Brit first ascent on Kitchatna Spires, Alaska

After a 4 day snowy wait in Talkeetna Paul Roderick of TAT flew Mike 'Twid' Turner, Dai Lampard and Stuart McAleese onto the Tatina Glacier in the Kitchatna Spires. It was Twid and Stuart's third trip in consecutive years to this amazing granite area. After the 4-day April storm all the faces where totally plastered with fresh snow and it also made crossing the col from the Tatina glacier to the Monolith glacier very dangerous. Once established between the vast west face of Middle Triple Peak and the East Face of Mount Nevermore the team started their climb on the East Face of Nevermore. The line was the Pillar on the furthest right of the kilometre long face, which also led straight to the summit. After a couple of days fixing the first 200m of climbing, where many pitches were climbed in waterfalls from the melting snow, the team started capsule style on the face. From the third day the weather worsened to very cold and snowy conditions. For 5 days the team climbed in bad weather. Generally the climbing followed a continuous crack up very steep walls. The rock was excellent. Most of the cracks needed cleaning of snow and ice. On the eighth day of climbing the weather improved and the team made quick progress up fantastic cracks free climbing all the way to a perfect cave bivi. The following day started fine and the team made the summit of Mt Nevermore by 2pm. After a 1000m of hard won climbing the summit was a fine prize. Although another route exists on this East Face it was not taken to the summit, so we assume the first ascent of this amazing East Face. The Summit of Middle Triple Peak only seemed a stone's throw away. On the descent the weather seemed to be deteriorating as the team abseiled the wall. Not wanting to be stuck in bad weather the team abseiled through the night and arrived back in base camp at 5am, 10 days after leaving it.

Perfect Storm 1000m A1 E4 (UK) 25 pitches plus easy summit scrambling.


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