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| Steve coming up. Camp and air strip getting farther and farther below... |
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| Steve on the steep.
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| Steve coming up to my belay. |
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| Steep little corner. With the rock at my back, it was easy to have both hands free to place a screw (pic courtesy of Steve Towne). |
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| The route continued to be mostly steepish with mellow snow and some steep ice steps (pic courtesy of Steve Towne). |
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| Steve coming to join me above the crux of the route. |
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| Steve pondering my fate. Decision time: do I head right for the rock pitch (which shredded Mr. Puffy's pants) and for which we had no #3 cam, or do I go left of the buttress in hopes of finding ice? |
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| Meanwhile behind us, this was the view from the 7th belay - I think the peaks (from right to left) are Dickey, Bradley, Wake, and (a bit of) Johnson.
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| Steve at the 7th belay. |
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| Freddie and Bruce were far below in no time. |
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| Steve on the sharp end - we simul-climbed the next 5 pitches up steep, but easy snow. Steve caught up with Freddie and Bruce at the 7th belay as (and because) they were heading down - Bruce was sick and unable to keep fluids in. Bummer! |
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| Looking back down at Steve coming up the 2nd pitch. He led the 1st pitch. |
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| Freddie at the 5.6 rock step with Bruce and Steve heading up.
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| When Freddie asked when we'd be starting, Steve boldly announced that we wanted to be climbing by 5:30a.m.. My thought, "Sure, nice idea, but probably not..." Freddie and Bruce planned to start later. Here they are, ahead of us.
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| After setting up our camp, we visited with other climbers to see what they were planning to climb the next day (5/9/13). |
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| NIce view of Denali from our camp. |
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| 'Ham and Eggs' - complete with packed approach tracks. |
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| Steve - incredibly excited about his first ever ski plane flight and glacier landing. In his other life, Steve is a commercial airline pilot. |
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| Heading in.... the air strip is visible left of center and camp in the center of this pic. |
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| Rather than being delivered by TAT to the Root Canal Glacier, climbers can base camp on the Ruth or at the Mountain House, and then ski and hike up this snowfield to access the climbs on the south side of the Moose's Tooth. We chose to fly. |
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| Mt. Barrill, with the 'Japanese Couloir' near its left margin, was one of our fall-back climbs had we not been able to get flown up onto the Root Canal Glacier and been dropped off instead somewhere down on the Ruth.
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| ... and seconds later we flew by 'Shaken, Not Stirred' - even steeper and more inviting! (pic courtesy of Steve Towne) |
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| On our pre-landing flyby, 'Ham and Eggs' looked steep and inviting (pic courtesy of Steve Towne). |
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| Mt. Barrill, with the 'Japanese Couloir' near its left margin, was one of our fall-back climbs had we not been able to get flown up onto the Root Canal Glacier and been dropped off instead somewhere down on the Ruth.
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| Flying over the Ruth Glacier (the Great Gorge) with Denail behind and above Mt. Dickey on the right. |
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