SilentSummits.com

Now we climb part 1

After 8 or 9 days waiting out the weather on the Kahiltna, it conditions started to improve. The weather forecast hinted at an uncertain window, and it appeared is if the storm was moving out. The clouds lifting over Mt Hunter, and allowing the sunset to sneak a few rays in on the north face and the moonflower buttress:   Getting the 8 pm weather forecast had become a ritual, and perhaps the highlight of the day. A short high pressure window was indeed forecasted (to the hooting and hollering of climbers festering in their tents across Denali),  On friday June 5th, we went to bed with the same simple plan as we had hatched several times before with uncertain forecasts - get up at 4 am and check it out. Maybe this was our last shot, given we figured we needed 4-5 days on the mountain, and we were flying back to the regular world in about a week... The alarms went off at 4, I was already awake... The call was made - let's go. Breakfast and coffee was made, camp was packed up and up we went. Now we climb! Kip a few thousand feet up Mt Crosson en route to Foraker:   The 3-4 ft of new snow that had fallen during the storms really improved conditions on lower Crosson. The penententites were filled in and things looked pretty good. Made work out of the trail breaking, but with 4 fellers, the trench warefare was not bad, rather fun in some twisted way. As we made our way up the 6000 vertical, a spectacular, but ominous lenticular was building over the summit of Crosson. While it certainly called the forecast into question, we pushed on knowing we had plenty of fuel, food and bomb proof tents, but at the same time, no-one wants to get pinnned in a storm an a high Alaskan peak. Climbing into the lenticular and over the summit the winds were driving pretty hard, and we retrieved our cache, and dug in our first camp, made dinner and grabbed the 8 weather. The forecast now called for the high pressure window to close down on Monday evening... Shit, if that was accurate, the next low would be moving in a little sooner than we had wished for. We hit the sleeping bags with reasonably early start in mind for sunday - crossing the ridge between Crosson and Mt Foraker. The view from our first camp just as the sun comes back over the horizon and rises over Denali early on sunday morning:   The ridge, climb, ski and more weather coming soon. Thanks for reading.

The Sultana Ridge

  With the sultana ridge climbing the skyline up to the summit of 17004 ft, Mt Foraker (Sultana) rises into a lenticular cloud on top of it's massive east face. Certainly an impressive sight, which can be seen from Anchorage and, incidentally, by four friends in a borrowed van at 2 am in the morning driving into Talkeetna... That was when the size of this hill finally really hit me. Dude, that is it, right there. It seemed pretty cool, and rather huge. Getting a full service fly over on the way in did not exactly make it look any smaller. Once the skyline ridge in the photo above drops ~ 5000 ft down the ridge it stretches out 3.5 miles and connects to Mt Crosson. This might be the crux section and certainly what I was most interested in finally seeing.   Fairly obvious falling off would be verbotten. Our 2nd camp was on the ridge, near the right edge of the photo. Maybe the most spectacular place I have ever had the pleasure of pitching a tent... Rivaled by our first camp... Flying over the ridge, it looked fat and filled in, with at most a short knife edge section.   Another view of the route, this time from peak 12472 just past Mt Crosson. It took us most of a day to cross the ridge, with several thousand feet of vertical in each direction. The ridge was in great shape, and cruising across that ridge in great weather, with views over the Kahiltna glacier on our left with Mt Hunter and Denali, and the Foraker glacier with the huge alaska tundra on our right, literally walking the crest of the Alaska range was just stellar.   Another of the out-take shots looking at the Sultana from Mt Crosson. Pretty cool mountain. The archangel route is the subtle ridge dropping the fall line and out of the frame on the right. That one is one the list. More on our summit effort and skiing later.

Buxom, Jester, Word on Foraker

Another shot of Paul's bitchin turbine otter we flew in on with foraker and the sultana in the back ground. There was no time wasted reminding us where we were   as a big avalanche crashed down next to the moonflower buttress on Mt Hunter right next to Kahiltna base. We then proceeded to haul a double load over the casual 3 mile ski across the glacier. Note the bare ridge on Crosson...  After we attempted to probe out a good area in the swiss cheese spread zone,  base camp was established and all the freeze dried goods were broken out   We showed up in spectacular weather which held for two days. We did take advantage and hauled a load of fuel and food up Crosson in preparation for what we figured would be a 4-5 day push to summit and ski back down given good weather. The climb involved more crampon on rock instead of snow then I think any of us care to remember... Court on the lower ridge of Mt Crosson.   After we got through the "quality" rock, climbing on snow should have been a pleasure. Instead, we were treated to knee to waist deep penententis... Yummy. After climbing the upper reaches of Crosson which held good snow and ice, we left our cache and made the first turns of the trip. Kip ripping upper Crosson with almost 6000 vert down to the glacier and basecamp  Court styling   With nearly 3000 ft of descending left on the plate, we came to the beginning of the nearly unskiable suncups, and we stashed the skis... That was hard for me. I love my skis. I hate down climbing. But it was the right call given the conditions. Kip plunge stepping loose shale on the down climb...   I must say steel crampons and rando boots are tough cookies. That was some serious abuse and the gear was fine. We even got to down climb the reasonably steep lower SE headwall of Crosson down to the glacier in firm conditons. Front pointing and swinging the tool with > 1000 ft fall down to the crevasses. No photos, I was too gripped to get the camera out. This was the last day of good weather for some time. Snow started falling and we lived in the ping pong ball for nearly two weeks   Got plenty of sleeping pad testing time and books in   As well as more scrabble than I care to remember. Here Courtney (whom proclaimed he sucked at scrabble) is busting out another 50 pointer. Like Buxom on a triple (even though I pretty sure he played boxom, should have called that one!) or jester... Word Court! Two weeks later, nearly out of time, we finally got what appeard to be at least close to the weather forecast we needed. The climb/summit/ski coming next. Thanks for reading.

Boulder creek

Boated boulder creek from just above the blue bridge tonight. 401 cfs. Awesome run. Felt good in the boat, which means a slap down is coming soon. Stay tuned... Never put in above 4 mile before. Pretty psyched, great back yard run with several continuous class IV sections. Yeah. Bring on the boating.

NSV Proving grounds

Back in the boat and a run down North St Vrain proving grounds to the bear hole. But damn, the proving ground was hard, and we portaged parts of the two crux rapids, especially the "sneak" move right on the upper rapid. Knarly. I'd love to see someone run that section to learn the lines - the only line I saw was the bushwack portage around. Surely, I'm not proven... Half way down the canyon part of the run, there is a huge log that was clearly cut and tied across the river on purpose. WTF? Looks like it has been there for a while. A quick and heads up eddy on the right, then a short portage takes care of that one, but still. Flows were around 250 cfs. Hoping to head back again very soon. More coming on Foraker/Sultana ridge soon, still editing photos. In the mean time, check out the blurb over on K2s web site.

The Sultana Ridge, Mt Foraker

  The sultana ridge of Mt Foraker as seen from Paul Roddericks turbine otter on the flight in to the Kahiltna glacier. Late May, Courtney Phillips, Kip Garre, Andrew McLean and I took off to attempt to ski the Sultana ridge fromt the 17004 ft summit of Mt Foraker. Mt Foraker or Sultana (the mom), is the less known, and certainly less climbed partner of Denali (the dad), at the divide of the majestic Alaska range.   While Denali gets all the traffic, Sultana gets the solitude and a much lower success rate compared with the Daddy. Meet the group:   Kip, Court and Andrew checking out our objective right when we stepped out of the plane. Awesome. The stellar weather in this photo did not last. Much more to come.
A big shoutout and good luck to Kim and an all girls Colorado crew currently climbing and skiing on Denali.

Soggy Seward

Hello from a soggy and beautiful Seward, Alaska. After almost 3 weeks in the alaska range, we decided to go to the coast and check things out and eat some fresh alaskan halibut. Not nearly as good as Andrew's freeze dried camp cooking, but it will due. After sitting in the tents for nearly 2 weeks waiting for a weather window, when we finally got one we jumped on the oppurtunity and climbed Foraker in 3 days, skied off the summit and then back to the Kalhiltna glacier, then flew out. Over 40 gigs of photos to edit once I get back, and plenty of stuff to post. Fantastic to have a successful trip after doubts about the weather!  

Congratulations are in order!

Sorry for the suspense, but they made it!  They summited Foraker Monday, made it back to base camp Tuesday night, and were flown to Talkeetna today.  The skiing conditions were reportedly "good" - a mix of windblown powder, styrofoam, and shear ice.  The team was celebrating with burgers and beers, which were going straight to the brain after three weeks on the wagon. 

Fred will be back on Sunday, so check back soon for details and pics.

Game on!

They're climbing!  Their new position is Lat. 63.0135, Long. -151.2813.  It looks like they are at the first advanced camp on the summit of Mt. Crossen (a smaller peak on the way to the summit of Mt. Foraker).  The next piece is a traverse of a three mile-long knife-edge ridge to a second advanced camp, then a summit push.  Perhaps it was worth the wait?

Game on?

The last Spot GPS message that I received (this afternoon) showed that the Alaska team was still on the glacier.  That's 9 days in a tent, i.e., a lot of Scrabble.  On the bright side, the extended forecast shows promising conditions, so this could be the opportunity they need.