Peaks on Middle Kahiltna and Attempt on Moose’s Tooth. On May 26 Don Sheldon flew Margaret Young and me singly in his ski-wheeled super-cub from Talkeetna to a tributary of the middle part of the Kahiltna Glacier and to the east of it. We cruised around looking for a spot that would be suitable for landing and also for a pick-up two weeks later. Although the one chosen was not the one we had hoped for, it was close enough so that we thought we could visit some of the granite peaks that lie northeast of the big band of the Kahiltna. After Margaret’s arrival, we set off for the nearest peak, which lay immediately above us to the south. We climbed over moderately steep, easy snow and reached the 7200-foot summit around sunset (10 p.m.) After a rest day, we left at 2:30 in a cold breeze for the 8055-foot peak at the head of our tributary glacier. We ascended to the snow ledge at the top of the icefall, traversed along to just below the connection between snow and rock and climbed straight up to the sharp snow ridge leading to the summit from the west. Two bergschrunds and soft snow on the final slope complicated matters. From the snow ridge we returned to the rock, which was broken, loose slate. Though the rock became somewhat more stable as we proceeded, the summit ridge was a steep, exposed boulder pile. We got to what we hoped was the summit through a couple of precarious snow patches only to see the true one about five feet higher and 200 feet away over somewhat worse terrain. Since we had already spent 14 hours on the climb and the late sun was softening the final steep snow slope, we decided we had done enough and returned. The next day and night we rested again, an unfortunate mistake as we lost the remainder of our stay there in snow and white-out. We made one attempt at the 10,000-foot peak nearby with Dick Wahlstrom of the McGowan party during a temporary clearing. He and Jim Lathrop both were left with us when Sheldon could not get to McGowan’s McKinley Base Camp for two successive days.

We were transferred to the Ruth Glacier by Sheldon only two days after the appointed one, to be greeted by the fantastic views of the Ruth Gorge and the smiling face of Jeff Duenwald. From June 9 to 16 we attempted the Moose’s Tooth (10,335 feet). Our try was basically from the south. For two days we packed camp from the Ruth Gorge up the northernmost of three icefalls leading to a large platform (about ½ mile square) on the south side at 7500 feet. From this camp we ascended the 2000-foot, 45° snow slope to the high south col at 9500 feet. At this point we could see the difficulty of the rock and estimated from 40 to 200 feet of direct-aid climbing topped by a very exposed snow finger of 60° to 70° with a 200-foot rise. The remainder was broken and partly decomposed granite of fair difficulty. We used the approaching storm as an excuse to beat a retreat down the rapidly softening snow. Seven 240-foot rappels from snow pickets, a rock piton and a bollard got us down the steeper section. We arrived at camp in a white-out and spent two days brooding inside while it snowed outside.

James Richardson

Note: All dates in this section refer to 1963 unless stated otherwise.