Objective 1, our line was the obvious one lookers right of the main buttress
Our Unofficial buddy, Griffen Post, made this report of his Alaskan adventure on his blog griffpost.com
“I’m f#&?ing down climbing,” shouted Lars, responding to our questions about what he was doing. Standing just shy of the summit of our objective- an unnamed peak east of Aginuk Pass- we’d hit an impassable knife-edge consisting of loose scree, rock and ice. Although we all knew in the back of our minds that the section would likely force us to fortify to a sub-peak, it was nonetheless difficult to swallow after putting in so much effort. Reluctantly, we all began descending 500ft of ice, snow and scree that we’d just so painstakingly navigated, to a lesser- although still worthy- couloir.
Side view of objective 1
We’d finished the approach the preceding morning and we were quite pleased with the camp we’d established at the base of our objective. Touring around the area that afternoon, we determined the route up the backside of the peak, although less direct, would be safer and easier. Although the front side would have offered a more direct route and given us a better assessment of snow conditions, a large serac guarded a good part of the peak and created more hazards than we were willing to deal with. Further, from the approach we were able to get visuals on all our possible routes, so even if we were to drop in from the backside, we’d never be skiing through something we hadn’t gotten a good look at.
Read the Full Report HERE —griffpost.com