Harvard Route, Mt. Huntington, Alaska

Chris and I expected the worst for our trip to Huntington. One of his friends had been there only to be stormed on every time their party made it part way up the route. We also knew of others that spent two weeks in basecamp and never even got on the route due to terrible weather.

The SuperTopo guidebook warns:

This glacier is a sink for bad weather in the range. It can be sunny and warm everywhere else, but snowing in the “Tok”. It is also a difficult spot to land for pilots. Every year at least one plane gets stuck in here. Be prepared to spend a week in here waiting to get out, not mention a long wait just to get in. Make sure you bring skis or snowshoes to stamp down a runaway in the snow. Pilots will need a 30-foot by 1,000 ft. strip, with a wider turn-around area at the top. With only two people this can take days to construct. If it starts snowing, it is best to start early.

We were lucky to experience no such shenanigans. Rather, we had near perfect conditions and perfect weather.

Planning and packing was a huge effort, but travel was quick; we arrived on the glacier a mere 12 hours after leaving Chris’ house in Seattle. I was literally speechless on the flight into the glacier. The mountains were so big, so steep, and so icy—they were so much more intimidating than anything else I’d seen before. Huntington put all 12,000 ft. peaks in the lower 48 to shame. (Some people call it the most beautiful peak in North America.)

We got on route about 36 hours after landing. The route would become my first ‘real’ alpine climb and I was intimidated by just looking at the Access Couloir.

We got up at 3AM and launched by 4AM and made it to the Nose Bivy by 1PM. There, we napped, I led the aid pitch and fixed the line, and we set up our tarp. The climbing was great. Some parts were very strenuous with our ~25lb. followers pack. Other parts took my breath away—I literally stopped climbing to absorb the mind-blowing views.

The next day we got up at the same time and were at the summit by late morning. The summit ridge and final bergschrund were wildly aesthetic. So much exposure. Great views of Denali and the Cassin looming 8,000 ft. above. Being my first time in the range, I was on edge the entire time. Like a fish out of water.

The descent was even scarier because the warm temps melted out some of the loose rock. Our ~24 rappels took about 10 hours. We made a dumb mistake of leaving our followers pack with the bivy gear in a poor location—it took an extra 1-2 hours to get it. We were back down at the basecamp in time for a late dinner and slept in our comfy basecamp tent and our own sleeping bags.

The next day we slept and ate a lot. Then we hung out in camp for two days chilling with great people: expert guides, speed recording holding climbers, Outdoor Research athletes, and fun normal mortals. The flight out was also amazing. We loaded one of Talkeetna Air Taxi’s Beaver planes with seven people and 2,000 lbs? of gear and Paul Roderick expertly piloted us back to Talkeetna in windy conditions.

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