Matt Lemke

Yeah we noticed that! How was the ice serac at maybe the 7k level? Did you climb it or bypass it? We were trying to follow the historic route as much as possible. That debris field just to the left from where we started was really a mess, but luckily right where we were climbing everything looked like it had already slid down low over there and the snow was prefect and firm.

I love them, but they are the only pants that really fit me much at all since I am 6' 9" love those Scandinavian brands haha. In a soaking rain or soaking bushwhack they will not stay dry, but on a big mountain where everything is ice and snow they are great. If they do get wet though they dry very fast. If I ever do a soaking bushwhack I actually just wear a pair of quick dry basketball shorts with gore tex gaiters.

Trip: Mount Fairweather - Carpe Ridge Trip Date: 06/16/2024 Trip Report: Coming off the heels of Eli's awesome climb on Carpe Ridge, Sarah and I also climbed this route from June 13-16th. It was a very historic year on Fairweather to have two parties climb Carpe within just a few weeks of each other, considering the previous ascent of Carpe Ridge prior to this year was the Smileys back in 2013...11 years ago! I already wrote a full length trip report on my website that can be found here, but I'll include the route topos we made below and a few brief notes. The PDF can be downloaded for a complete route overview on one page. Flew into Fairweather Glacier with Fly Drake, and made it to 10400 foot camp first day. Big 5700 foot day with full 40 lb packs. Followed the historically done route the whole way traversing left initially, climbing the narrow couloir and following the rocky ridgecrest before following open snow slopes right of the crest from 8000 to 10400 feet. Snow below 7500 feet was firm and awesome. Perfect crampon booting. Above that was isothermic slop. Put snowshoes on at 8k. After waiting a full day at 10400 camp due to active snowfall (8-12 inches), on day 3 we traversed right to bypass the big cliffs above the 10400 camp, then climbed up steeper but good snow all the way to where ridge narrows at 12k. The historic route of going left around these cliffs definitely does not go anymore...huge overhanging ice serac shedding crap constantly. Continued up past small flat 12400 foot camp, fell into crevasse at 12500 feet, slogged through deep drifted powder from there to 13400 feet, made it to south peak at 13820 feet and camped at 13700 foot low saddle between south and main peaks. Day 4 climbed to summit and descended standard west ridge/north basin route to 9800 foot LZ for pickup early morning on day 5. Ice nose was climbed by traversing the blue ice left of the aerated white ice wall that would crumble at the slightest touch! Had historically good weather. After we flew out there was even 3 more days of awesome weather which we used to try and climb Devils Thumb. More on that later. Carpe Route.pdf Gear Notes: Team Gear - MSR Advance Pro UL 2 person tent: This is the lighest alpine tent you can get. It's small and sucks to be in especially with my 6' 9" height, but critical for its durability and low weight. - One 60m half rope: Since we would not be descending the route, no rappels would be needed so only one rope was brought - Two standard snow pickets: One per person - Ortovox Pro snow shovel - Six Petzl Laser Speed Light ice screws and V thread tool - Small set of stoppers and a few small cams from 0.2 - 0.5 inch: We did not end up using these - Six single length runners and two double length runners with 2 wire gate biners each - MSR Reactor stove - One medium and Two mini fuel canisters: The non winter mix canisters did not perform very well, but the winter mix one we had did quite a bit better. With the great weather forecast we had, we felt comfortable bringing this low amount of fuel. My Personal Gear - Gossamer Gear Mariposa 60L Pack: This is my favorite pack money can buy....period. - Big Agnes Lost Ranger UL Sleeping Bag (Just the orange inside section rated 20 degrees F): This modular sleeping system has two separate bags. Combined they are rated 0 degrees F but using just the inside bag gives you one of the lightest 20 degree bags out there. - Thermarest NeoAir inflatable sleeping pad - Big Agnes Third Degree foam sleeping pad: I always double up with a foam pad when sleeping on snow in case my air pad punctures. If you cannot fix the puncture you're fucked without a backup foam pad. - MSR Denali EVO Snowshoes - BD Couloir Mountaineering harness - Pulley and MicroTraxion with prussiks and three locking carabiners - BD Cobra Ice Tools with BD Spinner Bungee leash: This was my first time using these and I liked them well enough for mountain objectives. - 1 Liter Nalgene water bottle with insulator - Petzl Sirocco helmet - One BD Z-Distance trekking pole: Lost in crevasse :( - La Sportiva Olympus Mons Mountaineering Boot: This is the only good mountaineering boot big enough for me - BD Stinger automatic crampons - Good pair of glacier glasses - Small plastic bowl and spork Personal Clothing - Under Armor wool base layer pants - Fjall Raven G1000 Pants - Polyester base layer T shirt - Under Armor Wool long sleeve shirt - BD First Light Hybrid Hoody: Great soft shell that fits my large frame perfectly - Columbia Yocum Ridge shell jacket: I did not end up using this - Cotopaxi down vest - La Sportiva Primaloft Insulating coat: Can't remember the exact model of this coat but it was my main big puffy. Only needed it twice for a short amount of time - Balaclava - Rab Endurance down mitts - BD Gloves - Three pairs of socks Food - Five Peak Refuel freeze dried meals - Small box of Cherrios and ziploc bag of dried milk powder - Two small bags of beef jerky - Two small bags of M&Ms - Six small packs of Fruit Gushers - Four Natures Bakery Fig Bars (AKA Barely Edibles) - Two small Shot Blocks - One Tube of NUUN water enhancers Approach Notes: Fly in to 4700 feet on Fairweather Glacier with Fly Drake. GIve this guy full respect...he deserves it!

Hey Eli, thanks for the write up on Carpe...hoping we can fly in tomorrow. I just noticed this report you have for Lincoln, and was wondering if you, or anyone else here knows if Tom S is still the only person who has completed the Difficult 10? I'm trying to finish them myself...hmu if you're interested. Cheers!

Great work guys, I really should go back to finish the second half of the traverse over to otto. I guess you didnt find the great natural shelter bivy I constructed about halfway between Degenhart and Terror, ~50 feet below the saddle crest on south side. Sheltered us from 12 hours of rain without a drop hitting our sleeping bags! Glad to see people getting after it! You even climbed Pyramid the right way...that OW didnt look enticing so we traversed left and went up the upper S gully instead...much easier class 3 in case anyone else doesnt want to climb an OW or some sketch 5.10

Full report can be found here: Mount Hunter West Ridge

Thanks Jason, is there any way to be able to show the original size of that photo? The photo isn't high enough resolution to read the notes.

Sorry about the duplicate report...this site is still as confusing as ever...

Trip: Mount Hunter - West Ridge Trip Date: 05/31/2022 Trip Report: I climbed the west ridge of Mount Hunter from May 29 - June 1 just last week with a summit on May 31st. The route has changed drastically from the days of old, here is a good beta overview of the ridge if anyone is interested. We took 3 days on route with two nights at the 10650 col for a big 4k foot summit day. Weather has been fantastic in Alaska this season making for a carefree, worry free ascent (mostly lol). I'll get to writing a detailed trip report on my website soon...just figured I'd share these route notes for now. Conditions were mostly good, but afternoons on the lower ridge started getting scary when the stepp snow softened considerably in the hot sun. Summit temps were in the mid teens with very little wind. Photos at the link below. Photo Gallery Gear Notes: Two 7.3mm twin ropes, 4 cams 0.5 - 2, set of DMM nuts, 5 UL screws, 3 pickets, 20 degree sleeping bag, 6 single slings and 1 double. Extra TAT Approach Notes: Snowshoed to base of ridge from landing - 1.5 hours.

This is an amazing trip report. Gets me wanting to do another pickets trip!

Starting in 2020, they began making a few big mountain boots big enough for me (euro size 50) and I bought the Olympus Mons Cube with the tech binding toe bail integrated into the boot. Score I thought, but I realized the heel couldn't lock. Everyone on here says to just climb in your AT boots, but alas, we still live in the stone ages where AT boots are not made big enough yet for me (I need a Mondo 34). I find myself looking for a way to ski with my new Cube boots...I don't have much experience skiing free heeled, but the terrain I'll be on is mostly 15-25 degrees in steepness...hopefully easy enough to be doable. Might give those Voile's a try though, thanks for the thread everyone!

Looking for a partner to climb gunsight peak with starting Sunday and going to Wednesday next week. Also will be climbing sinister while up there. Ideal route is the gunrunner traverse but open to others. Hmu at mlemke100@gmail.com

Holy cow you had completely different conditions than we did. Looks like a lot of fresh snow fell after our may 26th climb. You were sinking through a crust? Damn the snow was hard ice the entire way for us!! Front pointing from start to finish. Nice work getting this one done

Nice photos! I did the nf of Buckner and horseshoe on June 8th... Wonder if it was our tracks you saw?

@jon, @olyclimber, @JasonG Yeah that's the kicker...the photos are not hosted on NWHikers. There is an easy linking system to any one of 4-5 external web album hosts. Flikr, Google Photos etc. If photos must be uploaded to the same site you are making the trip report on, it can be made possible to make it as easy, however you'd have to compete with Google's photo uploading system and speeds, AND have a very quick and easy way to link photos into the body of the trip report. It would require a huge amount of work. You also will need a large database capacity which will increase hosting costs. Summitpost is having a huge issue with this. They have so many photos on the site it costs $2000 per month to host. This ultimately will lead to the death of that site in the near future. My recommendation would be to avoid requiring photos having to be uploaded to CC in order to build trip reports (although you can still make it an option). I actually believe that leads to sites dying out in the long term as we are seeing on Summitpost.