Mt. Hunter, West Ridge

By: David Hart | Climbers: David Hart, Ron Rickman, John Howie, Dave Armon |Trip Dates: Late May, 1994

Photo: Kim Grandfield

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Morning came all too early. It was 5:30 AM and our two frosty Bibler tents were perched at our 10,500' high camp on Mt. Hunter's classic West Ridge. Last night's 8:00 PM Kahiltna Base Camp weather forecast was not encouraging. I was secretly almost hoping for a storm day to catch up on sleeping and eating in preparation for what we figured would be a 20+ hour summit day. But when Dave peeked outside, he found that May 26, 1994 had dawned calm and clear; today was a go!

Three MCA'ers John Howie, Ron Rickman and myself, along with Dave Armon, had left our 6,900' Kahiltna Glacier base camp below Mt. Hunter's Northwest Basin three days ago. Climbing alpine style meant that we carried sixty pound packs including 8 days of food and 10 days of fuel each. In anticipation of the many rappel anchors needed to safeguard our descent, our group hardware consisted of 10 ice screws, 8 snow pickets, 40 biners, a few chocks, extra webbing, and two 9 x 50 climbing ropes. Even though a Wyoming pair had made a 36 hour round trip ascent of our route during last summer's excellent weather, we envisioned a more realistic time of five days, assuming no weather or snow condition delays.

Our first morning on the route saw us entering Hunter's Northwest Basin about 6:00 AM, a couple hours ahead of a four man Colorado team who had set their sights on this same route. Exploring the lower sections of the route during the past two days from our base camp had both our teams in agreement that sharing the trail breaking duties would make it easier for each of us. A storm four days prior had dumped over three feet of snow on our route, and we all had concerns of not only unpleasant post holing, but dangerous avalanche conditions as well. It had been only two weeks since an avalanche injured two Wyoming climbers in this Northwest Basin, which we were using to gain the West Ridge. This, combined with our base camp knoll getting dusted by the powder blast of a nearby avalanche only five hours before, had us slightly unnerved this morning. Still, we were comforted that the hot afternoon sun had begun to consolidate the Basin's slopes during the past two days, and triggered numerous small point releases on our route up to the ridge. We felt we could minimize our risk as long as we were off the slopes before the sun hit them again today.

Previous accounts of this Northwest Basin approach had mentioned "some exposure to hanging seracs" while traveling in the Basin. We all breathed a great sigh of relief as our two-hour dash up the debris strewn glacier beneath monstrous seracs finally led to the start of the true climbing at the 8,500' head of the Basin. An initial couple pitches of lower angled wallowing finally gave way to the steeper climbing we had been anticipating for months. Since it was only 8:00 AM, the shadowed slopes above were still well frozen. As the angle increased to forty-five degrees, the snow climbing became more solid and enjoyable. Our running belays consisted of one picket per rope length until we reached the 9,500' base of the couloir we would use to access the West Ridge proper at 10,300'. At this point, the faster Colorado team passed us on their way to the 10,100' Camp 1 just below the ridge crest.

We encountered the steepest, most varied, and certainly most enjoyable climbing of the day in this couloir, which we climbed on its left side in about six pitches. The 50- to 60-degree snow and ice climbing was interspersed with some steeper rocky sections lower. It was a joy to encounter solid granite after having trained all winter on Chugach crud. As it began to snow, occasional spindrift sloughs would pour down from between the rocks above onto our route. Although not yet dangerous, we were glad when, eleven hours and 3,200' after leaving our base camp, we finally reached our cozy Camp 1 situated on a beautifully exposed narrow spur a couple pitches below the West Ridge proper. We envied the Colorado guys as they had already dug in and were brewing up supper as we arrived.

The snow continued to fall until about 3:00 AM when Ron and I dug out our tents from beneath the one and a half feet of new snow. Surprisingly, the weather had cleared by the time we finished a couple hours later. Even though our second day continued to be sunny and warm, both our teams decided to not move camp in the hopes that the sun and wind would consolidate the new snow and make our traveling easier the next day. So as not to have the day a total loss, two of the Colorado guys spent a few hours scouting the next four pitches up to the base of the 10,600' point on the West Ridge. We were all envious watching them climb the beautiful 70-degree ice pitch up from our camp to the ridge crest, although our hearts game while basking in the afternoon sun was enjoyable, too.

Day 3 saw us again leaving camp before the Colorado team, although they caught up to us at the base of the 10,600' point on the West Ridge. To avoid route congestion, we traversed the point through the rocks on the right, while they took the steepest most direct route over the top. John led us through the first crux, an exposed rock step. Easier yet exposed traversing on snow and ice found us one pitch below the top of point 10,600'. Dave led this next short vertical ice step and finished up through mixed terrain. Both groups reached the top of point 10,600' simultaneously and continued on to the saddle between points 10,600' and 10,800' early that evening. We chose to make our high camp here at 10,500' rather than carry everything up and over point 10,800' to the traditional high camp. We felt we could make better time across this terrain in the morning with light summit packs, and we wanted to get to bed as early as possible for our long summit day.

The huge cornices hanging from the ridge crest made it apparent how inhospitable this ridge can be during a storm. Fortunately on this evening there was barely a breath of wind, although the evening weather forecast was for increasing clouds and snow through the night. Brewing up water, eating dinner and packing for summit day kept us busy until after 10:00 PM. We all went to sleep wondering what tomorrow's 5:30 AM wake up alarm would have in store for us.

May 26 dawned calm and clear; today was a go!

Summit packs are always disappointingly heavy. Still, we didn't want to risk an unplanned bivouac without essential survival gear. Each of us carried food, water, a down parka, pile pants and extra gloves and socks. Our group gear consisted of a shovel, a stove and cookset, a CB radio, one bivy bag and a foam pad. We left high camp just after the Colorado team at 7:45 AM under sunny and clear skies.

Surmounting point 10,800' was straightforward, and except for a few crevasses along the ridge, we reached the 10,600' saddle at the base of The Shield without difficulty. The Shield is a very exposed nine pitch 45- to 60-degree snow and ice face one must climb and traverse to reach the relatively easy ground from 11,200' to just below the summit plateau at 13,000'. Our running belays again consisted of one picket or screw per rope length. Although I tried not to look down too often, the ever-steepening 3,500' of exposure to the glacier below was quite a sight. With only half a pitch of cornice traversing left to reach Ron and John at the base of the easy slopes, the ground suddenly shook beneath my feet with a roar. Ron and John looked up just in time to see the bottom half of one of these monster cornices on the opposite side of the knife-edged ridge we were traversing drop 3,000' to the glacier below. We appreciated the reminder that we were merely visitors on this wild ridge and that we should tread lightly.

After a quick lunch break in intermittent clouds, we could see the Colorado team a couple hours in front of us approaching the serac band guarding the summit plateau. Apparently in some years these seracs can be impassable, so we were encouraged by their speed in gaining the plateau. Although a few clouds continued to roll in and out, we couldn't have asked for better weather as we topped out onto the 13,000' plateau at 3:15 PM. At last our route up the final summit ridge of Hunter's North Peak could be seen in profile from our new vantage point.

After crossing the half mile wide plateau, an initial two-pitch ice couloir followed by some mixed snow and rock climbing along the ridge crest would lead to the final 1,000 feet of straightforward ridge climbing to the summit. We could see the Colorado team finishing the mixed section and judging from their progress, we knew our evening was just beginning.

Dave led across the bergschrund and found the 50-degree ice in the couloir varied from friendly and plastic to hard and brittle. Unfortunately both Dave and I got a little over zealous in our axe placements near the top and we each broke a pick on some thinly iced rocks. No wonder we couldn't get a good axe placements after that section. Fortunately we were finished with the difficult ice and all that remained were a few pitches of running belays through the mixed terrain leading to the final 1,000' summit ridge.

At this point, the Colorado team passed us on their descent about 6:30 PM at 13,500' with tales of great views from the summit. We were almost there!

The 8:00 PM weather forecast found us not quite on top, so we took a few minutes to find out what our nighttime descent would have in store for us. Unfortunately, flurries were still predicted through the night and into the morning. During each of the past several days the weather had been better than predicted and we again hoped for the same good fortune. We picked up the pace as best we could and reached the 14,570' summit of Mount Hunter twenty minutes later, twelve and a half hours after leaving our 10,500' high camp.

The view was, as promised, incredible. We could go no higher, and both Denali and Foraker dwarfed our position. Down on the 13,000' plateau we had crossed five hours earlier, we could make out the Colorado team preparing to descend onto the West Ridge. Fortunately, the wind was only about 10 mph and the temperature hovered around five degrees. All things considered, it was a very pleasant summit evening. Our stay lasted only about ten minutes; long enough to snap a few photos and catch our breaths.

Two and a half hours of down climbing and four rappels later found us back on the plateau. Having run out of water hours earlier, we took a half hour break to brew up for the descent. As midnight came and went, the clouds held off long enough for us to be treated to a wonderful display of pink and orange alpenglow before we descended onto the West Ridge. The wind and spindrift picked up during the next few hours and made waiting at the rappel anchors rather uncomfortable. As the evening twilight faded into early morning dawn the wind fortunately calmed and the visibility improved.

We all felt and looked like zombies as we staggered back into high camp at 6:15 AM; eleven rappels and almost ten hours after leaving the summit. Our 22.5 hour summit day had drained us physically and emotionally, and after a quick breakfast, we dove into our bags for some much needed sleep.

Five hours later, we woke to decide when we would descend to our base camp. We wanted to travel through the Northwest Basin in the middle of the night, so we planned to leave high camp around 10:00 PM that night. The Colorado team was even more anxious to get down and left around 5:00 PM. We rested for the remainder of the day and began our descent as planned, five hours behind the Colorado team. Upon reaching our first camp around midnight we were surprised to see the Colorado guys camped there. Apparently they did not like the late afternoon snow conditions, so decided to spend the night there and start again early in the morning. We opted to continue our descent as snow conditions had improved considerably through the evening. After nine rappels, some down climbing and an hour of hurried traveling beneath the hanging seracs, several of which had calved off during our five-day absence, we reached our base camp at 8:00 AM. As we were digging out our cache and packing up our sleds, we could see the Colorado team just beginning their descent. For the first time in five days, we actually beat them somewhere!

During the three-mile ski back to the Kahiltna Glacier landing strip, I would occasionally glance up at Hunter and amaze myself with what we had put ourselves through during the past two days. Not only did we reach the summit, but more importantly we came back better friends than when we left. For me, that's how one must judge the success or failure of a climb, and we succeeded in a big way.