Alaska - Happy Thoughts

Despite the bad outcome, I got some cool pictures. Here are a few. Notably lacking are sweet panoramas of the Ruth; I was figuring I'd take those once we got back down from Ham'n'Eggs. Hopefully I can score some from Kevin's camera eventually; the setting was the most stunning place I'd ever been.

Only moments off the plane, Kevin and I bump into living legend Fred Beckey in the airport. He likely has more first ascents to his credit than anyone in history, and has opened famous routes in Alaska, the Cascades, the Rockies, and the Sierra. Quite the character, he's still making climbing trips to Alaska after making pioneering ascents there (including Mt. Hunter with Heinrich Harrer of Eiger fame) in the 1950s. He told us weather was good near the Moose's Tooth, where he had been on this trip. I look like a dork giddy meeting a hero. He was on the cover of a Patagonia catalog a couple of years back. Anyone still climbing at 86 is a hardman in my book.

Kevin and I were planning a 3 week trip, which required an absurd amount of provisions. Here we are sorting gear and food at Talkeetna Air the night before our departure. I still can't believe we crammed all this stuff into moderate climbing packs and a couple of duffels each. We weighed in with 268lbs of gear between the two of us. If Kevin is able to continue his trip, that guy is going to be eating like a king on all of my foodstuffs left behind on the glacier!


On our flight in, we got views of a lot of peaks. The eastern flanks of Hunter and the intimidating Mt. Huntington are visible.










Bye bye, plane! TAT disappears over the camp of another party after we've been dropped in the amazing Ruth Gorge.













Views of the Moose's Tooth from the Gorge. Ham'n'Eggs is the broadest couloir in the center of the photo. It is approached via an icefall and couloir well left of the photo. The big hanging glacier front and center sent down some big stuff the first afternoon we were there.



The approach to the Root Canal glacier from the Ruth Gorge would likely be considered a classic moderate climb in itself if it were located in the Cascades. Weaving through glaciers, negotiating a steep couloir with a little verglas - covered rock, and topping out in a broad gentle snowfield as sun came up was a nice first day of movement on the trip.


Kevin mixing it up on 5.6 moves on the first pitch of Ham'n'Eggs. For perspective, it was around 4:30am when this photo was taken. He led it in fine style, confident and in control. I had a good feeling about this climb. Too bad I was wrong....