Kris Erickson

Is it possible to match Andrew McLean? I've wracked my brain since his visit for the Friends of the Chugach Avalanche Center fundraiser last year. Then I remembered Kris Erickson.

 

Kris and I met as youthful ice climbers in Bozeman almost 20 years ago. Since then we see each other at trade shows and at Hans Saari Memorial Fund events. He's a sick climber and skier and an incredible photographer. Think all-mountain Beat Kammerlander or Heinz Zak. I knew he'd respect the salty Anchorage crowd that would pack the Beartooth to see him speak. 

 

On October 28 over 400 people filled the Beartooth as Kris told yarns from skiing the world - Alaska, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan. The event raised over $10,000 for the Friends. These funds go toward weather stations, snow machines and travel expenses for the Chugach Avalanche Center. 

 

After the event Kris and I played. We skied the Jewel Glacier above Crow Pass for a view, then we visited Pivot Point. Last year Ryan Hokanson and I scrubbed out a seven-problem dry tool bouldering circuit at Pivot Point. Ryan went to school in Salt Lake and I've been unable to find any loco recruits since then. For some reason Anchoragites think climbing mossy, chosspiles in the rain is weird. Maybe it is, but Kris understood. He's a hard climber. We had a blast. 

 

 Raven Peak and the Raven Glacier from the Jewel Glacier.

 

 

At Pivot Point we warmed up on easy jug hauls. 
 

 

Kris on the Jay Rowe traverse. 

 

 

Several of the problems Ryan and I scrubbed out last year had become chalked boulder problems over the summer. We know dry toolers staked the original claim!

 

 

Kris grabbed the camera when I finally ticked a full linkup of this traverse after 20-something tries over a year. 

 

 

Then we spied a mossy and chossy gem in the forest. We scrubbed off the deep vegetables and removed the dangerous boulders. Then we pumped ourselves silly and took glorious tumbling falls into the leaves and devils club. The best part is we didn't come close to finishing the problem. We walked away giggling with aching arms. A project! 

 

 

Thanks for coming up Kris! 

Dry Tooling at Pivot Point

Dry tooling is rock climbing with ice tools and crampons instead of rock shoes and fingers. By hooking picks and points on tiny rock edges we can scratch our way up impossibly smooth faces. Dry tooling is part of mixed climbing, where both rock and ice are being climbed at the same time. Mixed climbing is standard procedure for getting up high and technical mountains, such as the steep Alaska Range faces. Dry tooling has also become a sport in itself, where climbers hit the crags--like Pivot Point--before any ice forms. In some areas people climb bolted dry tool routes. 

North Slope tower climber Cody Arnold matches hands on one tool so he can keep traversing while using one solid edge. His second tool is hooked on his shoulder. When the tool pops he'll fly into the old-growth devils club forest. 

 

Cathy near a no-hands rest on the original Jay Rowe traverse. 

 

Jay Rowe, the godfather of modern Seward Highway dry tool bouldering demonstrates his talent. 

Dmitry Sidrov said to me, "I've never been dry tooling before." In the 1980's, Dmitry was on the legendary, state-sponsored Russian climbing teams. A process that produced the world's most hardened alpinists until the end of the USSR. Dmitry didn't call it dry tooling back then.

Alpinist Ryan Hokanson steinpulling and edging a project. 

Dmitry torquing his crampon monopoint into a crack as a foothold.

Sunday afternoon. Rehydrating at the Tap Root.