#SkiTheBig3 — Icefall Success during Mount Hunter Approach — AK

Aaron leads the way through the left side of the icefall. It all worked out…somehow.

Blue ice walled us in. Heading up through the seracs, it truly felt as though we were in the jaws of the glacier. Yesterday we found a way through the icefall leading to the southerly face of Mount Hunter, where our ski route hopefully is in condition.

At one point we felt we were so close to getting up and over this heinous icefall, but it seemed to have stopped us just short. Aaron said he thought he could make it up the smallest section of what was in front of us. He tied in and we watched as he struggled his way up and over. We followed suit and finally caught glimpse of Ramen Route. Snow all the way to the top of the ridge. It might work for ski mountaineering!

With the icefall route wanded, we retreated back to camp to rehydrate and start packing, as tomorrow we’ll set a camp below Mount Hunter Ramen Route and above the icefall. Heavier packs will most definitely make the trip there harder, but having a route wanded will make things move slightly faster.

Anton with one of the bigger hops in front of him.

Aaron and Jordan move deeper into the blue.

Evan trying not to think of all that ice hanging above his head.

Anton and Evan are dwarfed at the base of Mount Foraker.

(Editor’s note: Location of camp below icefall marked on map below. Note Mount Hunter up and right NE of camp. Apologies for not embedding Google Map with terrain view, Google changed their mapping system and it’s a total mess. Try the Google Earth view by clicking the rectangle at lower left on embedded map. As for terrain view, you can get to it eventually, too many steps to detail here.)

View Larger Map

2 Responses to “#SkiTheBig3 — Icefall Success during Mount Hunter Approach — AK”

1. SteveG May 9th, 2014 12:01 pm

   There is a way to revert back to the old, good Google maps on my browser. Way to get out there BTW.

2. Lou Dawson May 9th, 2014 12:48 pm

   Thanks for pointing that out Steve. Here are the steps for me, in Chrome:

   Click on “View Larger Map”
   Click tiny question mark at lower right on larger map.
   Select “Return to Classic Google Maps”
   Check a few boxes in their lame questionnaire
   Click “Return to Old Google Maps”
   Enjoy easily selecting Terrain View and such

   You can also type the word “terrain” in the search box and the map will switch to Terrain View, but you’ll disappear the location flags if you do it that way. Really dumb, my only guess is the guys they now have doing this stuff don’t actually use maps, they just look at them as pretty pictures.

   Google is so weird. I can not for the life of me figure out why they would make Terrain View so hard to use. It’s quite popular. But the Google Earth aerial view is pretty cool as well if you’re just looking around and don’t need a topo map view.