Moose’s Tooth Attempt and Barrille, 1984, In April 1984, Dave Jones and I spent ten days in the Ruth Gorge. We first explored variations for reaching the lower snowfields of the German route on the Moose’s Tooth. On the southern face above the icefall which lies along the approach to the south-face routes are several couloirs bisecting the lower face. We eventually chose one starting at 5000 feet at the base of the icefall. It is straightforward with a few bulges of 70° ice. At the top of the couloir is a giant chockstone, under which is a large, safe bivouac area. From there a 400-foot traverse into and up another couloir provides fifth-class rock and mixed climbing and access to the snow slope below the west wall of the German route. We did not complete that route because of windslab conditions below the west wall. Our route should provide an interesting and at times a safer variation at the beginning of any trip to the west ridge of the Tooth. After failing on the Krakauer Couloir on the Moose’s Tooth's south face, we did a six-hour ascent of Barrille via a variation of the Japanese Couloir on the southeast face. The couloir splits about 1000 feet above the glacier. The Japanese apparently took the right fork. To save time and avoid a steep rock-and-ice step, we took the left fork. At the top of that fork, the couloir leads to a traverse with fourth- and fifth-class mixed climbing onto the upper snowfields.

Douglas Pope, Unaffiliated