White Princess, west face, Maiden Voyage.

Alaska, Delta Range
Author: Jason Stuckey. Climb Year: 2013. Publication Year: 2013.

On April 22, Chad Diesinger, Kennan Jeannet, and I climbed a new route on White Princess (9,800’). White Princess is located six miles up the Castner Glacier and three miles up the M’Ladies Branch. The approach gains almost 3,000’.

We approached during the day and bivouacked below the west face. Our proposed route was threatened by seracs on either side near the summit, so we planned to start climbing early and access the obvious snow ramp low in the central part of the face. Leaving camp shortly after 1 a.m., it took us three hours to reach the base of the route. Once on the ramp, we climbed stable snow unroped until the upper slopes, which held hidden crevasses, some steeper sections, and an exposed snow ridge. We reached the summit at 10:30 a.m. and descended the west ridge by downclimbing, taking 12 hours round-trip. We called the route Maiden Voyage (3,000’, 70°). The west face had seen one other recorded ascent by a team in the ’70s, who climbed the snow and ice face to the right of our line. See Scree February 2013 for our full story.



Media Gallery