From April 15–21, I led a ski mountaineering trip on the Dall Glacier, south of Mt. Russell, with Marek and Sarah Mrzyglocki. We experienced everything from sunshine powder days to whiteout and breaker crust, and we carefully assessed conditions before focusing on a summit objective: unclimbed Peak 8,205’ (62.75572, -151.98751). This mountain is immediately south of Mt. Mason (9,680’), which Joseph Hobby and I climbed for its first ascent in 2022, along with the adjacent Mt. Stansfield (9,200’), both of which we named for our friend Mason Stansfield, who died in a skiing accident on the nearby Eldridge Glacier in 2021 (see AAJ 2022).

On April 20, we skied northwest from base camp up the fork of the Dall Glacier south of Mt. Mason and Mt. Stansfield. After skinning and briefly cramponing up a chute to bypass an icefall, we reached our objective’s north face and north ridge. We roped up and cautiously climbed a line weaving between the two, avoiding complex seracs and crevasses. We were able to skin the lower portion of our route thanks to ski crampons, but boot crampons and ice tools became necessary as we got higher. The final few hundred feet of névé and blue ice accepted excellent screws.

After a few windless minutes on the summit, we began our ski descent, staying near our ascent line. Ski conditions were variable but edge-able; we made one brief downclimb through the blue ice. All the while, we basked in our dramatic position, surrounded by gorgeous peaks illuminated by soft evening light.

We named the peak Mt. Andrew after a very close friend, Andrew Plagens, who passed away due to cancer in September 2023. He was 31. When they were both alive, Andrew and Mason were inseparable; it felt fitting to have their namesake peaks so close to one another. Our route, 420 Ridge, included snow and ice up to 65° and 1,700’ of technical climbing; we skied 3,800 vertical feet back to camp from the summit. We took a leisurely pace throughout the day—happy to enjoy the bluebird weather—and returned to camp after a round trip of 12 hours.

— Zach Lovell