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2005
Mugs Stump Award Winners:
Isaac/Owens/Strong—Kichatna Spire Expedition
Sean
Isaac, Rob Owens & Roger Strong
Dear
Mugs Stump Award Committee,
 After
5 days of festering in the rain in downtown Talkeetna,
the clouds parted and Paul Roderick of TAT was finally
able to fly Rob Owens, Roger Strong and myself (Sean Isaac)
into the Cul-du-Sac (aka Cool Sac) Glacier. Our goal was
the unclimbed laser-cut “super coulior” slicing
the middle of the northwest face of Kichatna Spire. The
day after arriving, we hopped on the route only to be shut
down by massive overhanging snow-mushrooms blocking the
narrow chimney on pitch 4.
We
quickly shook off the disappointment and re-racked and
re-packed for the following day, not wanting to waste any
good weather. This second attempt climbed a 10-pitch ice
gully separating Kichatna from Gnomen Spire to the southwest.
This line has been tried at least three previous times
but all suitors were stumped by hard aid. We were no exception.
One pitch up the granite wall above the col and Roger encountered
thin, loose aid that would involve full big wall tactics.
Highlights included our snow-mushroom / cornice bivy ledge
collapsing (luckily before bivying) and both Rob’s
tools firing off down the gully. Miraculously, 5 raps down
we found one of his tools with the pick stuck in the ice.
 After
these two slaps in the face, we figured we should just
go and try to get up something for the sole purposes of
standing on a summit. We made the first ascent of Whiteout
Spire’s northwest face via a scrappy gully line. The
feature probably would have had ice in it but after last
year’s record dry summer we were left with shattered
rock and frozen dirt. Our “Front Butt” (D+ M5,
450m) had three technical mixed pitches with steep snow climbing
below and above. Ironically, the guide book calls this diminutive
peak “one of the easiest peaks in the range.” Better
than nothing I guess…
With
the blue-bird weather still holding, we decided to make
one last effort on Kichatna via a line that looked interesting
but difficult. On May 1, I crossed the bergshrund around
7:00am and launched up an impressive steep chimney system
that we followed for 6 pitches. This eventually gained a
300m ribbon of blue ice which lead to the ridge. The chimney
involved sustained mixed pitches that went all free except
a few meters of A1 on pitch 3. We climbed all day, leading
blocks of 3 to 5 pitches with the two seconds jumaring for
speed. The second’s packs contained the bare minimum
in gear: 2 litres of water each, Clif Bars and Shots, bagel
sandwiches, a stove and a liter of fuel, belay jackets and
a lightweight tarp. We gained the north ridge around 10:30pm in
a building snowstorm so exercised good judgment and decided
to begin the descent. We rappelled all night in constant
spindrift, reaching the glacier and our skis at sunrise.
 We
named our new line "The Voice of Unreason" (ED2
M7 A1 WI5, 700m) which required a 25-hour round trip "day" to
complete. Our 13-pitch route terminated at its juncture with
the 1966 original route up the north ridge about 200 meters
below the summit. Of course, we would have liked to
stand on the summit of Kichatna Spire since it has only been
climbed 7 times before but we feel content with our new route.
We were all impressed with how sustained the route was with
its many M6 and M7 pitches in a row. Both M7 crux pitches
involved 3-diminsional body-English, technical torques and
a whole lot of groveling to pull through overhanging off-width/chimney
features. In addition to hard drytooling, the route also
featured some very aesthetic ice features like an inch wide
vein of ice on the second pitch and a one foot wide, super
tight runnel on pitch 6 and 7. The final handful of pitches
wound up fun WI4 punctuated by M5 chockstones.
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