Northwest Buttress of Denali

The Northwest Buttress line of ascent in red, with the West Buttress line of descent in green.
Thanks to TAT for the use of this awesome photo!

I remember gazing up the Kahiltna with a cardiologist from Canada over a decade ago. We were camped on an airy perch on Mount Crosson, and I was vicariously tracing the numerous classic routes we could see on the south side of Denali. The Doc pointed off well to the left of the Cassin and The Rib, and directed my attention to the left hand skyline of Denali. Steep snow slopes led up and through rock bands to a long, corniced ridge that curved to meet the north peak of the mountain.

"That," he said in a voice from some other plane of existence, "is a most sublime line."

I knew that Gary Bocarde, my boss at the time and founder of Mountain Trip, had climbed that line, the Northwest Buttress, back in the 1980's to make the second ascent of the route. I mentioned this to my doctor friend and he said he'd like to give it a try some day.

A dozen years later, and after many attempts to sort out a team to attempt the NW Buttress, I am happy to announce that we have a team and will give the route a try.

Mountain Trip has historically had good success on the route, as we made not only the 2nd, but the 3rd and the 5th ascents of the line, adding significant variations each time. I've not yet been able to find out how many times it has been attempted, but I'd guess less than 20, perhaps much less.

Many guide services are content to stick to high probability, low risk routes, and that's fine. We at Mountain Trip have always identified ourselves as climbers, and the climber in me really wants to find out what that most sublime line is like, up close and personal. Numerous questions arise, from the esoteric to the practical. What will it feel like to drop off the north side of Kahiltna Pass, leaving the relative security net of the West Buttress behind? Will we be able to climb around the rock bands or will we need to climb through them? How will my mind reconcile my 5' 11" insignificance when we chop through a cornice to gaze down the 14,000' vertical drop of the Wickersham Wall, one of the biggest alpine faces on the planet? The power of the unknown is one of the driving forces behind why we all climb, and this route embodies a lot of unknown.

We have two climbers committed and are therefore going to launch the trip. We can accept two more fit climbers with solid alpine skills. This is a relatively unique opportunity , so if you are at all interested, please contact us. The trip details are as follows:

The Northwest Buttress
Dates: May 3 - 30, 2011
Team Size: 2 Guides / 2-4 Climbers
Trip Cost: $7000 per climber

Trip fees include: 2 nights lodging in Anchorage before the climb, round-trip scheduled group transportation between Anchorage and Talkeetna, glacier flights, all food while on the climb, all group equipment (tents, ropes, kitchen, etc), and our top-tier guides.

Give us a call or drop us an email if you would like to join the team.
T. +1-970-369-1153
E. info@mountaintrip.com

Limited Spaces Available for Mount Rainier Climb!

Mount Rainier Climb via the Emmons Glacier
July 17 - 21, 2011
4 climbers / 2 guides
$1650 per climber

Mount Rainier, the iconic volcano of the Pacific Northwest, rises 14,411' (4392m) above the very nearby sea. Climbers from around the world travel to Washington State each year to test their mettle on the heavily glaciated flanks of the mountain. Mountain Trip is happy to announce that we are offering a fully guided climb of the peak by its Emmons Glacier route in the summer of 2011.

Traditionally, mountaineers wishing to join a guided ascent have been limited to one, and just recently three, guide services. This year, the National Park Service has opened up a limited number of guided opportunities and selected Mountain Trip to lead one of those ascents.

We are offering a five day climb of the heavily crevassed Emmons Glacier route. We selected the Emmons because it is much more of a wilderness experience than the more heavily traveled Disappointment Cleaver route. Taking more time than the concessioned guide services allows us more of a window for weather and greater opportunities to acclimatize. Our leader for the expedition will be senior Mountain Trip Guide Chris Kerrick, who grew up in sight of the mountain and has over 25 ascents of the peak. We will be a small group of only four climbers and two guides, so this opportunity is quite limited.



If you have climbed with us before, you know that we make every decision based on what will provide you with the best possible experience. We bring that same dedication and personal service to this Rainier climb, and hope that you consider joining us this summer.

Climbers will need to be in Seattle on July 16th for a team meeting and equipment check. Mountain Trip will provide transportation to and from the mountain, all food for the ascent, all group gear, mountaineering and park entrance fees, and, of course, our top-notch guides.

If Mount Rainier has been on your "To Do List" or if you are a mountaineer looking to expand your skill set on a mountain with big, Alaskan style features, please give us a call or send us an email as there are only four spots available for this opportunity.

Adaptive Sports Adventure Gets Published!

Sylvie Fadrhonc, a friend and education and development manager of the Telluride Adaptive Sports Program (TASP) just had an article published about a collaborative trip that we have been helping them run for the past two years. Spokes n Sports Magazine, a publication about wheelchair athletes, has a feature article article about our "Alaska Adventure" program. We've not marketed this trip, as we really want it to act primarily as a benefit to the athletes and the TASP, as we are ardent supporters of their work. With the publication of this article, I suppose it's time to pass along a bit of information about the program and how it has evolved over the years. Click on this link to download a pdf of the article from the Alaska Adventure.

Telluride Adaptive Sports Program has been an institution in the Telluride area offering ski instruction and year-round therapeutic and adventure opportunities to people with disabilities since 1995. In the fall of 2008 we approached TASP about helping them offer a trip into the Alaska Range for some of their disabled athletes as a very partial "thank you" for their helping my son become the ripping little skier that he is today. Their enthusiastic response and effort resulted in a collaborative "Alaska Adventure" that we led in the summer of 2009.

Such an adaptive trip into a glaciated environment as remote as the Alaska Range had never been attempted to our collective knowledge, and we knew that we would all have a lot to learn about how to safely and effectively manage the many levels of logistics. We therefore carefully selected the first year's participants and made certain to manage their expectations so that they knew we were all proceeding with this trip with the best possible intentions and planning, but that we'd have to figure out a lot of the systems while in the field.

The trip was a resounding success!

A team of 12 flew onto the Coffee Glacier and included three spinal-cord injuries and a traumatic brain injury. We set up a very comfortable base camp and, despite rough weather, had a great time exploring the area on skis and sit-skis. In an article in our local paper one participant reflected, "Being in remote Alaska restored my own inner vitality and belief that I could still experience what I thought was untouchable from a wheelchair.”

With one successful trip under our belts, we felt we could develop an even more challenging curriculum for a true mountaineering course and offered two such trips in the summer of 2010. Both teams flew onto the Pika Glacier, south of Denali and home to the stunningly beautiful area known as Little Switzerland. TASP staff and our guides worked together to develop efficient glacier travel systems which enabled wheelchair bound participants to become Alaskan mountaineers. One highlight was when Sylvie intentionally launched into a crevasse on her sit-ski, and the remaining participants with disabilities successfully extracted her! It just doesn't get any better than that!

We plan to continue developing this program and will send a team into the Range next summer with an objective to climb, in the hopes of attempting Denali in the very near future. Our dear friend and guide Heidi Kloos initially took the reigns of this program in 2009, and a scholarship fund has been set up in her memory. Enough donations came in to sponsor a wonderful young lady named Amanda Young, an athlete with spinal bifida. If you'd like to make a donation, information can be found at the Telluride Adaptive Sports Donation page.

Follow our January 10th Aconcagua team

Follow the expedition updates and podcasts as our team attempts to climb to the summit of South America's highest peak. Aconcagua is the highest mountain outside of the Himalaya and one of our favorite destinations.

We have a blog dedicated to posting daily updates and audio files as the team members call in to report their progress and tell us about each day of the trip. We're really happy with our new dispatch blogs, and invite you to check them out.

Click on the link to read about our Aconcagua Expedition.

Denali Fee Increase - Public Comments Needed

Denali National Park is holding two public "open houses" to discuss their desire to increase the mountaineering fee for Denali and Foraker. Currently at $200, rumors abound as to how high they'd like it to be. The first number thrown out by the Park was $500, although Congressional voices have probably made that 150% increase improbable at this point. They call the fee a "Cost Recovery Fee" and feel that they spend more on climbers than they currently recover.

Though we are fundamentally opposed to any fees for using our public lands, we recognize that Denali poses certain specific challenges and accept that some form of fee will forever remain in place. How much that fee needs be is what is up for discussion.

The meetings are to be held as follows:

Seattle, Washington – Monday, January 17, REI Flagship Store, 222 Yale Ave. N, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Golden, Colorado – Tuesday, January 18, American Mountaineering Center, 710 10th St., 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Comments can also be emailed to: DENA_mountainfeecomments@nps.gov

Climbing Denali is already an expensive endeavor. We encourage you to contribute your thoughts and personal commentary. Would a $500 fee prevent you from attempting the mountain? What services do you feel are necessary? How much are you willing to pay for those services?

Mountain Trip will be in Golden and we look forward to seeing you, if you can make it on the 18th. I'll buy a round at the Golden Brewing Company post-meeting! (Golden's 2nd largest brewer...)

Thanks for your time and consideration,

Todd Rutledge

Guide/Director
Mountain Trip
www.mountaintrip.com
info@mountaintrip.com

Follow our Mount Vinson Expeditions

Our second Mount Vinson expedition of the season is underway. We have a blog dedicated to their climb, and invite you to follow them through our expedition dispatches as well as podcasts from 78 degrees south latitude. Click on the link below to keep up with the team!

Mount Vinson Expedition dispatches

Our first team of the season was very successful, with all 10 of our climbers and guides reaching the summit. The depth of support we were able to provide allowed us to make three separate summit bids, to best accommodate all of our team members. We invite you to read about the expedition and listen to podcasts from the summit on our:

December 1, Vinson Expedition Dispatch Blog

We've really had a lot of fun developing our Vinson program, and the word from "The Ice" this season is that the quality of our expeditions has been without parallel. We're staying in the best hotel in Punta Arenas, have the nicest Base Camp facilities, are eating like royalty, and, of course, have our top-notch guides helping lead our teams to the top of the bottom of the world.

Please click on the following link for more information on our exceptional Vinson Massif expeditions.

Colorado Ice Climbing!

While snow has been a bit sparse in SW Colorado, the ice has been coming into great condition! Three of us got out on Friday, December 10th and climbed the San Juan Mountain classic ice route, The Ribbon (600' WI4). The ice was in fatter than in the past few years and the route lived up to its classic status!

The Ribbon follows the cleft in the rocks for four pitches of great fun!

Todd Rutledge started us up the route, which climbs a short, thin bit of ice to a long stretch of snow and lower angled ice.

The second pitch was more engaging, and was steep, right off the belay.

MT owner Todd and our buddy and newly credentialed, IFMGA Guide, Eric Larson, having some fun at the second belay.

Eric took over the lead for the last two pitches. The third pitch was pretty cruiser and ended at a nice, sheltered belay before the steep pillar at the top of the photo.

MT "Rookie of the Year" Karen Kingsley, following the steep bit at the start of the last pitch.

Karen didn't have any fun at all!

Eric near the end of the second of four rappels to get off the route.

If you have aspirations of some steep ice classic or would like to learn the basics of how to enjoy this amazing sport, please give us a call at our Colorado office. We're located minutes away from some of the best ice in the state and would love to help you get up on some frozen falls!