northern happenings

Hillside Pillars is located in Hatcher’s Pass, AK. Ben and I left at 9:30 Wednesday morning and we starting the approach by 11:00.

The approach:

The ice:

The lower section is Water Ice (WI) 2 and the upper section is WI4. We soloed the lower section and kept climbing to the top.

Ben led the pitch and I followed then we set up a top rope and did laps all over the front curtain. It was an awesome day! 

It was around 3 degrees that day and oddly enough there was a column of water spraying straight out of a hole in the ice. It shot between 12 and 15 feet out from the wall! So as I rappelled down I had to take a sip. 

Needless to say, I was covered with ice when I finally got to the ground. It tasted great!! Just freezing cold.

After we climbed to our heart’s content, we down climbed and simul-rappelled down to the road. We were warm and laughed pretty much the whole time, certainly the best day of climbing in a while!

Cheers

Wow, over a month since I’ve posted… lets not do that again! Dang!

SO.. December mainly consisted of cramming for school, (Which for the most part went ok, but not stellar.) working quite a bit, (You would be surprised how busy Harley Davidson is the is middle of winter up here.) and going home! (By far my favorite part.) Home was great, always a good time seeing family and friends. Although I didn’t get to see nearly as many people as I would have liked, ’twas good catching up with those I did get to see. 

2009. Talk about a fast start to the new year, before I knew it I was back in Alaska in a freakin’ cold snap!! It didnt go above -5 for about two weeks. For the most part, it hovered around -15 with lows around -30. Needless to say, my truck didn’t start for a few days. Obviously, the battery was dead due to the cold, so I connected the battery charger and let it charge overnight – no dice, only a ‘click’ and the starter promptly said, “heh, I’m cold jug off.” I ended up going to Sears and buying an electric blanket and a space heater. I put the blanket on the block and set the space heater in the engine compartment. (Granted it’s still 20 below.) Next, bake for 9 hours on high. I skied over to my friends house at 7 am the next morning (where my truck was) and miraculously she turned over! And started!! Thankfully I didn’t have to ski back, because is was 22 below going over there and my face was burning cold.

Fast forward to yesterday. 44 (above zero), 40-50 mph winds and driving rain. Quite the change, huh? So Ben and I decided to go climbing. Driving down the highway was just as exciting as the climb! My truck was getting blown around the road and rocks littered the highway. We climbed at Waterworld, a slightly protected, small area right on the highway. We had a great time!

We played around for a few hours enjoying the warm day and sticky ice.

Ben and I planned on waking up at 5am, driving up to Ekultna Canyon, climbing some ice and being back home by noon.. That was at 10:30 the night before, then we got the bright idea to leave that night, climb all night and sleep in the next day. Bingo! Why wake up early to go climbing when you’re siked for it now!?! So we jumped in my truck and started up the highway at midnight.

12:30 we pulled into the gravel lot. It was snowing and pitch black. By 12:40 we had slid down into the canyon. The river was mostly frozen but there was a spot we had to slosh through ice cold water. Our boots stayed pretty dry, and by 1:25 were at the base of a beautiful frozen waterfall – lit up in the dim white light of our headlamps. 

Ben led up the first short curtain of ice then built an anchor, the ice was sticky and a great climb.

I followed then led out the next pitch. It was such a beautiful night! It was snowing and rather warm for the canyon, 23 degrees.

We reached the top anchors at 2:25am! We couldn’t think of anywhere else we’d rather be!! 

We rappelled down and were hiking out by 2:50 and made it to the truck by 3:20.

We’ve never done the approach at night, we loved it. Because it’s was so dark, getting a reference of where you were in the canyon is much harder, so it’s just like a nice long stroll in the park… just with packs and walking on ice in the dark.

On our way home we got the chance to help out a couple people. At 4:05 we saw headlights up ahead spin and a huge plume of snow billow up in the median. We put on our flashers and pulled over ready to help dig them out. Except they flipped upside down. Ben and I ran over broke the passenger window and pried the door open to find the lady on her hands and knees. (someone wasn’t wearing a seatbelt!) Her husband was actually following her, so we helped her out of the car and into his. Ironically enough not 100 yards ahead another car was stuck deep in the ditch. She was alright, but just as shaken. After about a half hour a police car showed up so Ben and I continued home. 

By 5am we were home and unpacking… just about the time we would be waking up! It was definitely a good choice to sleep in vs. waking up early. Talk about a hell of a night!!