Updates from the North

Tyler relaxes in the "seat" after the mental Crux of 'First Amendment'

Me Working 'Red Scare' V8 (Photo by Matt Lowber)

Tyler sticks the crux of 'Rock Biter' V7/8
Some Quick Updates from Alaska.

First Tyler Johnson decided Alaska was the place to be, so he drove up here and has been crushing. He's also found a job and is working on a place to stay when it gets chilly.

Bouldering.

Hatcher Pass is the place to be, some sick boulders in the newly established Independence Mine area offer super crimpy hard problems.

Some fun sends:

'Rock Biter' V7/8. Tyler sent this after only a few goes in a single day, I came back three days later and flew up this third go of the day.

Captain Kaboom: V1?

Unknown V3

Unknown V6

I've also worked a sick super crimpy problem sent for the FA later that day by Matt Lowber, it goes V8 and was christened 'Red Scare.'

Wookie Wall:

Tyler, My friends Rachel Silverstein and Aleks Pfaffe, and I made a trip to Wiener Lake to climb at Wookie wall. Tyler tested himself on the goofy climbing of the area on the warmup: 'First Amendment' 5.11a, falling at the difficulty crux, he sent second go. We also worked 'Face the Damage' 5.11b/c, a pumpy route with a hard hand jam crux. Tyler tested his onsight ability on 'Breaking the Chains' falling at the first crux and the upper crux while figuring out crucial beta. Tyler and I also worked a sweet powerful 5.13a called 'Illuminati' which has a dead point and a full dyno crux, this we decided was fairly stout for the grade, probably meriting a 5.13a/b rating.

Hatcher Pass, and Recent Alaska updates.

Alaska climbing has been full of surprises and some good climbing lately.

A few weeks ago Katie Scatena came for a surprise visit. We managed to get some rock climbing in. We did 'Classic Crack' a fun two pitch trad climb which goes a 5.8+, 5.8. The next day we made a trip up to Wookie Wall and did some fun overhanging pumpy granite climbing. I started working 'Catalyst' 5.12c, there is a direct start to this that is quite a bit harder, 13b perhaps. Katie finished up our day leading 'First Amendment'.

Now for the more serious part of the post, perhaps a follow up to Allen's earlier post about the dangers of climbing. On tuesday the 6th (?) of July. I had three friends climbing at the 'Wedge', a high alpine crag with an hour and 45 min. approach, my friend and often my partner Kelsey, and extremely competent and experienced climber was on route when a freak rock fall occurred. A large rock slammed into his chest and throat, ripping him and his belayer off the wall, and into a fifty foot tumble down scree. Kelsey was flown out helicopter with serious although non life threatening injuries, and his partner suffered a broken foot. The moral of this story I suppose is that accidents happen, even to the most experienced climbers, and it's wise to expect them every time you touch the rock. The next day, I went to rescue gear. Accidents and danger are around every corner. On the same tuesday we were heading to climb at 'Pivot Point' A fun short crag with a handful of decent routes from 5.7 to a 5.14 project. We headed up the hill towards the crag concerned about bears. I was about 15 feet in front of my partner, when a big brown shape loomed out of the brush, and started crashing towards me. Before I knew it, this animal was on top of me, and "I'm going to die" flashed through my mind. I fell over and rolled into a small ball trying to protect my head. It was only from the ground that I realized moose hooves were crashing on either side of me. I started screaming "Run Hannah, Run!" Hannah made it to a tree as the moose saw her and went after her, giving me a second or two to regain my feet and dash to the tree. I climbed into the tree as the moose charged us again, and again. The last time I saw her coming from 50 feet away, I had no way to attack back except my voice, which I used. the moose finally backed off. Had I had a firearm or mace, I would have used it.

I've been doing some other climbing. I've had two beautiful days in Hatcher Pass with one overcast one. I've lead some fun trad lines, two pitches of 'Toto' 5.8, 5.7, 'The Slot' 5.7, were two of the best although I did a "sport" 10a that required gear and runouts as well as a 5.7 that required several 30+ foot runouts between bolts. I've also managed to get some bouldering in at the pass. Including some repeat ascents: 'Indian Head Arete' V2, and unknown V5 on the same boulder, and yesterday a FA on a 20 ft V1 we named 'Nuptial Ball'.