mammothclimbs Posted February 24 Posted February 24 Hi everyone. I've just been looking at my plans for this summer, and have been zeroing in on the idea of a ~2 week trip to Alaska in early/mid May. I don't have much experience in the Alaska Range, so I'd love to get some feedback/sanity check with some ideas on what might be some sensible routes to look at. For my general background (have previous post with more background), I am consistently leading ~WI4 M4 ish in Hyalite and the Midwest, ~5.10 on gear in cragging scenarios, and have done a good amount of easy alpine stuff in the cascades and climbed the west buttress of Denali last summer. The routes listed below are a few that I had been looking at that seemed like they could be at an acceptable level of difficulty with the proper partner, depending on if they would still be in acceptable conditions by mid May. My main objective with the routes would be to get more experience on routes in the Alaska Range that would be good in the buildup to something like the Cassin Ridge. https://www.mountainproject.com/route/105997286/south-west-ridge https://www.mountainproject.com/route/120635482/bacon-and-eggs-on-mini-mini-moonflower https://www.mountainproject.com/route/113156880/west-ridge https://www.mountainproject.com/route/110994020/southwest-ridge Thanks for any suggestions and happy climbing. Quote
mthorman Posted February 24 Posted February 24 I can't speak to the other routes but SW Ridge on Peak 11300 is very good. The climbing was never hard but it was in a great position. I seem to remember most of it was simul climbing terrain. We did it as a preparation for climbing the Cassin (which we never ended up doing). I would personally recommend it as just a great route up there. I have notes somewhere if you wanted more details but I think there is a fair bit online too. Two weeks in early/mid May is a great trip in there!! 1 Quote
mammothclimbs Posted February 25 Author Posted February 25 Awesome, thank you. Peak 11300 is the climb from that list that I had been most stoked on. Did you have any other climbs relatively accessible from the Kahiltna planned for that trip, or not if plan was run 11300 and then head up for the Cassin? It looks like there's a lot of good beta online, but I'll also probably try to get my hands on the Supertopo and take a look at beta for 11300 and neighboring climbs. Quote
mthorman Posted February 26 Posted February 26 The Cassin was planned for a different year. We climbed both Ham & Eggs and Shaken Not Stirred on the same 2 week trip. So we got a bump from TAT mid trip between the Root Canal and the West Fork. But we did have the Southwest Ridge of Dan Beard in our options. I also remember a team climbing good terrain up the valley behind and west of Peak 11300. I am not sure of the exact route though. 1 Quote
keenwesh Posted February 26 Posted February 26 (edited) The right couloir of 11300 is an excellent route. A significant step up from the SW ridge but not much harder than ham and eggs, especially if you retreat from the ridge and skip the Alaskan ridge adventure to the summit. I posted about it in 2016 and I’m not sure if anyone else has done it since. It deserves more traffic! Edited March 2 by keenwesh 1 Quote
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