First Ascent of "The Fall Line" 1110m M5 65 Degrees

This October, during a rare high pressure system, Gabe Hayden and I managed an interesting new line on the West Face of West Tower in the Mendenhall Towers outside Juneau.  In an attempt to further promote the "hike in, hike out" approach ethic, we opted to hike in from Montana Creek over Grandchild Peak.  This is not a recommended approach route for this time of year.  We were slowed by extremely high winds and insufficient snow pack for skiing.

We had no idea what to expect.  October is generally not a good climbing month in Southeast Alaska.  It is uncommon to see even a single day without precipitation.  We packed for bear; a big wall rack, 12 screws and all the munge pro we could gather.  The North Faces were out of condition so we opted for the West Ridge.  This line has been climbed several times.  Scott Fischer and friends made the first ascent I know of during their traverse attempt, The second was made by the fine fellows who's names I cannot recall, and the only other ascent was made by Mike Miller and Partner.

Gabe and I made our camp in the moraine on the South side of the towers in the moraine to escape the wind.  Leaving from there we skied to the Western Toe and began our ascent.  The first few thousand feet are simple steep snow slopes with some crevasse navigation.  The meat of the climb begins as you gain the saddle between the Rabbit Ears and the West Tower.  From there a fun pitch of M5 dumps you onto the West Face.

Our line probably only makes sense in the conditions we had.  A wind crust covered the rock adding some stability to many of the difficult sections.  We simul-climbed the face in 3 pitches.  Wind in the knife edge summit ridge made for some very precarious climbing.  It was Gabe's first time up the West Tower and again we had perfect blue skies on the summit.

After an uneventful descent we skied/hiked out the Mendenhall glacier to the West Glacier trail (a.k.a. the trail of tears).  We dubbed our route "The Fall Line" 1110m M5 65 degrees in reference to both time of year we climbed and the general interest in the possibility of a spring ski descent.  I'll try to get a composite of our line up sometime.  For some reason this site doesn't load pdfs.

 Gabe starting up the crux pitch

 Gabe Traversing high on the route

Another summit shot!