Natural Line: 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.