In April our team of Bor Sumrada, Bostjan Virc, Dusan Huc, Grega Azman, Janez Rutar, Matej Pobezin, Urban Iglic, Valentina Mravlje, Ziga Fujan, and myself had an active vacation in a little-visited part of the Revelation Mountains, where—based on talks with a veteran of the area, Clint Helander, as well as other resources and publications—we believe to have climbed a dozen new peaks and routes.

On April 12 we flew to the southern tributary glacier of the remote Hartman Glacier in the eastern part of the Revelation Mountains, northeast of Mt. Mausolus. We landed in 30cm of fresh powder snow and, after looking at the surroundings, immediately realized we were in a mountaineer’s heaven. There was 280cm of snow atop glacier ice, which allowed us to dig underground tunnels, a food cache, and kitchen area for bad weather. To our knowledge, all of the nearby mountains were unclimbed, except for Pirate Peak (9,005’).

We had four perfectly sunny days, but the weather was mainly overcast with a common pattern of snowstorms in the morning, improvement in the afternoon, and blue skies from 4 p.m. until sunset. We quickly adapted and seized all but three days out of 16 spent on the glacier. Overall, we climbed 11 peaks via 12 new routes, in addition to a number of ski descents and speed-flying flights. The following climbs were the hardest and required pitched climbing on technical terrain: Freeapproved Spitz, southwest buttress (600m, M4 40-70°, Azman-Cokl); Freeapproved Peak (2,709m), Final Frontier (1,100m, V 3/4, Azman-Cokl); and Windy Peak (2,350m), Sleepwalker (700m, V 4 M5, Azman-Cokl-Sumrada). The rest of our climbs were easier mountaineering ascents on ridges, couloirs, and gullies, not requiring pitched climbing.

The area offers first-class mixed climbing on perfect granite, as well many great and exposed ski descents. The only hindrance seems to be the weather and snow quality. We generally found unconsolidated snow at this time; however, some areas were very dry, and some steeper spindrift lines contained hard névé.

Freeapproved Spitz, southwest buttress (600m, M4 40-70°); Peak David (2,278m), Slovenian Couloir (580m, 30-45°); White Bear (2,109m); White Ridge (2,014m); Little Ant Peak (2,040m), southwest ridge (30-45°); Frogy Pass, east couloir (400m, 40-45°); Spiky Notch, PEKA Couloir (500m, 45-65°); Frogy Pass, southwest couloir (350m, 40°); White Col, north face (400m); Thin Peak (2,158m), south gully (100m, 50°); Freeapproved Peak (2,709m), Final Frontier (1,100m, V 3/4); White Col, Nima Za Burek (400m, 40-80°); Serac Peak Ridge (2225m), Sunset Boulevard Wall (177m 45-60°), attempt; Three Peak (2,236m), My Honey (700m, 40-55°); Meta Peak (1,864m); Windy Peak (2,350 m), Sleepwalker (700m, V 4 M5); Seven Summits Peak (1,807m), Taya (780m, 50° UIAA III); Geodetski Vrh (2,145m), southwest ridge; White Col, Ima Za Hamburger (400m, 40-60°); Flat Peak (2,440m); Peak David (2,278m), ridge to Middle Peak (2,458m); Peak David (2,438 m), north ridge (100m, M4); Peak David, south ridge col (350m, 40°)

Anze Cokl, Slovenia