mount fairweather - 15325' - carpe ridge ai3
mount ripinsky - 3675' - class 1
June 2024
For my 2024 Alaska adventure, I teamed up with Sarah again for two more attempts on 50 classics climbs. We would try for the Carpe Ridge on Mount Fairweather, and the East Ridge on Devils Thumb. We would find success on the first of these objectives, while making an attempt on the second. I opted to drive all the way out from Seattle, while Sarah flew in from Denver. Immediately after returning to Seattle after my Iceland trip with Bri and Josh, I began the long two day drive to Whitehorse where I would pick up Sarah. Unfortunately upon arriving in Whitehorse, Air Canada lost one of Sarahs bags and we had to wait in Whitehorse for a couple days, which ruined any chance of utilizing a 3 day weather window that was actively going on from June 7-9th. On Monday the 10th the bag finally arrived in Whitehorse and we were able to continue the drive to Haines, which we arrived in the mid afternoon timeframe. We found the Hotel Halsingland and got a room which ended up being such a cool historic place to stay, with a large field offering unobstructed views! We enjoyed a nice dinner at the Old Field Kitchen which is only open on Mondays, and is likely the best food in Haines. We met up with Drake at his airport hangar in the evening and after some nice introductions makde plans to try and fly into the Fairweather Glacier the following day. I cannot recommend FLyDrake enough, he has loads of experience and has been bringing climbers into the rugged landscapes around Haines for many years. We packed up all our gear and got some needed sleep for an 8am wake up.
View from Hotel Halsingland
The next morning, we didn't get too crazy of a start since there were some morning clouds, but Drake texted us to be at the airport around 11am for a fly in attempt. I got a breakfast at one of the cafes and we drove down to the airport. The scenery on the flight was absolutely stunning, with some of the best mountain scenes I have ever seen in North America, easily rivaling anything in the Alaska Range, even more stunning honestly. The Fairweather Range really is something special. The flight took us west from Haines initially up the Tahkin River Valley, then over a mountain pass where we soared over dozens of rugged ridgelines surrounded by hige glaciers. We crossed over GLacier Bay where mammoth cruise ships puddled along below. The amount of snow and ice was impressive. We could see Mount Fairweather ahead, significantly higher than anything else around, and capped by a mid level cloud hat. Unfortunately as we crossed the pass at the head of the Fairweather Glacier, a thick marine layer low cloud bank totally blocked the view of the glacier from above, making it unsafe to land. After a quick detour to grab some closer views of Mount Salisbury, Lituya Mountain and Mount Wilbur, we retuned to Haines disappointed. The weather, despite the low cloud bank was plenty good enough to be climbing both that day, and the following day but we would end up waiting until Thursday morning the 13th to successfully be able to land. Two more nights at the Hotel Halsingland ensued, and nearly a week after leaving Seattle, we would finally land on the Fairweather Glacier. The photos below are a sampling of the scenery on our first, unsuccessful flight. The full album from this flight can be found here.
After returning to the Haines airport, Sarah and I went back to the Halsingland Hotel. Chris Tomer had mentioned it was very likely going to be a repeat the next day with low clouds over the Fairweather Glacier, so we opted to stay for 2 more nights. During the evening on Tuesday I made the nice hike up to Mount Rapinsky. This scenic peak sits right above Haines, with the cliff face right above the airport guarding the summit from the south. There is however a nice trail that follows the lower angled east ridge to the summit, gaining just over 3000 feet from the trailhead. I made a short drive north just out of town on a gravel road passing some quaint cabins to the Ripinsky Trailhead and started hiking about 6pm. The trail was easy to follow, but the final 1000 feet was primairly still snow covered, slowing progress. Luckily it was firm and I did not have to sink down very far on each step. The late afternoon light was unreal, allowing for some excellent photos. Looking down onto the town and the peninsula running out and bisecting the fjord into the Chilkoot and Chilkat inlets is as Alaskan as it gets. Really glad I opted to do this hike to get some views of the area. See the full album here!
Finally, the day came where we expected to be able to land, and begin climbing. At about 8:30am Thursday we indeed were able to land at 4700 feet at the base of the Carpe Ridge route. We bode Drake farewell and made the short flat walk across the glacier to the start of the route. Carpe Ridge is an 11000 foot ascent ascending the south ridge of Mount Fairweather to the false summit (the 13820 foot south peak) then continuing to the true summit. It is crucial to note however there are three different ridges of rock that all converge on the south summit. The eastern most of the three curves to the east and has a substantial subsiduary peak called Peak 8860. This ridge does not actually continue all the way to the south summit, but dives into the middle of the three ridges. The Carpe Ridge route is the westernmost ridge. From the landing zone where Drake drops off, we actually hiked northwest, and descended very slightly to attain the start of the route. A large rock buttress, with a giant rockfall zone just to the west marks the beginning of the route. Our goal was to reach the 10400 foot camp at the base of the cliff band that blocks direct passage on the ridge. This would entail a 5700 foot day with our full 40 pound packs in the hot sun. More in-flight photos from our second flight shown below, followed by some profile photos depicting the Carpe RIdge Route that can be referred to throughout the rest of this report.
Downloadable PDF Route Topo below, with individual photos following!
Carpe Ridge Overview
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First Narrow Couloir - By Sarah
Detail through the rock bands - By Sarah
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Additional route photos from the plane!
We began by navigating a few large crevasses on the north edge of the Fairweather glacier, and ascending very firm, almost icy snow just east of a large area of rockfall that had stained a wide fan of the snow brown. We traversed around to the left of the prominent rock buttress marking the start of the Carpe Ridge. This whole area is easily seen in the route topo photo above. We continued on an ascending traverse leftward following the base of the rock bands until we hit the edge of a glacier. We had to climb up a small serac involving just one steep step to reach a wide snowfield above. I was able to point out the narrow couloir mentioned in historic accounts of the route that led to the rock bands above (shown in the upper right photo above). This couloir was right at the top of this first wide snowfield, so we ascended the larger than it appeared snowfield to the base of the couloir. Here we replaced the trekking pole for our second ice tools and began easy climbing 50-55 degree snow. Since so much snow had avalanched down throughout the spring, it had been very firm all the way to this point, allowing us to make quick time despite the beating hot sun.
After reaching the top of the couloir, which contrary to the old route descriptions got wider at the top, we found ourselves at the top of a large cliff dropping off to the west. where a series of snow gullies below led up to a glacial serac just above it. Access down to these gullies was totally blocked by the crumbly rock cliffs below us, however it was obvious we needed to traverse slightly left and ascend a series of rocky ledges and blocks that was only about class 3 in difficulty. From our spot at the top of the couloir, we cut left and climbed the 3rd class rock steps to the next triangular shaped snowfield. It was here the snow began to become isothermic slop, and slowed our progress. We post-holed our way, sometimes waist deep up this snowfield to a second rock band (labelled "Main Rock Band" in the bottom right photo above), which featured more class 3 climbing, with maybe a move or two of class 4. Here we decided to remove our crampons to make the rock easier to ascend. We started to notice many old ropes laying around here as well, and Sarah found a historic home-made looking wire/nut that had fallen out of place. It was estimated to be from the 3rd ascent based upon the appearance of it (thanks Dieter for helping with that)!
Above that second rock band, more slop snow ensued, but we were able to connect up rocky perches to minimize the wallowing for awhile until we reached a narrow section of ridge where rock scrambling was required (labelled "Stay on Crest" in the bottom right photo above). This was one of the most fun parts of the route, and involved scrambling a narrow ridgecrest for a short bit with sweet exposure on both sides. The crux ended up being a short 10 foot 4th class chimney to gain the crest, or an exposed narrow ledge traverse around it on the right (east) side. The ridge quickly broadened though, and upon reaching a very imposing cliff jutting higher up, we traversed below it to the right back onto snow to begin the remainder of our afternoon ascending ~2500 more feet of isothermal slop. Here I put on the snowshoes I had been carrying up to this point, and Sarah put on the ascent plates she bought specifically for this climb. They proved somewhat helpful, but when ice became shallow, they proved more difficult at times. Overall though, I was happy to have them on as it prevented me from sinking more than just a few inches each step, as opposed to the mid thigh I would have sunk the entire way. The clouds began rolling in as the afternoon progressed, and the peaks across the Fairweather Glacier started to become obstructed. Direct sunlight was fading and as we reached a flat spot just a couple hundred feet below our desired camping area, I started bonking. The heat, heavy pack and sloppy snow was catching up to me despite starting out the day so fresh. A small low angle icy step was required during that final 100 feet to the 10400 foot elevation so I removed the snowshoes and put the crampons back on for the final moments until we arrived at the spot we decided to camp.
The spot we chose was right below a continuous section of rock cliff, and away from any of the gullies that bisected the wide series of cliffs that guarded further upward progress on the ridge. Just off to our left a steep icefall perched above very steep and crumbly terrain shed ice almost constantly. It did not take much to determine the historic route beta, which parties climbed through this icefall was definitely no longer feasible. We would have to traverse the wide sloping ledge right from here to reach steep snow to the right of the cliffs that guarded the ridgecrest above us. However, that would have to wait, because just as I finished digging out the tent platform, it began snowing. We quickly threw the tent up and got everything inside, and a small boulder offered a little shelter to store our climbing gear and packs. Sarah managed to melt the water we needed for the night in a quickly deteiorating snowstorm. We scarfed down our first freeze dried meal and went to sleep at about 9pm to heavy snow.
After reaching the top of the couloir, which contrary to the old route descriptions got wider at the top, we found ourselves at the top of a large cliff dropping off to the west. where a series of snow gullies below led up to a glacial serac just above it. Access down to these gullies was totally blocked by the crumbly rock cliffs below us, however it was obvious we needed to traverse slightly left and ascend a series of rocky ledges and blocks that was only about class 3 in difficulty. From our spot at the top of the couloir, we cut left and climbed the 3rd class rock steps to the next triangular shaped snowfield. It was here the snow began to become isothermic slop, and slowed our progress. We post-holed our way, sometimes waist deep up this snowfield to a second rock band (labelled "Main Rock Band" in the bottom right photo above), which featured more class 3 climbing, with maybe a move or two of class 4. Here we decided to remove our crampons to make the rock easier to ascend. We started to notice many old ropes laying around here as well, and Sarah found a historic home-made looking wire/nut that had fallen out of place. It was estimated to be from the 3rd ascent based upon the appearance of it (thanks Dieter for helping with that)!
Above that second rock band, more slop snow ensued, but we were able to connect up rocky perches to minimize the wallowing for awhile until we reached a narrow section of ridge where rock scrambling was required (labelled "Stay on Crest" in the bottom right photo above). This was one of the most fun parts of the route, and involved scrambling a narrow ridgecrest for a short bit with sweet exposure on both sides. The crux ended up being a short 10 foot 4th class chimney to gain the crest, or an exposed narrow ledge traverse around it on the right (east) side. The ridge quickly broadened though, and upon reaching a very imposing cliff jutting higher up, we traversed below it to the right back onto snow to begin the remainder of our afternoon ascending ~2500 more feet of isothermal slop. Here I put on the snowshoes I had been carrying up to this point, and Sarah put on the ascent plates she bought specifically for this climb. They proved somewhat helpful, but when ice became shallow, they proved more difficult at times. Overall though, I was happy to have them on as it prevented me from sinking more than just a few inches each step, as opposed to the mid thigh I would have sunk the entire way. The clouds began rolling in as the afternoon progressed, and the peaks across the Fairweather Glacier started to become obstructed. Direct sunlight was fading and as we reached a flat spot just a couple hundred feet below our desired camping area, I started bonking. The heat, heavy pack and sloppy snow was catching up to me despite starting out the day so fresh. A small low angle icy step was required during that final 100 feet to the 10400 foot elevation so I removed the snowshoes and put the crampons back on for the final moments until we arrived at the spot we decided to camp.
The spot we chose was right below a continuous section of rock cliff, and away from any of the gullies that bisected the wide series of cliffs that guarded further upward progress on the ridge. Just off to our left a steep icefall perched above very steep and crumbly terrain shed ice almost constantly. It did not take much to determine the historic route beta, which parties climbed through this icefall was definitely no longer feasible. We would have to traverse the wide sloping ledge right from here to reach steep snow to the right of the cliffs that guarded the ridgecrest above us. However, that would have to wait, because just as I finished digging out the tent platform, it began snowing. We quickly threw the tent up and got everything inside, and a small boulder offered a little shelter to store our climbing gear and packs. Sarah managed to melt the water we needed for the night in a quickly deteiorating snowstorm. We scarfed down our first freeze dried meal and went to sleep at about 9pm to heavy snow.
It snowed all night and all the following morning, however this was snow we fully expected as Chris had been mentioning it to us for days. What was slated for after this snowstorm was a high pressure window for the ages, lasting at least 4 days so all we had to to was be patient for one day. The sun began coming out at 2pm the following afternoon, after about 8 inches of snow had fallen, but with some uncertainty whether there would be any more snow fall that afternoon, we opted to just stay a second night at 10400 feet. A nice rest day was appreciated after that first days push and we were able to rehydrate and refuel, despite not sleeping much in the tiny MSR Advance Pro UL tent we had.
On the morning of day 3 (Saturday June 15th, we awoke to clear skies and quickly packed up and I ate my obligitory cereal with rehydrated milk and we began the traverse to the right. It was only perhaps a tenth of a mile distance before we were able to begin climbing up steep 45-50 degree snow in good condition. We actually had sections of front pointing on this long slope. As we gained elevation, we reached a large overhanging serac wall that we traversed left and around, and eventually reaching a narrow corniced ridge. Here we stayed just on the right (east) side of the ridge until reaching another flat section on the ridge at 12400 feet. Here we took a quick stop to melt water since I had already drank my liter. We also opted to rope up here as the route ahead seemed to have many hidden crevasses in the freshly fallen snow, which had definitely exceeded a foot at the higher elevations. We continued up, wallowing through now fresh powder now. Just a hundred feet above the flat 12400 foot spot I fell into a crevasse that paralleled the ridge, stopping myself from completely falling in with one ice tool weilding arm sinking into the ice on the left side and my right leg sinking a crampin point on the right side. Unfortunately the trekking pole I had in my right hand fell in. I managed to climb out, a but shaken and we continued on. Without my pole however, the deep wallowing became much more taxing and I was really starting to feel sluggish, and a bit nauseous. We took a small break at 13100 feet to wait out a brief whiteout so we could see exactly where we needed to go for the final 750 feet to the south summit.
After 20 minutes, we finally got a good clearing and spotted the route through the maze of crazy crevasses. I took over again slowly breaking trail through deep drifted powder up to a large crevasse at 13450 feet where Sarah took over again. After 400 more fairly agonizing feet on steeper snow we reached the south summit at 4:30pm. The final 750 feet to the south peak took me 2 hours to complete. Sarah was holding steady though, but perhaps due to the intense sun, or maybe because I had not been above 8000 feet since the new year, I was feeling it quite a bit, and unfortunately had to insist we make a camp at the 13700 foot saddle between the south and main peaks. It took us another hour to wallow our way along the horizontal section of right to the low saddle just below the ice nose. In the pleasant afternoon sun, I dug another tent platform and we made a camp. Amazingly, I never thought it was truly frigid up there, and was able to be comfortable in my 20 degree bag with just my long sleeve shirt on. We tucked in with a perfectly clear view of the ocean!
Early in the night I was breathing heavily, and I kept monitoring my heart rate. I was initially worried, but since I was not coughing or had any headache I assured myself I'd be fine. Eventually I drifted asleep, woke up a couple times and when I noticed my heart rate had slowed throughout the night, I knew I'd be fine to finish the climb. The frost inside the tent was real, and by the time we were ready to pack up the following morning, the tent and sleeping bags were quite wet.
On the morning of day 3 (Saturday June 15th, we awoke to clear skies and quickly packed up and I ate my obligitory cereal with rehydrated milk and we began the traverse to the right. It was only perhaps a tenth of a mile distance before we were able to begin climbing up steep 45-50 degree snow in good condition. We actually had sections of front pointing on this long slope. As we gained elevation, we reached a large overhanging serac wall that we traversed left and around, and eventually reaching a narrow corniced ridge. Here we stayed just on the right (east) side of the ridge until reaching another flat section on the ridge at 12400 feet. Here we took a quick stop to melt water since I had already drank my liter. We also opted to rope up here as the route ahead seemed to have many hidden crevasses in the freshly fallen snow, which had definitely exceeded a foot at the higher elevations. We continued up, wallowing through now fresh powder now. Just a hundred feet above the flat 12400 foot spot I fell into a crevasse that paralleled the ridge, stopping myself from completely falling in with one ice tool weilding arm sinking into the ice on the left side and my right leg sinking a crampin point on the right side. Unfortunately the trekking pole I had in my right hand fell in. I managed to climb out, a but shaken and we continued on. Without my pole however, the deep wallowing became much more taxing and I was really starting to feel sluggish, and a bit nauseous. We took a small break at 13100 feet to wait out a brief whiteout so we could see exactly where we needed to go for the final 750 feet to the south summit.
After 20 minutes, we finally got a good clearing and spotted the route through the maze of crazy crevasses. I took over again slowly breaking trail through deep drifted powder up to a large crevasse at 13450 feet where Sarah took over again. After 400 more fairly agonizing feet on steeper snow we reached the south summit at 4:30pm. The final 750 feet to the south peak took me 2 hours to complete. Sarah was holding steady though, but perhaps due to the intense sun, or maybe because I had not been above 8000 feet since the new year, I was feeling it quite a bit, and unfortunately had to insist we make a camp at the 13700 foot saddle between the south and main peaks. It took us another hour to wallow our way along the horizontal section of right to the low saddle just below the ice nose. In the pleasant afternoon sun, I dug another tent platform and we made a camp. Amazingly, I never thought it was truly frigid up there, and was able to be comfortable in my 20 degree bag with just my long sleeve shirt on. We tucked in with a perfectly clear view of the ocean!
Early in the night I was breathing heavily, and I kept monitoring my heart rate. I was initially worried, but since I was not coughing or had any headache I assured myself I'd be fine. Eventually I drifted asleep, woke up a couple times and when I noticed my heart rate had slowed throughout the night, I knew I'd be fine to finish the climb. The frost inside the tent was real, and by the time we were ready to pack up the following morning, the tent and sleeping bags were quite wet.
The following morning we emerged, ate whatever we could force ourselves to eat and packed up. I started breaking trail up towards the ice nose, and opted to rope up on an initial 60 meter length of low angle ice that led right to the base of the aerated ice wall. Seeing this up close, with the crummy nature of the ice that definitely would never accept any screws, I opted to make the traverse left onto the blue ice. Unfortunately having to make two screw belay anchors, left me with only 1 screw to use for climbing/traversing pro so I ended up doing 4 short pitches to reach the top of the blue ice and surmount the short neve wall at the top. I later realized I could have shot straight up sooner into a runnel that led to flat terrain further up, rather than traverse as far left as I did, but we nade it up without incident. The ice was hard, blue, and took screws perfectly. Could not complain, other than my screaming calves! I was so glad I felt better than the previous afternoon, however this would end up being short lived.
The remainder of the climb featured nothing more than more deep snow slogging for another 800 feet or so, of which the final 400 feet really took a toll on me. We traversed to the left of another icy serac that sat on the crest, then ascended one final wide snow slope, that featured very deep powder on the final 30 feet. Once past that, we were on the broad crest again and the final 100 feet or so was on firm wind swept neve. The steepness slowly flattened out and what was only a few hundred horizontal feet felt like walking through pudding lol. Finally we had made the summit under a clear blue sky at about 2:30pm. What a place this was, with views as far as the water vapor in the air allowed us to see. It was clear in all directions. Since Fairweather was significantly higher than all other surrponding peaks, I felt as if I was in a jet high above everything arouns me. A low cloud layer blocked the ocean but all other peaks made a healthy appearance. We stayed on the summit for only 20 minutes to rest and enjoy the views, but since we were hoping to get flown out that afternoon, we hustled to start our way down the standard route.
Like Eli had done a few weeks prior to our ascent, we also opted to descend the standard route, which meant we had just carried all our gear up the entire 11000 foot climb. Now all we had to do was drop 5500 feet of relatively easy terrain to the standard landing zone for the normal ascent route. While the terrain did prove to be much easier, the navigation around and through the crevasses proved trickier than anticipated. The GPS track I had on my phone was somewhat helpful but we ended up in varying degrees of route variation. While the normal way is to follow the crest of the west ridge down to the forst saddle, we found ourselves on more onto the upper northwest slopes, at one point veering way off to skiers right to round a long crevasse. We then had to cut way back left to get back to the west ridge crest. Some 30 degree blue ice was also encountered here, and the rope kept getting caught onto little ice nubs pissing us both off.
We did get back to the ridgecrest, and bypassed a steep drop by circling around left, then made it to the first saddle. Instead of climb like 100 feet over a small ridgebump to the next, slightly lower saddle like the normal route does, we began descending right away, and made a long descending traverse on snow northward to meet the same snowbridge crossing the huge crevasse at 12800 feet. After this, we crossed the next large crevasse to skiers right at 12200 feet and took a short rest there. We had entered the shade and now suddenly felt very cold. We put our floatation back on here for the rest of the descent and it was a savior here, as the slope angle lessened so much that post-holing would have been near impossible given our state at that point. We crossed a series of 3 more large crevasses to skiers left, at one point traversing way left to wrap around an ice pinnacle. After that, it was very easy walking the rest of the way to 9800 feet. Along the way, we were told our pickup withhave to be the following morning, so we made another camp and went straight to bed with a 5:30am wake up call so I could text Drake the current weather conditions.
The remainder of the climb featured nothing more than more deep snow slogging for another 800 feet or so, of which the final 400 feet really took a toll on me. We traversed to the left of another icy serac that sat on the crest, then ascended one final wide snow slope, that featured very deep powder on the final 30 feet. Once past that, we were on the broad crest again and the final 100 feet or so was on firm wind swept neve. The steepness slowly flattened out and what was only a few hundred horizontal feet felt like walking through pudding lol. Finally we had made the summit under a clear blue sky at about 2:30pm. What a place this was, with views as far as the water vapor in the air allowed us to see. It was clear in all directions. Since Fairweather was significantly higher than all other surrponding peaks, I felt as if I was in a jet high above everything arouns me. A low cloud layer blocked the ocean but all other peaks made a healthy appearance. We stayed on the summit for only 20 minutes to rest and enjoy the views, but since we were hoping to get flown out that afternoon, we hustled to start our way down the standard route.
Like Eli had done a few weeks prior to our ascent, we also opted to descend the standard route, which meant we had just carried all our gear up the entire 11000 foot climb. Now all we had to do was drop 5500 feet of relatively easy terrain to the standard landing zone for the normal ascent route. While the terrain did prove to be much easier, the navigation around and through the crevasses proved trickier than anticipated. The GPS track I had on my phone was somewhat helpful but we ended up in varying degrees of route variation. While the normal way is to follow the crest of the west ridge down to the forst saddle, we found ourselves on more onto the upper northwest slopes, at one point veering way off to skiers right to round a long crevasse. We then had to cut way back left to get back to the west ridge crest. Some 30 degree blue ice was also encountered here, and the rope kept getting caught onto little ice nubs pissing us both off.
We did get back to the ridgecrest, and bypassed a steep drop by circling around left, then made it to the first saddle. Instead of climb like 100 feet over a small ridgebump to the next, slightly lower saddle like the normal route does, we began descending right away, and made a long descending traverse on snow northward to meet the same snowbridge crossing the huge crevasse at 12800 feet. After this, we crossed the next large crevasse to skiers right at 12200 feet and took a short rest there. We had entered the shade and now suddenly felt very cold. We put our floatation back on here for the rest of the descent and it was a savior here, as the slope angle lessened so much that post-holing would have been near impossible given our state at that point. We crossed a series of 3 more large crevasses to skiers left, at one point traversing way left to wrap around an ice pinnacle. After that, it was very easy walking the rest of the way to 9800 feet. Along the way, we were told our pickup withhave to be the following morning, so we made another camp and went straight to bed with a 5:30am wake up call so I could text Drake the current weather conditions.
That night felt the coldest of all 4 nights we were on the mountain. Perhaps because we had depressed and our bodies were no longer in climb mode, we felt colder despite the air temps not really being much different. Or maybe it was colder due to camping on a literal ice cap. Either way, even with most of my layers on, I was shivvering early in the night. I did eventually get maybe 2 hours of sleep but once 5:30am came and there was a little snow falling, I got super pissed and that warmed me up. Thankfully it was short lived, and the only clouds that were really causing any problems were a broken mid level layer at about 12500 feet blocking the direct sun and causing flat light on the glacier. I texted Drake that I expected direct sunlight on the glacier by 7:30 and shortly after then he arrived and landed. We were happy to be back to allow our sunburnt lips and sun scorched souls a break, and for a massive breakfast that was well deserved.
Our break did not last long though, as we would quickly find out this historic weather window would continue another 3 days, giving us the change to quickly fly down to Petersburg and make an attempt at Devils Thumb, but that's a story for a different trip report. I was simply awestruck at both the Fairweather Range itself, and the fact we lucked out with near perfect weather. Sarah was successful in her 39th out of 50 North American classics, and I proved to myself that even "off the couch" I could still pull something big off. However, as I get older, I will probably need to actually start physical training for stuff like this, as I was not moving as strng as I would have liked. Even though we only needed two different camps on route, it would have been more ideal to be able to climb from our 10400 foot camp all the way to the summit and down the other side in one push rather than take a high camp at 13700 feet. Lessons learned for the next objective I suppose.
Our break did not last long though, as we would quickly find out this historic weather window would continue another 3 days, giving us the change to quickly fly down to Petersburg and make an attempt at Devils Thumb, but that's a story for a different trip report. I was simply awestruck at both the Fairweather Range itself, and the fact we lucked out with near perfect weather. Sarah was successful in her 39th out of 50 North American classics, and I proved to myself that even "off the couch" I could still pull something big off. However, as I get older, I will probably need to actually start physical training for stuff like this, as I was not moving as strng as I would have liked. Even though we only needed two different camps on route, it would have been more ideal to be able to climb from our 10400 foot camp all the way to the summit and down the other side in one push rather than take a high camp at 13700 feet. Lessons learned for the next objective I suppose.
Summit view north
gear notes
My pack weighed about 40 pounds at the start of the trip. See below for a list of the gear we brought, and some notes indicating our reasoning for any items that may seem odd or not enough.
Team Gear
- MSR Advance Pro UL 2 person tent: This is the lighest alpine tent you can get. It's small and sucks to be in especially with my 6' 9" height, but critical for its durability and low weight.
- One 60m half rope: Since we would not be descending the route, no rappels would be needed so only one rope was brought
- Two standard snow pickets: One per person
- Ortovox Pro snow shovel
- Six Petzl Laser Speed Light ice screws and V thread tool
- Small set of stoppers and a few small cams from 0.2 - 0.5 inch: We did not end up using these
- Six single length runners and two double length runners with 2 wire gate biners each
- MSR Reactor stove
- One medium and Two mini fuel canisters: The non winter mix canisters did not perform very well, but the winter mix one we had did quite a bit better. With the great weather forecast we had, we felt comfortable bringing this low amount of fuel.
My Personal Gear
- Gossamer Gear Mariposa 60L Pack: This is my favorite pack money can buy....period.
- Big Agnes Lost Ranger UL Sleeping Bag (Just the orange inside section rated 20 degrees F): This modular sleeping system has two separate bags. Combined they are rated 0 degrees F but using just the inside bag gives you one of the lightest 20 degree bags out there.
- Thermarest NeoAir inflatable sleeping pad
- Big Agnes Third Degree foam sleeping pad: I always double up with a foam pad when sleeping on snow in case my air pad punctures. If you cannot fix the puncture you're fucked without a backup foam pad.
- MSR Denali EVO Snowshoes
- BD Couloir Mountaineering harness
- Pulley and MicroTraxion with prussiks and three locking carabiners
- BD Cobra Ice Tools with BD Spinner Bungee leash: This was my first time using these and I liked them well enough for mountain objectives.
- 1 Liter Nalgene water bottle with insulator
- Petzl Sirocco helmet
- One BD Z-Distance trekking pole: Lost in crevasse :(
- La Sportiva Olympus Mons Mountaineering Boot: This is the only good mountaineering boot big enough for me
- BD Stinger automatic crampons
- Good pair of glacier glasses
- Small plastic bowl and spork
Personal Clothing
- Under Armor wool base layer pants
- Fjall Raven G1000 Pants
- Polyester base layer T shirt
- Under Armor Wool long sleeve shirt
- BD First Light Hybrid Hoody: Great soft shell that fits my large frame perfectly
- Columbia Yocum Ridge shell jacket: I did not end up using this
- Cotopaxi down vest
- La Sportiva Primaloft Insulating coat: Can't remember the exact model of this coat but it was my main big puffy. Only needed it twice for a short amount of time
- Balaclava
- Rab Endurance down mitts
- BD Gloves
- Three pairs of socks
Food
- Five Peak Refuel freeze dried meals
- Small box of Cherrios and ziploc bag of dried milk powder
- Two small bags of beef jerky
- Two small bags of M&Ms
- Six small packs of Fruit Gushers
- Four Natures Bakery Fig Bars (AKA Barely Edibles)
- Two small Shot Blocks
- One Tube of NUUN water enhancers
Team Gear
- MSR Advance Pro UL 2 person tent: This is the lighest alpine tent you can get. It's small and sucks to be in especially with my 6' 9" height, but critical for its durability and low weight.
- One 60m half rope: Since we would not be descending the route, no rappels would be needed so only one rope was brought
- Two standard snow pickets: One per person
- Ortovox Pro snow shovel
- Six Petzl Laser Speed Light ice screws and V thread tool
- Small set of stoppers and a few small cams from 0.2 - 0.5 inch: We did not end up using these
- Six single length runners and two double length runners with 2 wire gate biners each
- MSR Reactor stove
- One medium and Two mini fuel canisters: The non winter mix canisters did not perform very well, but the winter mix one we had did quite a bit better. With the great weather forecast we had, we felt comfortable bringing this low amount of fuel.
My Personal Gear
- Gossamer Gear Mariposa 60L Pack: This is my favorite pack money can buy....period.
- Big Agnes Lost Ranger UL Sleeping Bag (Just the orange inside section rated 20 degrees F): This modular sleeping system has two separate bags. Combined they are rated 0 degrees F but using just the inside bag gives you one of the lightest 20 degree bags out there.
- Thermarest NeoAir inflatable sleeping pad
- Big Agnes Third Degree foam sleeping pad: I always double up with a foam pad when sleeping on snow in case my air pad punctures. If you cannot fix the puncture you're fucked without a backup foam pad.
- MSR Denali EVO Snowshoes
- BD Couloir Mountaineering harness
- Pulley and MicroTraxion with prussiks and three locking carabiners
- BD Cobra Ice Tools with BD Spinner Bungee leash: This was my first time using these and I liked them well enough for mountain objectives.
- 1 Liter Nalgene water bottle with insulator
- Petzl Sirocco helmet
- One BD Z-Distance trekking pole: Lost in crevasse :(
- La Sportiva Olympus Mons Mountaineering Boot: This is the only good mountaineering boot big enough for me
- BD Stinger automatic crampons
- Good pair of glacier glasses
- Small plastic bowl and spork
Personal Clothing
- Under Armor wool base layer pants
- Fjall Raven G1000 Pants
- Polyester base layer T shirt
- Under Armor Wool long sleeve shirt
- BD First Light Hybrid Hoody: Great soft shell that fits my large frame perfectly
- Columbia Yocum Ridge shell jacket: I did not end up using this
- Cotopaxi down vest
- La Sportiva Primaloft Insulating coat: Can't remember the exact model of this coat but it was my main big puffy. Only needed it twice for a short amount of time
- Balaclava
- Rab Endurance down mitts
- BD Gloves
- Three pairs of socks
Food
- Five Peak Refuel freeze dried meals
- Small box of Cherrios and ziploc bag of dried milk powder
- Two small bags of beef jerky
- Two small bags of M&Ms
- Six small packs of Fruit Gushers
- Four Natures Bakery Fig Bars (AKA Barely Edibles)
- Two small Shot Blocks
- One Tube of NUUN water enhancers
full Map of our route
Note this is hand drawn not a GPX track