Bear Tooth

[Mark_Husbands]

Anyone have any information about climbing Bear Tooth from the Root Canal Glacier? Saw something about it in an alpine journal article but no details.

[Joe_Poulton]

Get the Guide Book published by Supertopo and written by Joe Puryear

[Mark_Husbands]

Great guide. No route description for Bear Tooth. A few photos of the Mooses Tooth do show Bear Tooth and the huge couloir that separates Mooses from Bear.

[Kraken]

i'm going climbing this weekend in valdez with a guy who put up a new route on the Bear Tooth. I'll ask him, but I think his route was on the back side.

 

On a side note, the Bear Tooth is the greatest restaurant/theatre in the history of the world. Seriously, they must sprinkle crack on their food.

[wfinley]

Unfortunately moderate routes in the Ruth are not really listed anywhere. Your best bet is to tentatively plan on a peak and plan to spend a couple hours at the Talkeetna Ranger Station browsing through their log books of routes and route reports.

 

This years AAJ lists 2 routes on the Bear Tooth - the original route (2,600', 60 degrees) and White Russian (2600' 70 degrees). A source you might contact is the owner of the restaurant that Clint alluded to. I believe he climbed the Bear Tooth a couple years ago (but I could be wrong). His name is Rod and you could potentially reach him via email at the address on this page: http://www.moosestooth.net/aboutus.htm

 

[Mark_Husbands]

Thanks. The AAJ is what got my attention. On Alaska Mountain Forum, Mark Westman provided some good information about an attempt he made on Bear Tooth in sub-optimal conditions. We'll definitely have chance to look over the photos at the Ranger Station.

 

But if anyone knows of any other moderates from the Root Canal (H&E and SNS excluded) I'd love to hear about it.

[johnkelley]

The Unforgiven (350m M5 WI6) is just past the couloir between the peaks.

[wfinley]

If you drop down to the valley floor the MT's West Ridge is a good option. Here's some stoke for you:

 

 

Edited to add... a few years ago I flew out with a pilot named PJ who was working for Doug Geeting Aviation. He had another pilot in the plane with him and decided to play Vietnam and spent the next hour hurtling over passes like Espresso Gap and flying within spitting distance of the E. face of the Bear Tooth. It was an outrageous experience (at one point the pilot started screaming "THIS IS JUST LIKE IT WAS I N' NAM MAN!!!) that I'd never repeat - but I dug every minute of it. One day I'll scan all the photos I took!!!

Edited February 16, 2007 by wfinley

[Kraken]

The White Russian route on the BT from the Root canal travels 2000' up on the far right side of the snow face under the col between MT and BT. IT then takes a right trending snow gully on the slabby rock with a few thin moderate chimneys and ice up to AI 4. That's really all I know about it but my buddy Jay has climbed it and said it was very fun, like a mini ham and eggs.

[DirtyHarry]

Edited to add... a few years ago I flew out with a pilot named PJ who was working for Doug Geeting Aviation. He had another pilot in the plane with him and decided to play Vietnam and spent the next hour hurtling over passes like Espresso Gap and flying within spitting distance of the E. face of the Bear Tooth. It was an outrageous experience (at one point the pilot started screaming "THIS IS JUST LIKE IT WAS I N' NAM MAN!!!) that I'd never repeat - but I dug every minute of it. One day I'll scan all the photos I took!!!

 

I too had similar experiences as one of PJ's passengers. He also liked to buzz our camp on the Ruth. PJ brought us beer on the Kahiltna; and when he picked us up, even after he'd been flying all day, he gave us a bitchin scenic ride back to Talkeetna. He was a cool dude.

[Mark_Husbands]

Thanks for the quality information, all.

M

[Climzalot]

I am not super skilled with the whole photo posting process, but I am going to give it a shot. Here are a few images of the Bear's Tooth from the Ruth.

 

 

From the summit of Barrill.

 

From the Root Canal.

 

From the West Fork of the Ruth.

 

Coley

[Jedi]

 

fun on the bear's tooth.

 

 

 

 

[Jedi]

 

Avy conditions above this point turned us back.

[nightfly]

The "Unforgiven" is the left leaning slash inbetween the two big hangers on climzalot first pict. It would be a good way to summit both the Bear & the Eye tooth. Snow conditions were pretty shitty when we topped her out so we chose to bail, but given the right snow you would be crusing rather quickly once out onto the gaicer on the left.

 

P1: m5 (fairly serious) P2: long snow P3: scetchy thin ice m5/wi5 P4&5: "the sweetness" killer sticky water ice in a long chimney.

[StevenSeagal]

Is "Unforgiven" a new route, or an attempt?

[johnkelley]

A non summit route. Ivan told me about it a few years ago said it was good. nightfly who were you with?

[StevenSeagal]

A non summit route.

 

So the first ascensionists didn't plan to go to the summit?

 

 

[johnkelley]

? Maybe nightfly knows.

[nightfly]

We seconded it a week days after Ivan and his partner. We were up on the route canal for the Ham and Eggs when they were out on their little foray. I don't remember if they backed off because of the snow or what, maybe they were jsut in craging mode. I cannot remember. I do remember they kept us well fed bcause we did not bring up enough food.

Snow condidtions were ugly that year, and I am sure they encountered the same shit as us. A little crust on top of three feet of unconsolated TG. pretty scarry for the steep snow climbing. Pretty fun and fairly reasonable. A good bump up from the H & E before getting on Shaken or Levatation

[Billy]

Mark-

I got a pretty good look at the ridge that leads from the Bear's Tooth down to the col between it and Mooses Tooth from the summit of Mooses Tooth. It looked like a pretty cool ridge climb of a moderate angle. There would definately be some rock pitches and the whole thing looked like it connected nicely. That is, we didn't see any show stopper section. We thought about doing after H&E's, but it snowed and we felt that the broad gulley leading to the saddle would be a dangerous place to be. It would be a great climb if you are based on the Root Canal.

[Mark_Husbands]

Thanks. Anyone hear any more pilot's reports of landing or climbing conditions up there?