British Success In Alaska

British Alpinists Gavin Pike and James Clapham have just returned from a successful trip to Alaska, establishing two new routes in the Ruth Glacier region.
 
After warming up on the couloir of Shaken, Not Stirred on the south face of the Moose's Tooth, the pair headed for the nearby Peak 11,300 to attempt the first ascent of its impressive 5,000ft high east face. Their initial foray took a line on the right side of the face, but was thwarted by powder snow.  The climbers then turned their attention to the obvious central couloir that falls directly from the summit, with the cost of accepting the objective danger of the line (which is overhung by a serac).

The previously unclimbed 1500m east face of Peak 11,300. 'Night of the Raging Goose' (V WI5 5,000ft FA 21.04.09) takes the central couloir line.

Gavin Pike takes up the story:

"We climbed most of the couloir, which we named Night of the Raging Goose (V WI5 5,000ft), at night to minimize the risk, passing through a crux section of 10m of vertical ice in the narrows halfway up the wall. The top of the face and section of ridge connecting to the normal descent route gave good value. After some involved climbing and tricky descending of steep serac ice and snow mushrooms, we broke through the cornice and finally landed on the established South Ridge descent. We eventually made it back to camp after a 25-hr push. This was the first ascent of the east face, a wall that holds much potential for a number of future lines. The face does take a lot of sun though, so early season (ie. March or early April) is probably best if this season is anything to go by."

"After spending a week sitting out a storm and waiting for everything to settle, we turned our attention to the north face of Mt Church (8,233ft). The first ascent of this face was made by a Japanese team last year. After deciding against the deep chimney line that gave Jon Bracey and Matt Helliker For Whom The Bell Tolls (read the report about this route on planetFear here), we elected to get on the central line of the face, to the left of the Japanese route, Memorial Gate. Our line Amazing Grace (V AI4 4,000ft) gave good quality alpine ice in the narrows, which we simul-climbed, making fast progress to high on the face. The 65 degree snow of the upper face proved hideously loose and unconsolidated, with one particularly funky pitch being christened The Burrows. Very Patagonian, very time-consuming, and not much fun."

"But the fun was only just beginning. After we topped out the face, we started up the east ridge towards the summit. This had some very delicate cornicing, which was proved when James took an unscheduled ride down the north face after a large section of the cornice collapsed. Thankfully, nothing more serious than a bruised leg and coccyx resulted, but we were forced to bivvy near the summit nonetheless. We picked our way down the much safer north ridge the next day, eventually reaching our camp in the Gorge after nearly 24 hours without food or water: a slightly more exciting ascent than we had planned for."

On the summit ridge of Mt Church, with the collapsed cornice visible below.

"We then lost a couple of weeks while James recovered from his injuries, and this plus the soaring spring temperatures meant the plans for trying a new line on Mt Dickey went out of the window. So we caught a flight over to the Kahiltna Glacier, and got on Moonflower on Mt Hunter. After climbing 14 pitches to a bivvy, we were stormed off the face the next morning. With continuing poor weather, we realised that the high temperatures and rain to 10,000ft had brought technical climbing on Hunter and Foraker to an end for the season, so we decided to head back to civilisation."

Gavin Pike (L) and James Clapham in Alaska

The expedition was supported by the BMC and the Mount Everest Foundation. Gavin Pike is sponsored by Marmot.