The Mendenhall Towers (at least the part people care to share)

John Svenson's "The Mendenhall Years" was the last real article chronicling the climbing activity in the Mendenhall Towers.  His last recorded ascent was in 1984.  Since then there has been a tremendous amount of climbing that has gone unreported.  Much of this was done by Jacek Maselko and friends.   Jacek is a notorious sandbagger and has no real interest in promoting any of his climbs.  That being said he and I both agree that since people (like myself) are attempting to create climbing histories for the region the information should be accurate.

I am certain that this will not be a complete history by any means.  If you the reader has something to contribute I would appreciate if you did.  If it makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside to keep your adventures and memories to yourself then by all means do.  Know that I am not doing this for my benefit but to help others plan out adventures in the mountains I have grown to love so deeply.

The first known activity in the towers went unreported (appropriately).  In 1969 it is believed that the only tower to have been climbed was the West Tower.  The simplest and most logical line of ascent is the West Ridge.  I have no information on this climb so for now I attribute the first ascent of the ridge to John Svenson and Scott Fischer 1984.  The highest point on the massif is the summit of the main or third tower.  The first ascent was done by local enthusiasts Joe and Kay Greenough, Dick Benedict and Craig McKibbon in 1972.  Using the South Couloir and West Ridge of the Main Tower they established what is now referred to as the Mountaineer's Route.

Variations of peak names makes the next bit of history a bit hazy, but in 1972 John Svenson and Van Sundberg climbed a "spooky" couloir on the Third Tower claiming the first ascent of said tower.  At the same time the Greenough team made the first ascent of the Fourth Tower via a winding route on the South Face.  John had gotten his feet wet and was to return for a block buster year.

1973 was a big year for the Towers.  As usual the number of ascents was relatively small, four for the season.  Svenson, Mike Clark and Rick Daday made the first ascent of the West Tower's East ridge as well as the Midget.  It was the first ascent of the Southeast Ridge of the Main Tower by Svenson and George Fisher (1976 a party consisting of Malcolm Moore, Craig McKibben, Brian Cox and Sharon Moore claim to have made the first ascent of the Southeast Ridge of Main Tower and the South ridge of the Third Tower, commonly thought to be the Main Tower.  Who knows what is going on there?) and the visionary first ascent of the South Pillar of the Main Tower by Svenson and Clark that should have opened the climbing world's eyes to the possibilities available in the endless crack systems of the Towers.  It didn't.

Svenson returned in 1974, once again with Fisher to climb the North Side this time.  Bigger, darker, wetter and by all accounts chossier the North Side of the Mendenhall Towers is no joke.  There chosen line was the North Dihedral beneath the large gendarme referred to as the Rabbit Ears.

Fast forward to 1979.  Jan Ebeltoft, Dick Wilderger and Svenson climbed the North Wall of the Fifth Tower making it's first ascent only to find their friends Mike Clark and Carrigan Daugherty topping out the South Buttress.  So much for solitude.  The winter of 1979 also saw the first winter ascent of the Main Tower via the Mountaineers Route by Morri Whitney and Dick Ellesworth.

There isn't much out there about the 1980's.  Maybe people were too busy bolting and shopping for Lycra.  1980 saw another of the prouder features climbed.  Ed Fogels and Scott Visscher climbed the mega steep Southwest Buttress of the West Tower. Two years later Dick Ellesworth and Bruce Lela completed the West to East Traverse of the massif possibly making the first ascent of the Sixth and Seventh Towers (unlikely in my mind.  I have seen other route lines drawn in from an earlier period with no credit).

Enter into what I'm going to call the Polish era.  From 1984 until 2001 there was quiet period where people were either shopping for Lycra or quietly crushing.  Having spoken with Jacek and others I know it to be the latter.  More information about ascents is coming but for now here is what I have.

1984-2000.  Just right of the South Pillar of the Main Tower Maselko and Steve Cashen climbed a fantastic line.  On the Fifth Tower Cashen, Maselko and Sefan Ricci climbed a face to the ridge.  That ridge was carried to summit of the Third Tower solving the main problem of the East to West Traverse.  Maselko along with Chris Chiles climbed a new line on the lower South Face of the West Tower gaining the ridge.  They then carried that ridge to the summit of the Main Tower.  River Jamal Elkin and Maselko climbed the North Face of the midget from the Southern saddle as well as a couple of routes right of the Mountaineers route on the Main Tower.  It is unclear if any of those routes top out.  Maselko also climbed some chossy South facing routes on the Sixth and Seventh Towers and some awesome routes around the base of the Fifth Tower.

Finally. in 2001 people started spraying again!  Dave Sorric, Maselko and fellow Pole Ryszard Pawlowski established "Rain Heavy at Times" on the North Buttress of the Main Tower and "Who Needs Cable" on the North Side of the Rabbit Ears.  This was the first ascent of the Main Tower from the North it has not been repeated to date.

After having a slow education on the standard routes I showed up in the winter of 2008 with Sam Magro and made the first ascent and first winter ascent of the North Face of the West Tower.  By 2009 my loud mouth brought in Blake Herrington and Jason Nelson.  Over a ten day period they climbed four routes and made three first ascents from the South.  "Resisting a Rest" and "The Iron Curtain" were the first direct lines on the Curtain.  "Resignation Arete" (named in honor of the eighteen month term Sara Palin served as governor) climbed the obvious South Buttress on the Fourth Tower.  It should be noted that, from a technical stand point, these were among the hardest lines done to date.

In 2011 Gabe Hayden and I snuck in an amazing first free ascent of Svenson and Clark's line on the South Pillar of Main Tower.  A strange weather event in October of 2012 allowed Gabe and I to sneak in an odd line in on the West Face of West Tower.   Most recently Gabe, Jason and I did a direct line up the South Face of West Tower.

Last summer was a blockbuster year in the Towers.  The South Buttress of the Fifth Tower was climbed 9 times!  The Mountaineers route saw some love too.  If you are interested in visiting the Mendenhalls and don't want to try something new those are both great lines, but don't be afraid to try the West Ridge of West Tower or the Southeast Buttress of the Main Tower they are classic as well.

Again this is just a draft. I'll be updating and editing this constantly.  I am working on overlays, but I will not be including topos or grades.  I think I have already done enough to take away from the mystery and adventure that can be found in the towers.

First Ascent of Balancing Act 1400' 5.11c, South Face of the West Tower in the Mendenhall Towers Juneau, AK

Well we are back and as this is a recovery day why not spray.  Jason Nelson, Gabe Hayden and I just got back from the South face of the West Tower where we put a fantastic new route. Jason was working full time and had just bought a house in Salt Lake.  I took most of the spring/summer off to climb and only had a few months to work before the fall/winter climbing season began.  It wasn't until September that we were able to meet up, which is a scary time to plan anything weather dependent.  Gabe has spent the entire summer trying to juggle an engineering career, girlfriend and obsession with climbing.  A lot of things had to come together to get us all on the tarmac at coastal at the same time on a sunny autumn afternoon.

We were dropped off in front of the curtain with two days of decent weather in the forecast.  A short walk and we had our sights set on the unclimbed South face of the West tower.  Setting up camp we had the horrible realization that half of our food and all of our beer had been left in the car.  The emaciated Gabe and gargantuan Jason were worried about our slim rations.  I have a fat hobbity physique uniquely prepared for situations such as these so I was not overly concerned.

We launched the next morning climbing two fun and engaging pitches of rock up to 5.10ow before gaining a several hundred foot ramp to the headwall.  From here we climbed five more steep, sustained engaging pitches, with difficulties up to 5.11c, to the summit ridge.  We had a nice break on the summit enjoying the views of the Juneau Icefield and Inside Passage.  An uneventful rappel down our line got us to our tent just before sunset.

Our plan was to walk out.  Monday's weather forecast took a turn for the worse so we hiked out all Sunday. Hiking out from the Mendenhall Towers is a chore in good conditions.  The unusually hot and sunny summer shredded the glacier!  It was the worst I have ever seen it, almost to the point of being impassible (at least for a reasonable person).  We did, however, make it out.  About three hours after getting home the rain began to fall.

We dubbed our route Balancing Act due to the logistics and sacrifices we dealt with in order to get out together.  Big thanks to Jason Nelson and Gabe Hayden for always being down for and adventure. Oh and taking the crux pitches! Also a big thanks to Arc'Teryx and Black Diamond for their continued support of my adventures.

Gabe on pitch 7 Photo: Ryan Johnson

 Gabe and I on the Summit of West Tower Photo: Jason Nelson

 Jason uncovering the goods on the first crux pitch 7 Photo: Ryan Johnson

 Gabe Loving some OW Chimney Photo: Ryan Johnson

 Gabe and Jason enjoying a nice three man hanging belay Photo: Ryan Johnson

Standing below the South face if West Tower Photo: Jason Nelson

Spring Catch and Release Part 2

I met Josh Varney out at the Satellite in Sea-Tac.  His smile was showing through the back of his head.  He and I had both wanted to go to Chamonix for years.  We had never climbed together before.  In fact we'd just met the year prior at a party in Anchorage.  I was still fighting my chest crud.  I had spent the last 36 hours with my mom and grandfather.  While I was in Anchorage my grandmother and our 14 year old pug past away.  I don't deal with grief very well, so I was pumped to see a fired up Varney beer in hand ready for a month in the alpine.

We arrived in Chamonix just in time for an amazing weather window.  Less than 24 hours after arriving we were bivied below the North face of the Grandes Jorasses.  We launched up what I am going to call 1800Ft of miserable calf burning blue ice only to find the upper wall in very slow aid-like conditions.  We bailed, but we were stoked!

This was more or less the theme of the trip.  Some skiing mixed with the occasional climbing outing. I celebrated my 30th birthday somewhere in the mix.  The highlight of the trip was a quick run up the Swiss Route on the Courtes, a fun 800+m steepish ice line.  The experience was amazing and more than anywhere else this is the place I want to return to most.

Spring Catch and Release Part 1

I said goodbye to mining this fall and took off on a bit of ab alpine climbing bender.  April 1st I flew up to Anchorage to meet up with Sam Johnson.  With the help of the Mugs Stump Award we intended to climb the East face of Mt. Hayes.  Unusual weather kept us in town for more than a week.  When the weather finally did break a severe cold front moved in.  Ignoring the minus sixty degree ambient summit temps we flew out to the Trident glacier with Rob Wing out of Fairbanks.

It was cold.  Extremely cold.  Cold enough that our naked approach to climbing this peak became unacceptable.  We spent a night talking in the tent and decided that the risk to our extremities was too great for our chosen style.  The next morning, as is usually the case, we took one look at our overloaded bags and decided we could do without a few toes as long as we didn't have to climb with those monsters on our backs.  Our efforts were stymied by a huge overhanging-unconsolidated bergschrund.  We tried, in vain, to cross it for a couple of hours before giving up.

Our time was almost up.  I had been fighting a chest cold for a few days and I was losing the battle.  I spent the whole night awake coughing.  The next morning sucked.  I felt like crap, Sammy was anxious so with my blessing and support he took off to solo a route on a neighboring face.  Watching him fly up the 7000ft face made me extremely jealous.  I was happy for him, but realistically I felt like shit and just wanted to go climbing and was super jealous.

Sam made great time.  My good-for-nothing ass just sat in the sunshine watching him consume vertical all day.  Then night fell and temps dropped.  Hours flew off the clock and I couldn't see Sam. Midnight passed, the stars were out and I couldn't spot his headlamp.  He was doing the East ridge descent onsight, alone and night.  All the horrible scenarios that I'm sure my parents usually have running through their heads when I am in the mountains were running through mine.  Was he in trouble?   Should I go find him?  If I don't go looking for him now, and he doesn't appear in the morning, is this going to be the moment I go back to when I realize I abandoned my friend?  It sucked.  Then his headlamp appeared.  He was moving slow.  Way too slow.  I threw a hot drink in my backpack and took off after him.  I'd be lieing if I said I wasn't a bit freaked. That is until I saw him.  Turns our the ground he was on was decievingly technical.  He had his usual ear to ear grin and all my worries subsided.

Sam's ascent was amazing.  He soloed a 7000ftish face round trip in something like 18 hours, onsighting a gnarly crevassed descent alone and at night.  Sam is finishing up his Phd this summer and is kinda out for the bigger trips for a bit.  I hope that ascent carries him through until we can tie in together again.