Update from the Ruth Gorge!

Satel­lite phone recep­tion is often poor in remote moun­tain ranges and Alaska’s Ruth Gorge is no excep­tion — it’s a good indi­ca­tion of the scale of the val­leys and the close­ness and immen­si­ty of the peaks. But we have been able to check in with Dylan Tay­lor, Mark, and Peter who have been base camped beneath Peak 11,300 for the last few days (usu­al­ly by repeat­ed 1 minute long conversations!).

The weath­er Wednes­day and into Thurs­day brought a mod­er­ate amount of snow and kept them from com­mit­ting to the route. Their plan was for 2 nights out which meant at least 2 days of descent, climbable weath­er — sav­ing the bad weath­er for descent. Yes­ter­day they man­aged to scope out the var­i­ous approach couloirs to the SW Ridge prop­er, but they were also con­sid­er­ing switch­ing objec­tives to a 2500 ft mixed line near the approach to Denal­i’s South But­tress. Dylan said this looked ​“wor­thy, tech­ni­cal, and a good alter­na­tive” to get­ting stormed off or stuck out on the huge­ness of Peak 11,300. Today’s weath­er looked favor­able for hard climb­ing, so we are eager­ly await­ing word them from them that they’ve been get­ting after it! 

Here at the Moun­tain Mad­ness office in Seat­tle we are excit­ed to be active in the Alas­ka Range this sea­son. And it’s not over! Give us a call at 800−328−5925 or con­tact us via email at nw@​mountainmadness.​com if you want to dive into a last minute alpine adven­ture in one of the worlds great­est alpine mount­ian ranges. Rock climb­ing or ski tour­ing in Lit­tle Switzer­land, or steep snow and ice on the Moos­es Tooth. Let’s make it happen!