Alaska 2008 Trip Report

For my Alaska 2008 photos, see the post below. The following is my trip report submitted to the Kansas City Climbing Club newsletter. Although I live in the San Francisco Bay Area now, I learned to climb in Kansas.

The Ruth Gorge

The Ruth Glacier is one of many large glaciers that has carved the flanks of some of the great peaks in the central Alaska Range, such as Denali, Mt. Hunter, Mt. Foraker, and Mt. Huntington. The glacier begins at Denali and sinuously flows down valley, growing larger as it merges with smaller tributary glaciers and finally melts out to a moraine boulder field and the braided Chulitna River about 30 miles from its start. The glacial ice is up to 3,800 feet thick, over a mile wide, and moves at average of 3.3 feet per day.

About halfway down its path, the glacier has carved The Ruth Gorge, or "The Gorge" as locals and climbers call it. The Gorge earns its name from the escarpments of granite, snow, and ice that tower some 5,000 feet above one either side of the glacier. Some of these guardians include The Mooses [sic] Tooth, Mt. Dickey, Mt. Barrille, and Mt. Bradley. The United States Geological Survey renamed the Mooses Tooth (albeit without the grammatically correct apostrophe) to reflect a translation of the original Athabascan name. With the relatively low elevations (4,500 to 10,200 ft), easy access via a bush plan outfitted with ski's, and so many steep walls, The Gorge has attracted climbers looking for short technical challenges.

My partner Jason Kuo and I flew to Alaska on April 16, 2008. Three days later we flew from Talkeetna into The Gorge in Paul Roderick's (Talkeetna Air Taxi) 1955 single-engine Cessna, "The Beaver", crammed with four clean climbers and about 1,000 lbs. of gear. We climbed, ate, drank, slept, laughed, froze, fried, and got scared in The Gorge for 20 days.

Day 1-2: Build base camp including Megamid kitchen and used snow saw for cutting blocks, and dug an avalanche test pit at the base of Japanese Couloir on Mt. Barrille. Perfect blue bird day!
Day 3: Climb Japanese Couloir on Mt. Barrille in about 8 hours round trip. The route was easier than anticipated due to the technical pitches being covered with 55 degree snow. Cornices were big on summit ridge. Downclimb route.
Day 4: Rest day, dry clothes, socialize along "Ruth Street" with neighbors. There were about 16 climbers in the Gorge.
Day 5: Ski up The Route Canal ice fall to the base of the Mooses Tooth. Another 8 climbers were camped up there and had been dropped off at the base of Mooses Tooth by the air taxi.
Day 6: Climb Ham and Eggs on the Mooses Tooth in 14 hours. Awesome! Mostly 45 degree snow with about 5 vertical steps of ice (WI4) and rock (5.6) that ranged from about 15 to 50 feet. 18 double rope rappels on fixed anchors of pins and nuts and V-threads.
Day 7: Rest day, hot temps.
Day 8: Climb rock traverse pitch (scary 5.9 in crampons) to get into the route Shaken, Not Stirred on the Mooses Tooth. Glad I had those knife blade pitons for the rock pitch. We bailed at a section called the narrows as the mixed and thin ice climbing was going to be over our heads so we rapped route on multiple single nut rap stations and other manky gack. Descend Route Canal in afternoon heat. i recommended traveling through the route canal in the morning due to objective hazards. We punched through a few small crevasses and had a hard time getting our heavy packs down the soft snow. Another party was almost hit by a falling serac. Party at base camp in Megamid kitchen with Salt Lake City, Seattle, and the Norwegian teams.
Day 9-11: Eight days of perfect blue bird days end with a storm whiteout and 2 feet of snow. Read, drink tea, shovel, eat, sleep, shovel, drink whiskey, read, eat, shovel, sleep, shovel.
Day 12: Weather is unsettled but climb Freezy Nuts on London Tower (WI3). Matt of Salt Lake City team solos up to join us. Tunnel through cornice, rap and downclimb route on v-threads, scary pins, and single nut anchors. More yikes.
Day 13: Rest day, weather still unsettled.
Day 14: Rest day and approach 10 miles up the Ruth Glacier in about 5 hours with super light packs to base of the southwest ridge of Peak 11,300.
Day 15: Wake to whiteout conditions. Wait in tent for conditions to improve. Bail at noon with difficulty following our tracks through a crevasse field. Finally arrive out of whiteout at base camp and big party in kitchen tent.
Day 16: Hang over, rest day, tend to blisters.
Day 17: Another rest day.
Day 18: Another rest day, weather still unsettled, some flurries, loosing motivation, Capilene shirt is starting to smell.
Day 19: Weather still unsettled but come to grips that this is normal for Alaska. Attempt first ascent on couloir on shoulder of Mt. Bradley. Bail due to lack of ice.
Day 20: Pack and fly out through brief weather window.

I think I spent a total of about 26 days in Alaska and it cost around $2,500. You could do it cheaper. The Bush pilot was about $550 because we were over weight with too much food. We spent about $900 on food (stupid), but most people could get by on about $400 food for two folks (use Costco in Anchorage). I estimate we ate about 4,000 calories a day. Temperatures in the shade was mostly 5 to 35 degree F, in the sun at base camp up to 65 degrees, and down to about -5 degrees on some of the coldest nights.