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| East Ridge   | 
| Page Type: Route Location: Yukon Territory, Canada, North America Lat/Lon: 60.56670°N / 140.39999°W Route Type: Technical, snow/ice/rock Time Required: Expedition Difficulty: AK grade IV
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| Page By: dug Created/Edited: May 26, 2004 / Feb 2, 2006 Object ID: 161052 Hits: 3494  Loading... Page Score: 86.04% - 1 Votes  Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Approach
Andy Williams out of Kluane/Silver City is the only one I presently know of flying into the region. Paul Claus out of Chitina presently can't land in Canada. Options exist for transportation from Whitehorse to Silver City including:
Alaska Direct Bus Line $75 cdn P/P (correct phone # is 867-668-4833), and
Royal Limo Service, 867-668-5288
Your stay while waiting at Andy's is best accommodated by:
Kluane Basecamp
Route Description
You will be dropped at about the 6500' level on the Hubbard glacier, half a day from the base of the ridge. Ski up the glacier and navigate the easy crevasse field to the base of the ridge on the south side. (It is possible to gain ridge from the north but is almost always done from the south.) Cross bergshrund (can be an issue especially on descent) wherever possible and climb avalanche prone slopes to the top of the ridge at about 8,800'. A ridge camp can be dug in here. Ahead lies the rock portion of the route. Climb easy class 4 rock (less easy with loads and damn tough coming down with big loads!) interspersed with snow that will most probably be rotten slush on descent. Eventually one last snow slope will deposit you on the 'dome'. A great camp at about 10,000'. From here steep snow and ice in manageable pitches will lead up to the bottom of a steep pitch that can be mixed climbing, just above lies the lower knife edge (huge exposure!). This is the technical crux of the route. Navigate the knife in whatever style you can. It is very sharp and when we did it the south side was sun rotted ice forcing us onto the north side of the knife. Fixed lines will most probably be found and can be chopped out to aid in the many crossings you must make of this feature. Just above the knife a camp can be made under a cornice, but a better option is only a couple hundred feet higher at about 12,000. Now cross a crevasse/bergshrund, climb a steepening crest of snow and an ice face and arrive at the upper knife edge. Much easier than the lower, climb this knife and a good camp can be made above at about 13,500. (Above this camp no good camps are found until the plateau. Beware if you bypass this camp as we did.) You are now past the major technical difficulties of the ridge, however many crevasses exist and the climbing can still be to about 40d. The plateau is reached at about 15,000 ft and you can stop shaking from the climbing and start shaking from the wind. You will see the east pk of Logan from here. Continue up to make a camp closer to the pk. A large crevasse exists at 15,500 and makes a pretty good home. Head toward the SE ridge of the east pk and climb it on snow and rock to the summit of the E. pk or contour into the saddle between east and main pk to climb the main pk..
Now downclimb, rappel the route to the glacier. BE ABLE TO CREATE SNOW ANCHORS or be prepared to leave lots of gear!!
Essential Gear
All the usual expedition gear and clothing, including 2 stoves, crevasse rescue gear, pickets, screws, wands, goggles etc. We did not bring rock pro and did not find it nessesary. However it is steep and very exposed the ENTIRE lower ridge to 13,500 and you may wish to have large passive pro for the rock section at 8,800 to 10,000'.
Photo Info
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