In April 2015, Bryan Sehmel and I climbed the west face of Triangle Peak in the Delta Mountains, an eastern subrange of the Alaska Range. Triangle Peak (7,100') is typically accessed from the Castner Glacier and climbed via the moderate north ridge. This is the first known ascent of Triangle’s west face.

We approached up the Castner Glacier on Friday night and camped that evening below the Broken Glacier. Early Saturday morning we started up the Broken Glacier, and at the base of the climb we switched from skis to crampons and ice tools. After an easy 200’ step up a broken icefall, we gained the face proper and started up the most obvious couloir in the center of the face. About 1,000' up, we encountered a rock band where we trended left to climb a moderate ice and mixed step, which brought us back onto solid 60˚ snow. Continuing to trend left to avoid exposure to a 100' serac on the summit, we climbed an increasingly steep snow section (to about 70˚) and then climbed over a cornice to the ridge, where a quick jaunt brought us to the summit.

We descended the easier section of the face to the north of the direct line. In total we spent about eight hours on our route (2,600', 70˚).

– Jason Shorey