On April 10, Paul Roderick dropped Ty Guarino, Zack Little, and me on an unnamed glacier east of the Lacuna Glacier. From here, we skied about four miles to establish a camp  in the middle of the dry Lacuna, where we were treated to wolverine tracks, northern lights, and even a willow or two growing out of the lateral moraine. Over the next few days, we established a skin track in flat light to the base of the north face of Peak 7,905', located on the west side of the Lacuna (62°46'26", -151°34'34"). On April 14, a storm dropped 16” of light-density snow, covering part of the route we established. 

On April 16, following what remained of our old skin track, we made our way up the ever steepening north face of 7,905’. We used Billy Goat ascent plates for the ascent and found cold, dry powder up to 50˚ on the 2,500’ descent. We believe this to be the first ascent and ski/snowboard descent of Peak 7,905’.

On April 18, Paul and his Otter bumped us east to a camp at the base of the north face of Avalanche Spire (10,105’, 62°48'23", -151°09'10"), south of Mt. Hunter. A ski descent had eluded Ty and me since our first trip to the area in 2016 and a return trip in 2018. Our previous trips had targeted the northeast ridge and had been plagued with bad timing, bad weather, and accidents, including two large crevasse falls, one of which robbed me of a splitboard and my only set of prescription glasses.  

After some scouting, we found the northeast ridge had become so broken with crevasses since 2018 it looked unpassable. The heavily glaciated northwest ridge appeared to be the most feasible route. [Editor’s Note: It’s likely that the first two ascents of the peak were made via this ridge; see AAJ 1965 and AAJ 1965.] We set out on April 21 and booted our way up the steeper lower slopes before switching to skis and skins between 7,000’ and 9,200’. Above 9,200’, we encountered mostly soft snow to 55˚ to the summit. 

The descent was completed in a few different styles. Zack Little outclassed the “old guys” by making a complete ropeless descent of the entire mountain. Ty Guarino and I rappelled a 50’ section of firm snow on the upper mountain, and I took a belay for 50’, also on the upper mountain. We believe this to be the third ascent of Avalanche Spire, but recognizing that many Alaska climbs and descents aren’t reported, we make this claim lightly. We would love to hear stories of other ascents of this seemingly constantly changing mountain.

— Aaron Diamond