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[TR] Mt Dickey (Ruth Gorge) - NE Face "No Such Thing as a Bargain Promise" (FA) 4/1/2012


John Frieh

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Trip: Mt Dickey (Ruth Gorge) - NE Face "No Such Thing as a Bargain Promise" (FA)

 

Date: 4/1/2012

 

Summary: First Ascent of the Northeast face of Mount Dickey on April 1-2 2012. John Frieh and Doug Shepherd. “No Such Thing as a Bargain Promise” 5,000', VI WI5R M6

 

Details: On March 30th, Doug Shepherd (Los Alamos, NM) and I, John Frieh (Portland, OR), flew from Talkeetna to the Ruth Glacier below Mt. Dickey in the Ruth Gorge. We spent March 31 skiing around the Gorge checking out possible routes and allowing the unsettled weather to move through. After some discussion we finally agreed to attempt the unclimbed northeast face of Mt Dickey. On April 1st we crossed the schrund at 7 am and were immediately faced with challenging terrain to negotiate: thin ice, vertical to overhanging snice and snow mushrooms made for slow progress and minimal gear placement options. After a full day of climbing we only had 3000 feet of climbing to show for our efforts. We chopped a bivy ledge and settled in for a chilly night.

 

Day 2 started with us climbing up to our hoped exit off the face, only to find enormous snow mushrooms chocking the chimney system. Rather than bail we opted to traverse north around the NE ridge, hoping to find a different exit off the face. A 30 meter rappel landed us in a runnel system splitting the north face of the NE ridge. We followed this up to the seracs that overhang the true North face, nicknamed "Walmart". After a brief food, water and psych up break while still sheltered from Walmart, we blasted two quick pitches through the seracs onto the summit slopes. After some trudging we reached the summit around 8 pm; 37 hours after crossing the schrund. We descended the West ridge of Mt. Dickey and around 1 am on the 3rd we reached our camp back on the Ruth glacier. Later that morning Paul Roderick of Talkeetna Air Taxi picked us up and brought us back to Talkeetna to make for a brief four days in the range.

 

Sorry for the shortage of photos... I'll try to add some later.

 

dickey_route_small.jpg

 

summit_small2.jpg

 

Approach Notes:

You may find a cheaper air service but you will not find a better service. Fly TAT

thanks.jpg

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JOHN!!

 

Whoa! Super BadAss!! That is so AWESOME and thrilled about your accomplishments! This is such a super state to visit!

 

Thanks for sharing those super photos... loving it!

 

Working right now off the Beaufort Sea is another story. LOL. 20 below, blowing snow with howling winds of 55 MPH, windchill of 48 below.

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Tilt

 

:laf: :laf: :laf: Well played Daniel.

 

Thanks for the props dudes. Apologies for the lack of photos but we shot everything in RAW which means they need to be cleaned up first... they are way too dark right now.

 

In the meantime if you want to see some great photos AND video... some tilted... some not... :laf: you should all come to the 3 Types of Fun event next week! It is a fundraiser for a toliet at Vantage... who wouldnt want to support that?

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