Brits Climb Two New Routes in Alaska’s Ruth Gorge
Jon Bracey and Matt Helliker enjoyed a super-productive two-week trip to the Ruth Gorge in the Alaska Range, where stable weather and good ice conditions allowed them to climb two very hard new routes.On May 10, the Britons climbed a line of ice runnels through steep granite slabs on the north face of Mt. Grosvenor, then followed a beautiful gully to the east ridge, with a crux pitch of M6 on rotten ice and fragile volcanic rock. They reached the summit after 12 hours of climbing, descended the south face to the col between Grosvenor and Mt. Church, and then continued to the glacier, returning to camp 20 hours after leaving. The new route, Meltdown (1,300m, ED3 V M6 R), lies between Once Were Warriors (Walsh-Westman, 2005) and Warriors Way (Walsh-Westman, 2006)…
Taken from: Climbing Magazine.
