Just getting back from Juneau, Alaska after an amazing trip. I was there with Blake Herrington to climb the Mendenhall Towers that rise above the Juneau Icecap. Southeast Alaska is normally plagued by rainy weather and I had imagined our trip spent tent bound slowly loosing sanity and patience. Blake and I had not climbed with each other before, and hardly knew each other for that matter.
Lucky for us, we would not spend much time tent bound. We arrived in Juneau to find warm sunny weather. We quickly hopped onto a helicopter and in minutes went from “urban” Alaska to a world of ice and rocky outcroppings spanning a massive distance.
We got right to work and made a repeat ascent of the SE Buttress of the Main tower at 10d, 12 pitches. Through the 11 hour ascent and descent, I wore a t-shirt the entire time. The climbing was great.
The following day we chose to ascend a line we had descended up the unclimbed “curtian” feature that spans the distance between the Main Tower and the Fourth Tower. The curtain feature appears to be the biggest and steepest section of rock on the south face of the towers. The climb went smooth as butter and we named it “The Iron Curtain” (5.12a, 12 pitches). We stayed up a bit late socializing with friends that came up to join us at the towers, and decided to spend the next day resting and making plans for new routes. The sun was so intense that Blake’s eyes went bloodshot for the following days and mine stung even with sunglasses on.
The warm weather was quickly melting the snow on the summit ridges of the towers as well as around camp. Another line on the curtain was calling to us that now appeared dry enough to climb. It was a beautiful and steep straight line that ran from almost bottom to top. The climbing we easier than we expected as wasn’t any harder than 5.11a. We dubbed the route “Resisting A Rest” (5.11a, 13 pitches).
We were tired once again the following morning, but after a weather report of impending doom, we rallied to climb again. The South Buttress of the Fourth Tower had beckoned us, and from the ground it looked to be an easier climb. It didn’t turn out to be any easier than the other climbs we did. Instead we encountered beautiful cracks leading one into another up steep and exquisite stone. It was a strange day of intense sun and clouds blasting through the tower. The ridge was positioned such that a prominent gendarme high on the route seemed to cut the clouds apart. We dubbed the route “Resignation Arete” (5.11, 11 pitches). Blake had been wanting to use that name in honor of Governer Sarah Pallin’s recent resignation and as a spin off of a climb in Red Rocks, Nevada called Resolution Arete. The route seemed like an appropriate fit.
As promised the weather deteriorated from there. The following rest day was spent primarily around camp in a misty haze. There wasn’t anywhere to ga anyway, since we were blocked by a crevasse on one side and the tower walls on the other. Another day began with 30 ft. of visibility and a bad weather forecast. We decided to pack it in.
Our camp was perched much higher than the rest of the icefield on a shelf just below the towers. A series of cliffs and crevasses blocked a simple escape. We got through the cravasses as planned and found our intended snow couloir exixt. Through the warm weather, the couloir had melted out into a series of waterfalls and cliffs. We had to rappel through the cliffs and waterfalls to reach the glacier.
We had hoped to arrive at the trailhead in one day, but 9pm found us in the middle of the glacier where the snow had receded and only remained in the crevasses. The rest was blue ice. We set up camp on a snowed in crevasse and quickly got in the tent to escape the wind.
The next day brought renewed energy, but we were still a long way from the road. We packed up and we were on our feet by about 9am. The crevasses moved closer and closer to each other and ridges formed in between them. The going to progressively slower and slower. We were in a giant maze where crevasses were every 15 feet. We arrived at the edge of the glacier at about 5pm. I had been looking forward to the hike off the glacier because I hadn’t spent much time on them. That thrill had wore off the first day. We found our way up a bushy cliffside and onto the trail which we followed in the wrong direction for about 40 minutes. That was disheartening in our fatigued state.
We ran into some hikers that offered us a ride into town. That was great, but it meant we had to keep pace with them for the remaining hour and a half of hiking. At least we had only been walking with 70 lb packs for about 8 hours. It was painful, but we did it.
The following days were spent in Juneau passing the time away in a mild rain.
Blake has published a few articles of his own here:
http://blakeclimbs.blogspot.com/2009/07/mendenhall-tower-southeast-ridge.html
http://blakeclimbs.blogspot.com/2009/07/juneau-again.html
http://blakeclimbs.blogspot.com/2009/07/alaska-part-3-iron-curtain-grade-iv-512.html
Also check out Climbing Magazine’s Write up of the store
http://www.climbing.com/news/hotflashes/new-route_blitz_in_mendenhall_towers/
Jason’s Pics from the Trip
Tags: alaska, juneau, mendenhall towers, New Routes
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