AK Lessons

Last spring Eric Frank and I after guiding a trip for RMI in and around Denali Basecamp flew back on the glacier to climb Mt. Hunter or the native name Begguya, meaning, “Denali’s Child and the Cassin route on Denali.  With a Southeast flow over the Alaska range the weather was hard to forecast and didn't offer very large windows.

After a quick turnaround in Talketna, we flew back into Kahiltna Basecamp where we went to bed in blizzard thinking we weren't going to have the weather window to climb Hunter.  Looking out of our tent at 6am didn't give us much hope either but the weather cleared and went bluebird by 10am and we packed up and left as soon as we could.  Knee to waist deep trail breaking slowed us down and made crevasse navigation hard with Eric taking his first ever crevasse fall in over his head. 

Hanging out at the Sheldon Hanger

From a previous flight off the Kahlitna Glacier Photo: Kate Anderson

The West Ridge of Mt. Hunter is a classic alpine climb first climbed by Fred Beckey, Heinrich Harrer, and Henry Mehbohm in 1954.  Although not as technical as some of the other lines that ascend Hunter, The West Ridge is definitely a worthy climb that ascends the right skyline in the photo below.

On the 2nd day we climbed through the technical difficulties on the route through the rock and ice sections.  As the day progressed we kept noticing some cloud build up to the southeast until we found ourselves in a whiteout high up on the mountain.  With a deteriorating forecast and a lack of food we decided to head down and descend down the Ramen Couloir back to the Kahiltna Glacier. 

Mt. Hunter (14,573') from 14 camp on Denali with the West Ridge on the right sky line

Our camp on the West Ridge of Hunter

Eric and I tired after a big day
 

Eric rapping the Cat Ears with the West Ridge behind

Eric on the 1st rap getting off of Hunter

Eric beginning the 2nd rap

Me tired at 2 in the morning wishing I was on the Kahiltna Glacier

We down climbed the Ramen couloir thankfully in decent visibility before getting socked in again. The Ramen is probably and easier way off of Hunter than back tracking the entire west rib.  Below you can see the ice fall which you bypass by climbing about 800' on the skiers right side to a null.  If you follow Joe Puryear's beta from Alaska Climbing be sure to down climb 1200' not 120'.  We spent a good 3 hours in low visibility wading through facets looking for the right couloir to down climb.  Mark Allen had done three rappels a week before us and Eric and I missed the upper rappel station and found the down climbing to be pretty easy to the cleft where the waterfall starts.  On Mark's recommendation we did the first rap to the top of the hanging pillar opting to do a shorter 35m rappel.  We were than able to do a 40m rap down to the ground avoiding the swinging free hanging V thread rap.  We rolled back into Kahiltna Base Camp at 6am tired and exhausted.

Looking down the Ramen, Wishing I had my skis!

Eric on the Upper Rib 

With the weather forecast not looking good we decided to leave and fly out of the Alaska.  Once off the mountain the weather turned and we would've had a weather window to get on the Cassin after all.  Hindsight is always twenty twenty and I wouldn't have changed our decision to leave a couple of days early.  But it goes to show how weather forecasts in the big mountain ranges are hard to predict. A big part of these long trips is patience and the ability to keep your head in it.  Although this was my fourth trip into the range it was my first personal trip and really was a great experience.