Chiwawa Mountain, Intravenous. Inspired by John Scurlock’s photos of the northwest face, Dave Burdick and I snowmobiled and skied almost 30 miles up the Chiwawa River valley on March 5, 2005, to a bivy below the south side of Chiwawa Mountain. On the 6th we passed through the Chiwawa-Fortress col to below Chi- wawa’s northwest face, and made its first ascent by the distinct chimney that splits the face vertically in the center. The climb was mostly water- ice on the lower half, mostly mixed climbing on the upper half, and was done in five pitches with a 60m rope. The climbing was hard, but high quality: the best mixed climb I’ve ever done. Because of the route’s needlelike nature, and how “high” we got from the superb climbing, we named it Intravenous (IV WI4+ M6).

Colin Haley, AAC