Alaska Vets Climb Superb New Routes

Jay Smith and Jack Tackle, longtime veterans of Alaskan climbing, enjoyed a remarkable two and a half weeks in the Alaska Range in May, climbing four new routes. Tackle, who has done 28 climbing trips to the 49th state, called it “maybe my best trip ever to Alaska since I started going in 1976.”

On May 9, the two men flew to a small glacial basin at 8,300 feet, south of Mt. Huntington, that Tackle called his “Private Idaho,” and where pilot Paul Roderick had never landed before. The pair had hoped to attempt a new route on Huntington but quickly determined it was out of shape. Instead, two days after flying in, they warmed up with a rapid (16-hour) round trip on the Rooster Comb, a seldom-climbed 10,180-foot peak...

Taken from: Climbing Magazine.