous said...

Whoa! Your partner's pics are outta this world! I am so psyched to climb in the Ruth this May(2009)...thanks for making me insane w/ impatience!

William Finley said...

Hi Chris! Cool to see your pix. We played with dozens of ideas for this spring until finally we settled on the Ruth. We're flying in on May 2nd for about 2 weeks; looking to do get some skiing in and maybe do Freezy Nuts, the Japanese Couloir and whatever else might be in shape. Thanks for posting the pix; they're getting us pretty psyched!

- Billy (in Anchorage)