Mount Logan King Trench

Logan is huge. By some measures it has the largest base circumference of any non-volcanic mountain in the world. Skiing glaciers around Logan is 120 miles. The summit plateau has 11 peaks over 5,000 meters. My first view of Logan was from a Bagely Icefield nunatak at 2am in 1999. I couldn't comprehend the castle-like summits hanging over the sea of smaller peaks. It looked like a distant range. No one forgets their first sight of Logan.

Logan's other great feature is it's second highest. Although Logan is the highest summit in Canada it is still second in North America. That means thousands attempt 20,320-foot Denali each year, while less than 100 attempt 19,551-foot Mount Logan. On our 21-day trip we saw nobody after day six. Being second highest also means there's little information about the route. Adventure!!

Glenn and I first discussed Logan five years ago. Paul heard about our plans and jumped onboard, the Logan chapter in Steve Barnett's The Best Ski Touring in America was vivid in Paul's memory. Jeremy Allyn at Mountain Madness was keen to wrangle the permits. And Michael Thomas, who'd been on many Madness trips, is always ready for high points.

Mountain Madness guide Tino Villanueva packing in my garage in Anchorage. Sorting gear took a several hours. Planning, buying and packing food took two days. 

John and Ellinore Claus drove us five hours to Chitina where we met Paul Claus and his Turbo Otter of Ultima Thule.  Paul is the only show on skis on the US side. Flying from Haines Junction is another option, but the weather is worse. The flight to Logan crosses serious wilderness. Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park is America's largest and the glaciers are the largest outside of Greenland and Antarctica.

The crew: beside me are Glenn Wilson from Tulsa, Oklahoma who I first climbed with on Mount Baker in 1998 and have since been to Mount Bona and Ecuador, Paul Muscat and I went on an epic Arctic Refuge trip in 2009, Michael Thomas from California has climbed high peaks all over the world, and Tino Villanueva is from Seattle and works for Mountain Madness and Valdez Heli Camps. The thing about Logan is it attracts interesting people. We had an absolute blast together.

Paul dropped us 0.2 km from the Canadian border. We hauled our full kit, single-carry for six hours to the entrance of the King Trench.

At Camp I below the King Trench. The highest-looking summit is King Peak. See more information about our schedule here.

We rolled in style.

Paul chilling at Camp III at 13,400 feet on King Col. The crux of the route--the MacCarthy Gap--climbs through the icefall. 

King Peak (16,972 feet), the ninth highest in North America, is a toothy peak that dominates the view from King Col.

Glenn prefers his view dominated by a 10-inch flapper balanced on his ThermoServ 521. 

Paul freeze-drying his long undies. 

 Robert Scott would be proud. Proper style man hauling through the MacCarthy Gap. 

Camp IV on the Football Field at 15,860. Prospector's Col is in the notch above and right of the Mid.

We carried seven days of food and fuel to Prospector's Col, then spent a day at Camp IV eating, repairing gear and eating before moving to high camp.

High camp at on the great plateau. We spent four nights here. The last two nights in raging wind gusts. My high school super-hero and mentor, glaciologist Dr. Mel Marcus told me about spending summer of 1970 living on this ice plateau and climbing all it's summits. I kept envisioning his friendly smile appearing on each mountain top. 

After a rest day we set off at 9am for the summit. Wind and near-zero temps kept us layered-up all day.

On the summit ridge. 

Logan summit at 5pm: Michael, Tino, Paul, Glenn and Joe. This is Michael's fifth Second Seven including Ojos del Salado (22,615 feet) in Argentina, Mount Kenya (17,057 feet) in Kenya, Mount Townsend (7,247 feet) in Australia and Dykh-Tau (17,077 feet) in Russia. He'd like to go to Mount Tyree (15,919 feet) in Antarctica. And then there's K2 (28,251 feet). Nobody has climbed the Second Seven.

King Peak isn't looking so big anymore. This tool was locked into ice on the summit. 

Downclimbing the summit ridge. Our summit day was 15 hours. 

Descending the MacCarthy Gap. 

We GPS'd through an ever-present fog layer from 10 to 9,000 feet. Just like the fog that hangs from 9,000 to 10,500 on Denali's West Buttress.

Back at Base Camp. We considered rationing the beer in case Paul couldn't pick us up for a few days. We didn't ration. We sat for 48 hours. In the grand spec of things it wasn't too rough. The first ascent team had bones gleaming through blackened toes as they walked and floated back to McCarthy.

We were cozy in our sacs at 10:30 pm when Paul flew in with his drill sargent, pack-your-crap-NOW! routine. We packed in ten minutes. Paul said only George Dunn has packed faster. Thanks for a great flight Paul!

After a buggy night at the Ultima Thule airstrip Paul flew us back to Chitina and we drove home. 

Back in Anchorage. Thanks for an unforgettable trip guys!! (We may look clean, but we haven't showered in 21 days.)

Swiss 4000-Meter Summits

The Alps of France, Italy and Switzerland have 128 summits over 4,000 meters. If you count summits separated by at least 100 vertical meters then only 52 rise above 4,000 meters. This is the Alps' peak bagger ticklist.

I joined UK-based Jagged Globe for their Zermatt 4000ers trip. As sold, the trip starts by acclimatizing on easier 4000-meter summits accessed from the Klein Matterhorn telepherique and culminates with the Dufourspitze, a.k.a. Monta Rosa (4,634m), the highest mountain in Switzerland. Dodgy weather stopped us from tagging the Dufour, but we still climbed four 4000ers and a technical via ferratta (steel ladders and cable route). 

When I was nine I visited Zermatt with Mom and Dad. I remember wanting to climb the mountains and seeing Edward Wymper's infamous rope and thinking it looked just like the rope in the garage I'd planned to start using as soon as I got home. I also remember eating two banana splits for dinner one night and crying when we left. Zermatt started my mountain obsession. This time the mountains felt urbanized, 180 degrees different than Alaska's wilderness, but still I was hooked on climbing great peaks and sleeping in a bed every night. BTW, the Matterhorn is a chosspile, but I still want to guide it!

My cohort, the legendary Marty Beare. While living in New Zealand I followed in his shadow. I lived in his house after he moved out, I climbed his routes, I heard the stories. Marty did not disappoint. After the trip we climbed in Barbarine and La Fayete. 

I also worked with Jim Blyth. A Chamonix-based Scot. We have big ski plans for 2012. 

Jitendra Singh and Gavin Jackson climbing the SW ridge of Pollux (4,092m), our first summit of the trip. 

Jitendra, Gavin and I on the summit of Pollux (4,092 m).

Jim belaying folks down the 32mm fixed lines on Pollux. 

Dropping down to the D'Ayas hut in Italy on the first night. The next day we climbed Castor (4,228m) in blustery and foggy conditions and continued to Zermatt for the night. 

Entering the Gorner Gorge via ferrata in Zermatt on a rainy day three. Here Marty is lowering folks down the zip-line. The via ferrata took five hours and had three lower-out zip lines and a king swing. 

On the final three days we heeded a marginal forecast and opted for lower summits in the Sass Valley rather than Monta Rosa. From the Hohsaas Refuge we climbed Weissmeis (4,017m in this photo) and Lagginhorn (4,010m). 
 

Slottoons on the Weismeiss. 

Fred O'Neil sharing England's finest on the summit of Lagginhorn. 

Belayed downclimbing off a jammed knot on the Lagginhorn.  

Mont Blanc

Mont Blanc is the highest peak in the Alps, i.e. lots of guiding work! At 4,810 meters (15,782 ft) Mont Blanc is possible with a few days of acclimatizing for altitude and some mountaineering practice. I took a job with Mont Blanc Guides for their six-day summit package. We spent the first three days acclimatizing around the Albert Premier and Trient Huts, then we tackled the Gouter Route on the Great White Whale.  

The honcho guide was Graham McMahon, a Welsh IFMGA guide based in Chamonix. Ben Mitchell and I were the new American guides, working our first summer job in the Alps as IFMGA guides. Ben lives in Tahoe and works for Alpine Skills International, Mountain Madness, RMI and Points North Heliski. When not guiding Ben flings himself off cliffs wearing a wingsuit and BASE rig.  

 

On the third day of acclimatizing we left the Trient Hut (3,170m) in Switzerland and crossed the Trient Glacier to climb Aiguille du Tour (3,529). In the background are the Aiguilles Dorees. 

Nigel, Wendy and Ellen scrambling to the summit of Aiguille du Tour (3,529). Perfect practice for the Gouter. 

Mont Blanc above Chamonix seen from Le Tour. The Gouter route is the right skyline.  

Ibex (Bouquetin in French) on the three-hour hike from midway up the Mont Blanc Tramway to the Tete Rousse Hut. A glacial lake outburst flood is threatening the upper portion of the tramway.

The glacial lake is under 40 meters of ice in the tiny Tete Rousse Glacier. They've drilled into the lake and are pumping out the water for $2.5 million. One hundred years ago a flood came out of this same glacier and killed 175 people.

The Tete Rousse Hut at 3,187 meters on Mont Blanc where we based for the climb. The hut was built three years ago and has 75 beds. 

 

The Grand Couloir above the Tete Rousse Hut. The route crosses the gully down low, then climbs third and fourth class to the Gouter Hut (shining at the top of the gully). Graham said the Grand Couloir was subdued compared to normal. During our 30-second sprint across the gully we missed the volley of rocks than came down every 15 minutes or so. This gully is the real deal. 

Stephane Comte and some cheesy potatoes at the Tete Rousse. For summit day we had five guides including Stephane, Yannick, Dylan Taylor, Graham and me giving us a 2:1 ratio for the technical section between the Tete Rousse and Gouter huts. 

Nigel and Gary climbing cables below the Gouter Hut at 7AM. I'm using the cable stanchions as short-pitching anchors. 

Looking down the Grand Couloir from the Gouter Hut. Six hundred meters of "eeeep!"

Gary Sloan from England downing a strategic Red Bull near the summit. Gary and I summited together. Thanks for a great day Gary!

Gweeds on Mont Blanc summit: Joe, Dylan Taylor and Graham McMahon. Round trip to the summit from the Tete Rousse took 14 hours.  

Walking the upper portion of the Mont Blanc tramway back to the Bellevue Telepherique and down to Les Houches near Chamonix. 

Kahiltna 12-day Course

For sure I said "yes!" when Garrett Madison offered me a 12-day course on Denali's Kahiltna Glacier. It had been three years since my last stint with Alpine Ascents International. That was also my last visit to the Kahiltna. The 40-mile long Kahiltna Glacier is a dramatic setting for mountaineering skills and has an unbeatable social scene.

My crew on the course was fired up and super fun: Ian Davies from Brisbane, Australia; Daniel Krebs from Hattiesburg, Mississippi; and two Army Rangers, Clint Holladay and Trevor Tow from Savannah, Georgia.

   

Talkeetna Air Taxi flew us from Talkeetna to the 7,000-foot Kahiltna Base Camp in a DeHavilland Turbo Otter. We schlepped our kit up glacier and camped for five days to cover mountaineering skills and climb Control Tower.

Ian and Clint hauling Trevor from the hole during crevasse rescue practice on day four. 

The dramatic ridge of Control Tower.

The Triangle Face of the Kennedy-Lowe route on Mount Hunter as seen from Control Tower. The serrated ridge at the top of the face is a famous and fearsome, Alaskan double-corniced ridge. See High Alaska for a close up of the first ascent.

Denali attracts guides and like-minded people from around the US. Tim Remick, a friend who I haven't seen in years, was spending a week at Kahiltna Base Camp photographing haggared Denali climbers.

On day seven we moved camp up the Kahiltna Glacier to 8,000 on the West Buttress route of Denali. Despite an ominous start, low clouds and snow kept the temperatures down and the snow firm letting us move during the mid-day rather than the typical night schedule.

We moved camp again to 9,600 feet below Kahiltna Pass. Our goal was climbing 12,525-foot Kahiltna Dome, but constant clouds and snow killed that plan. Instead we climbed a 13,350-foot peak next to Windy Corner. In this photo Daniel is standing near the summit of Peak 13,350 below the 16,030-foot end of the West Buttress.

The posse: Daniel, Ian, Clint, Trevor and Joe on the summit of Peak 13,350.

Trevor leading down the West Buttress to the 11,000-foot West Buttress camp. Below lurks fog and our camp at 9,600.

Murk...

We couldn't resist having a crack at Kahiltna Dome. Instead of summiting we found a blizzard and rowdy alpine climbing. As the storm intensified, Daniel led us across the bergschrund without falling in, and found a patch of ice. We set up a semi-hanging, EARNEST ice anchor, climbed the 55-degree ice using American technique to a picket anchor. We then climbed 10,790-foot Mount Capps (we thought) and then returned to the picket anchor. I belayed them back down to the ice anchor and I joined them by counterbalance rappelling off an ice bollard.

These southern boys love storms! The orange rope from Daniel leads up to the bollard that I'm counter-balance rappelling on. The next morning, when clouds lifted, we saw we'd been far from Mount Capps summit. Everything is exciting in a summer solstice storm! Thanks for a great trip guys!